Friday Fragments - Jan 1, 2010

-My beloved new car that experienced $4700 damage earlier this month had to go BACK INTO the shop for a loud noise that the mechanic guy tried to downplay before he actually heard it. And it took him all freaking day to replicate the noise so he was certain I was just an over-reacting woman who doesn't know anything about cars. Dude, if I can hear a "noise" over the radio in a brand new car then there is a problem because I blast that fucker. Once he ran the defroster and let the car warm up for several minutes THEN he heard the noise and like lickity split they fixed THEIR error when they recharged my AC by putting too much stuff in it. The thing could have exploded and I would have died. Assholes.

-My ex-hole was caught screwing around on his wife. I just want to walk up to him and thunk him in the forehead. What an idiot. The kids are seriously pissed off at him. Asshole.

-The plague is finally leaving my body. This one was sneaky, I never "felt" sick. I had a persistent cough and runny nose and blamed it all on allergies so I went to work and managed to infect all of my co-workers. Sorry. I truly didn't know I was sick. If it makes you feel any better I'm suffering asthma symptoms every time I walk outside.

-New Year's Eve was spent once again with my closest friends. This year, however, Booty bailed on us, sticking closer to home as her husband tended bar at the Moose Lodge. The evening was low key, but very fun. We played Cranium. Everyone agreed there should be an "adult" version with dirty questions. The playdoh was formed into both male and female genitalia as we waited our turns. Actually the female parts were SUPPOSED to be a cowboy hat. Do with that as you will.

-Today is our postponed Christmas with the kids. I'll update on that later over on Woes, Whoas, and Wahs. I'm hoping the surprise gifts come off with satisfactory responses.

I cannot express how happy a new year has begun. I don't do resolutions, but my biggest plans this year are to complete a writing project and get my ass into some exercise routine. I would love to blog every day, but that is certainly a plan that will go down in smoke probably by the first week.

Thank you for visiting my blog. I wish you and yours a very happy and prosperous new year!

Friday Fragments - Dec 11

The Car
Last Saturday, as you may recall, I managed to mangle the under pieces of my car with a tire sitting in the middle of the highway. On Tuesday the dealership informed us it was about $2500 worth of damage. CRAP!!!!! Due to some freak of nature I failed to get the call from the insurance company on Monday so I didn't talk to them until Wednesday to get the appraiser rolling. So I won't have my car until next week some time. CRAP!!!!

The Tree
The kids all converged on my house on Saturday and got my Christmas tree assembled and mostly decorated. By the end of the night there were still three boxes of stuff waiting to be unpacked. Two days later Ian set up the fireplace with knick-knacks and lights which help tremendously in getting me in the Christmas mood. My tree, however, is missing several ornaments that are sitting in the bottom of their rubbermaid tub. I will need to get those on the tree sometime soon. And all of the empty boxes need to be moved back into the basement. The tree decorating always leaves a lot of work for me afterwards. I guess since I'm without a car this weekend I don't have much of an excuse not to get this wrapped up.

A Day Off
Due to lack of transportation I took last Monday off from work. It was nice to lounge around and do nothing. It's one of my most favorite things in the world EVER. I got more ornaments onto the tree, but with Ian underfoot I got aggravated and put it off for a time when he's not around. I got caught up on some movies on DVR and a nap! Unfortunately a day off work means getting slammed on my return. There are only two people in my department and whenever one of us takes off work it seems that everything falls to shit. On Monday he was tormented with a constant stream of computer breakdowns and on Tuesday when he was off, I got hit with server issues.

Grandma
Grandma fell and broke her arm over Thanksgiving. She's healing well. She moved into her new residence back in September and never really liked it. Finally this week the staff is figuring out how to handle this cantankerous woman with dementia (ironic, no? that one of my online monikers is Queen Dementia. Not really, I've known this hideous disease lurks in my family). The staff has found ways to coerce Grandma into compliance while letting her think she's in control - and isn't that the basis of effective control?

Mom
Yesterday I got a call as I walked into work from my mom. She informed me that she had fallen on the ice the day before. LOVELY. She didn't break anything, just sore and laid up on Advil. Well, I hope she's okay and doesn't need me to run and get anything because I'm without a car. She assures me she's okay, just that I should know she's been injured.

Tonight
The daughter of a college friend is going in as Honored Queen of her Job's Daughters bethel. I've been asked to be one of the installing officers, for which I am quite honored to do. It's been a while since I've been an installing officer, probably since my daughter was installed Senior Princess several years ago. I get to be the schmuck holding the flag. Fortunately I don't have to do any memorized work because I'm pretty sure the way things are going this week I would screw it up. I'm excited and it sounds like a fun evening. Congrats Patsy, you'll be a great queen this year!

Split second decision

Quick, you have less than a second to decide. Your eyes are still focusing on the problem, brain has barely registered the magnitude of the problem only that it is, in fact, a problem. Decisions, reactions, survival, all rolled into one in a matter of nano-seconds.

This happened to me this evening.

We were returning from the grocery store, driving on the highway when the car in front of me swerved into the next lane. My daughter yelled something about a tire and then my eyes saw it - a full tire WITH rim, smack dab in the middle of the lane. Vaguely aware of the fairly heavy traffic surrounding me I never looked in my mirror to see if I could also veer into the next lane. Honestly I don't know that I even had enough time for that assessment. Had I swerved I could have still hit the tire and done even more damage or worse, sent the tire careening into someone else's windshield. Instead, I locked onto the tire and maneuvered my car to straddle it between my own tires.

The clunk and thud were horrible, although it didn't trigger the airbags. Magically all of the lanes opened up for me to the right and I quickly drifted to the shoulder. Watching the rearview mirror I could see a weird track appear in my wake. I could have sworn I ripped out the entire undercarriage and that I was dragging vital parts across the highway, but I didn't see any parts, just evidence of dragging something.

Well, duh, it was the tire. It lodged up against the radiator, ripping it to shreds which explains the excessive amount of smoke (steam) billowing out of the front of the car.

We bolted out of the car and I shakily dialed for a tow truck. The driver stared at my car for a really long time, almost amused but he kept his chuckles to himself. He was astounded that I didn't have any body damage. Once he lifted the car off the tire he was REALLY amazed.

He and just about everyone else is guessing that I did about a thousand dollars worth of damage to my car. LOVELY.

Here is the offending tire. You can see where my car bent the rim.