Bah, humbug!

No, that’s not a generic comment about the holiday itself. I’m not a big fan of Christmas, but my feelings thereon will remain undiscussed. No, my grumpiness tonight is because my car has no rear window. The rear window is in teeny tiny pieces because I accidentally backed into one of those four-feet-tall mailbox posts made out of 4 x 4’s and shaped like a gallows, and the crossbeam of the post went right through the rear window with a resounding crash and reduced it to smithereens. I now have a gaping hole in the back of my car. On the bright side, I’ve never had a clearer view in my rear-view mirror.

How did this happen, you may ask? Well…the short version is that I was attempting to make a three-point turn on a narrow side street, into the mouth of a driveway because the street had high snow banks on both sides, and the mailbox was either in my left rear blind spot, or I was blinded by sun glare, or both. Today the sun was out for the first time in about a week, and it’s only two days past Solstice so the sun is still low in the sky, and my eyes are very light-sensitive. I knew the mailbox was there, but didn’t see it as I backed up to make the turn, and !!!!crash!!!!

Anyway, I went and knocked on the door and talked to the homeowner, because I’d knocked the mailbox off the post, and he didn’t want to exchange information or anything, saying “it was an accident,” and “I’m not worried about it,” and he didn’t want it on his homeowner’s insurance. (Understandable: one claim, and your homeowner’s insurance will be cancelled!) I’m glad he was so nice about it! Meanwhile, I have full collision because I’m still paying off the loan on my car, so when I finally got home, I called my insurance company. But the “glass department” wasn’t even answering their phones, and the dealer I bought the car from, who is walking distance from my house, was closed today, as well. I can’t really do anything until Wednesday. Fortunately, the weather is going to be nice! But this would happen on Christmas Eve, wouldn’t ya know it?!? I’m supposed to be trucking up to the lake all this week to visit with my sister and her family, and I am going tomorrow, drafty back window or not, but you know what? Beyond that, someone can drive down here and pick me up for a change. Everytime someone wants to visit with me, I do all the driving!

I may be able to get the window fixed quickly once I can finally connect with people on the phone, but we’ll see. Anyway, I’m not feeling very merry tonight! I’m going to run The Corpse Bride for my exercycling video, and try not to sulk.

I’ve had a busy few days anyway, with unexpected developments changing all my plans, and I’ve been a little discombobulated. Ever since Mortal Touch came out, I’ve been reconnecting with old friends who have been out of touch for years. (Which is a good thing, of course!) Another such old friend, named Judy, contacted me last week. I’m not sure when I last saw her in person, as she lives down in Maryland, but I think it’s been about 15 years. Her parents, however, live in Hollis, New Hampshire, which is the town that borders Pepperell across the state line. Judy and her husband were going to be up here for the holiday–but for a very sad reason. Her oldest brother just died of cancer. Anyway, yesterday I went up and visited with Judy for the afternoon. But she and her husband have bought a parcel of land to build a retirement home on, and we planned to go see that this morning. I was on my way to pick her up at their hotel when the mailbox kicked my car in the ass.

We went to see the land anyway! And it’s very nice, and it was more time to spend with Judy, too. Both of us had busy agendas–she had family holiday stuff, her brother’s wake and funeral on Saturday and a conference with the architect who is designing their house. I had my Solstice observance all day on Friday, all my Christmas gifts to wrap, a Full Moon ritual last night, plus I had to squeeze the usual chores in: workouts, laundry, bunny cage and litter box cleaning, and so on. Tomorrow I’ll be getting up, doing a workout, cleaning the bunny cage and litter boxes, and then going up to the lake–with Christmas dinner, which I will have ready when my sister and company arrive from Chicago around 6:00pm or so.

When I stopped to get the last groceries for dinner tomorrow (I never got to do my own shopping for the week!), I bought myself a very large bag of plain Cape Cod potato chips. *grump* I’ve made the brown rice for tomorrow, and my gosh, it came out well. I just threw stuff into the pot by impulse and instinct: onion, garlic, bay leaf, basil, and rosemary, all sauted in very hot olive oil, then tossed the raw rice in and sauted that in the hot oil to get the flavor into the rice, then added chicken broth and finely diced carrot, and when the rice was nearly done, put in frozen green peas. Wow. That’s going with roast pork and steamed broccoli. No dessert, because all of us are either health nuts or diabetic.

A Peaceful Christmas Eve and a Merry Christmas to All! And my advice to you for the holiday is: if you make a wrong turn…go the long way around. 🙁

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