Joyful People

This year ranked in the top three Thanksgivings over the last twenty years. It was a small party of four, but I enjoyed it immensely. My daughter KC had her boyfriend join us which brought the number up to four. We all spent hours in the kitchen preparing favorite recipes, Zexi was in charge of ambience. We chose to move our kitchen table into the living room rather than eat in the dreary dining room. The living room was festive with the Christmas tree in addition to the Christmas music which played throughout the day. We drank sparkling grape juice and had two pies for dessert. It was lovely.

I mentioned that this year ranked in the top three. Well, last year, my sister and her husband rented a exquisite three story log cabin in north Georgia, complete with cathedral ceiling, stone fireplace, wrap- around porch with hot tub, the works. We brought our food and prepared it in the gorgeous kitchen while everyone played games in front of the roaring fire. There were eight of us together for the holiday and it was wonderful.

The other favorite Thanksgiving was back several years when we were living in England. We invited two other families to join us, one American, one British. The families that joined us are two of my favorite families on earth, so it was a joyful time. The food was fabulous and the bonus was that we a had musically gifted crowd.

So looking back on the three favorites,

the common thread, not suprisingly was,
 being surrounded by joyful people.

Today was . . .

Today was a crappy day.

I just thought I'd throw that out there.

I've been diligently working on my studies for the college classes I'm taking, and I got some disappointing grades back today. I'm taking an Engineering Graphics class which I love, but after working on a drawing today for over three hours, a lot of mistakes were discovered.

I hate that.

I'd really like to be very good at this

 because it's something I enjoy,

in addition to the fact that success

in this class impacts my GPA.

It gets kind of scary.

What if I invest all this time in this degree

 and discover I don't have the natural aptitude to succeed in it?

I have to bring home the bacon eventually,

I can't remain a student forever

(although I can see why people chose to do so).

I guess I'd really like to be great at something.

Engineering. . . Music. . . Writing. . . Singing. . . Hockey. . . whatever.

But I'm not and today was a big reminder of that.

Today was a crappy day.

Eeyore and The Clown Van

Back when I was still married to *Eeyore, and living in England, I slide off a country road with my eleven year-old, white Dodge Grand Caravan and totaled it. It was quite an adventure. The van rolled upside down, and looked quite similar to a potato when all was said and done. Despite insisting that it would still run and continue to serve our family, Eeyore had to finally relinquish the vehicle to the salvage yard.

 I figured we would now purchase a newer replacement vehicle since Eyore made good money and was collecting a retirement check from the military.

I was wrong.

What was I thinking?

 Eeyore was excited at the prospect of buying an odd blue-colored Dodge van for $500.00 from a guy at work. The transmission needed to be replaced, but Eyore was thrilled with the price tag. He brought me by the van to have a look and I told him flat out I hated it. The color was awful, it was rusty, short with no grocery space, didn't have captain's chairs or dual heat/air. I absolutely did not want anything to do with this van. Eeyore was disappointed I didn't share his enthusiasm for this bargain and we left with his spirit a bit deflated.

My girls and I flew back to the States for a five week vacation. 

Guess what Eeyore did.

You guessed.  He bought that &;*%$#@* van.

It was waiting for me when I returned from my vacation.

Now I was the one who was deflated.

You see Eeyore is a very frugal man. Did I say "frugal?"  I meant to say VERY, VERY, VERY, VERY, VERY, VERY frugal man. I therefore knew that whatever vehicle I was going to drive after my white Dodge Grand Caravan, I would be driving it for another ten years or so. This was NOT the vehicle I wanted to be driving for the next ten years.

But, I didn't get a vote on this or anything else, really.

The girls and I referred to our new mode of transportation as "The Clown Van." We spent a lot of time in The Clown Van to go grocery shopping, music lessons, horseback riding lessons, karate lessons, visiting friends, going to church, that sort of thing. Not long after the acquisition of The Clown Van, we received the sad news that the man who sold us The Clown Van died of a heart attack.

The next day, The Clown Van started behaving very strange. The interior lights starting turning themselves on and off and the powered locks would click themselves into lock/unlock position.

Is there such a thing as a haunted van? 

Did Stephen King have similar experiences? 

We'll never know now. 

I got out of the country without The Clown Van. 

Whew!

*Note:  name of ex to remain anonymous.

More car stories

Since we're on the subject of cars I have several car stories.
 As I mentioned, I just bought this 2008 Sentra in July. I love this car and am so happy to be driving something with a padded seat, cruise control, power windows and door locks and that really great feature of the lock/unlock do-hickey thing that allows you to lock/unlock the car without using a key.   I love that.

Well, I moved into a rental home recently, and although I am so thankful for this house and the reduced rate I pay, there are a few frustrating things about the place. One would happen to be the garage door opener. Yes , I am thankful to even have a garage and an electric garage door opener after living in England for six years where they don't even make their garages wide enough for cars, let alone power the door with an electronic opener. But, I digress. As I was saying, my garage door opener . . . sometimes it doesn't open all the way. Sometimes it starts to open and then decides to close. Sometimes it stops closing part way down.

Monday morning I was heading off to school, hit the garage door opener, and got in my car. I start backing out of the garage when I hear a terrible crunching sound from my car. Horrified, I immediately slam on my brakes. I check to see if I just ripped off the side mirror of my car since I have to park very close to side of the garage so we can fit two cars in the garage. Hmmmm, the mirror is still there. I get out of my car and realize that the garage door went up, but not entirely, and so the antennae, which sits on the top of my rear window, has caught the garage door and popped off. ( big sad face ) Oh, my "new" car!

Last weekend, my daughter had her boyfriend come for a visit. His Mustang was parked in the "T" portion of the driveway that you use to back out of your garage, you know, so you can pull out to the street in Drive rather than Reverse.

Well, I totally forgot he was parked there and swung my car out of the garage right into him. Once again, the whole horrified reaction set in, and got out of my car to see what damage I have done. Thankfully, his car didn't have a scratch. My bumper however, must have flexed in to receive the impact and although it popped back to its original shape, the paint crinkled. Is that the right terminology? (big sad face ) Oh, my new car!

Today I had to rent a U-Haul trailer to pick up
 an upright freezer from Sears.

 The entire pick-up/drop off circumference is about 2 miles.

I borrowed my daughter's car.

End of story.

Really, I'm O.K.

The last new car I purchased was back in 1989. It was a Ford Tempo. It was also the last time I had any input as to what vehicle I might drive, until this past July when I purchased a 2008 Nissan Sentra. It wasn't really "new," but the price was right, so who cares? Anyway, we've had a lot of rain these past couple months and I was growing very irritated with my windshield wipers because "on" was too fast and the intermittent setting was still too fast. So, I usually ended up driving with the wipers in the "off" position and tapping them on as I needed them.

So, I'm alone in my car, returning books to the library
when I had an epiphany!

It occurred to me
 that my intermittent wipers have adjustable settings!

Cool.