Car Trouble and Other Accidents

 

Well, National Novel Writers Month is over, and I’m glad I managed to reach 50k so early in the month this time because I didn’t get much beyond that thanks to life getting in the way, and this last week winter got in the way too.

Last Tuesday, while Konnie was probably fretting about her post for the following day, I hurried outside to scrape the ice off my car windows, and only got three windows before I slipped on the frozen over snow and landed hard on my derriere. I guess I should count myself lucky that I have so much natural padding that I only bruised my rear, rather than breaking anything.

The only thing is I ended up spending the week unable to sit up without a bunch of pillows under me. Good thing I have so many. However, it wasn’t good that I couldn’t manage work. Five hours sitting on my bruised behind was bad enough yesterday. Last week was impossible.

And that only added to my problems.

You see, the week before, I got Thanksgiving off (I usually don’t work Fridays, so I had that off too) but a storm came through Wednesday night. Thanksgiving I was socked in by fog. I called my sister-in-law and we agreed to postpone it until Saturday.

Come Saturday the first thing I had to deal with was all the frozen snow on my car. I managed to get all the windows except the windshield, and I couldn’t budge any of it. I ended up getting my very nice neighbor to come out and scrap my window and while he did that, I tried to start my car.

Tried being the operative word. My battery was dead. And being broke I couldn’t call a service to jump me. I called my friend, whose husband has helped me before with my car.

The problem was, he wasn’t home, and had her car. By the end of the day my car was running again but we had already postponed it until Sunday.

We did manage to get together then, and I was followed home by a man for the first time in my life. 

My cousin, Steve, knowing all the car troubles I’ve had lately, insisted on making sure I got home safely, which was actually nice of him.

Then Monday happened. I got up in time for work and hurrying around to get dressed, when I turned wrong, and put my knee out, again. Yeah, I didn’t make it work on Monday last week, then I took my spectacular spill on Tuesday trying to get work on time.

That was a great week. Here I am barely making ends meet and I lost a whole week of work, which didn’t do me any good. By Sunday I was so anxious about my finances that I had trouble sleeping. Then, when I finally did get to sleep, I slept right through my alarm and woke up, still groggy, only to discover I was late for work! As in, I should have already been there. And I was barely awake enough to realize I had to call in.

It was one in the afternoon before I was able to put two coherent thoughts together beyond that. Yeah, it was not a good start to a new week.

And then I woke up yesterday feeling a little sick to my stomach, and I thought I might have to call in again, which I didn’t want to do not just because of the money but because I felt they were getting tired of my excuses, no matter how valid they were.

Thankfully, after getting something to eat, I was able to get out the door. I’d gone out early thinking I might have to at least scrape windows, but a warm front had come in. Temps were up in the fifties.

And yes, Konnie probably thinks that fifty is cold because she’s gotten so used to warmer climates first in coastal Washington and Oregon now in Las Vegas.

The last time I visited her, I had to borrow one of her jackets because my coat was too heavy for the weather, but there was enough of a breeze I needed something. I do recall I borrowed her unlined windbreak; she was using her fleece-lined jacket.

I also recall her friends at church bundled up in parkas and complaining about how cold it was. Remember, I was wearing my sister’s windbreaker not my winter coat, and they were complaining about it being freezing outside.

Right about now, I wish I could move south for the winter. There is no way I would stay there for the summer, too warm! But it would be nice if I could go for the winter.

Anyway, happy writing everyone!