Sad Day

I'm afraid it might be time to say goodbye to one of our oldest, and most dependable friends.  On Wednesday morning I had a 1979 Impala prevent me from getting to work on time.  We were driving beside each other and the Impala had a hard time stopping in time to not rear-end the car in front of them.  They swerved into me, and used their bumper to hook the backside of the truck.  And of course, I had just filled up the tank with gas.

The 1992 S-10 was the car that I learned to drive on, and Dad and I traded it back and forth so that we both owned it twice.  It was a good truck.  The engine and transmission are in good shape.  Despite being built in Detroit, this truck can still go a lot longer.

Due to 243,180 miles, the body shop and police man and tow truck driver all say it is totaled.  The damage isn't terrible though.  It needs a new bed.  I hate to see that vintage UA sticker get smashed.  Insurance still hasn't examined it, so it's possible that it isn't totaled.  I'm not holding my breath and I've started to look for a new vehicle.

I wasn't prepared to buy a car so I have no idea what I want.  At first I was thinking that I would get the truck fixed no matter what.  Then I was thinking about getting another truck, but with 4 seats to haul babies if necessary.  I don't like huge trucks, or uselessly small truck beds.  Now I'm thinking about getting a car and a trailer for Lettie's car when we need to haul something.  I'm trying to decide if I want a nice car, or a regular car while I'm waiting on insurance to work through their paperwork.

Blog Readers Question:  Would you still talk to me if I drove a car that was a lot nicer than yours?  Not to brag, but I really would be a whole lot better than you.  This truck might have been the only thing keeping me grounded.

St. Nicholas Day and a tree

Christmas is in full swing around here.  We've gotten most of our decorations up and most of our presents wrapped.  Yay!

Jackson and Patrick left their shoes out on December 6th for St. Nicholas.  St. Nicholas was a wealthy man who spent his life using his inheritance to help the sick and needy and December 6th is his feast day.  You can read all about that here.

This is the first year that Jackson could understand the concept.  For some reason, he freaked out about leaving his shoes outside, but he was definitely happy the next morning when he saw his loot.  He and Patrick both got books about Christmas, toys, hats and the favorite was Molly the train's car.

We got our tree last week.  It's awesome!  We have had lots of trouble finding a good spot for our tree in this house.  One year we had it upstairs and we debated on putting it in the study or even outside on the deck.  We decided to rearrange our living room furniture and put it in the corner near our mantle.  The tree we found is nice and skinny and it works perfectly in this spot.  I love having it in our living space where we spend most of our time.  I was a little worried that Patrick would be all over it, especially since he considers it his job to cause mischief around the house lately, but he doesn't bother it.  He's more interested in the soft tree skirt than the lights and ornaments.

None of my other Christmas decoration pictures turned out very well, but we do have lots of festive stuff around.  I put a big garland on the fireplace and going up the stairs.  I also like to "wrap" our pantry doors with plaid ribbon.  I'm still working on Patrick's stocking.  I'll post a pic when it's finally complete.  It's taking forever!