%$#@&^+!!!! Part 2

I decided Wednesday morning I would make a marathon shopping trip after work. Just get-r-done. No matter how long it took. There's another winter storm moving in, and logic strongly suggested today was the day for running the roads, not Thursday. Plus we badly needed some essentials (we're talking milk, eggs, bread, gasoline).

Consequently I was gone from 10pm Tuesday night until noon on Wednesday. Ya. Just a bit of a long night. But hey, I got all my grocery shopping done so there shouldn't be any need to run out for anything. I can get some more Christmas cookies made at my leisure. And we'll eat well (when DON'T we eat well??). And I got a major chunk of Christmas shopping done. I basically finished it.

Everything was going well until I kind of, sort of got slightly rear-ended on Grand River Avenue. I HATE Grand River! Any time of day there is too much freaking traffic on that main thoroughfare between Howell and Brighton. And of course this happened on the most tightly cramped nowhere-to-pull-off section of the road possible (under the I-96 overpass). Shit. A woman in a Ford Taurus or something like that tapped me from behind, then I bumped the guy in the truck ahead of me. The guy and me got out and quickly checked things over and verified we were all okay. Amazingly, we could not see any damage whatsoever on any of the vehicles. The woman who'd caused the whole thing wouldn't get out of her car because she said she'd just had a knee replaced (I later wondered if she should have been behind the wheel of a car at all...I didn't ask which leg), and she said her foot slipped off the brake. I asked her twice if she was all right, and she said yes. So me and the other guy said 'nice meeting you', and took off. Under the circumstances, I didn't think the incident warranted calling the cops. Lord only knows what hour of the day I would have gotten home, and I seriously wanted to get back into my truck, and off that damn freaking busy road. So we all took off, and I finished my shopping.

Tim and I got home within 10 minutes of each other. He's still putting in long nights, but this week isn't as bad for him as last week. He informs me that he just got off the phone with the fraud department of one our credit cards which just called the house, and they need to speak to me right away about all the charges that have suddenly appeared. Ha! Hello, it's a few weeks before Christmas, there are probably credit cards smoking all over creation right now...! So I call them back, listen to some muzak, my balance info, and some self- advertisement, and finally talk to the nice lady in the fraud department. I reassured her that yes, I had been to all the places that showed up in their system. Bless them, they are on top of things and doing their jobs. But still, the news that a credit card company has called and needs to speak to you immediately definitely raises your hackles.

And then Tim claims he thinks the truck back bumper looks funny. Well, shit. Yes, there is an inch difference in the gap between the bumper and the tailgate on the right and left sides. *winces* Is it more than the deductible? *shrugs* Maybe. Should I have called the cops and gotten this lady in trouble and added more chaos to the world and delay to my day? Maybe. Who knows. I dunno. You can see a little ding in the black composite where she hit. Honestly I think it's OK.

Then there's a message from mom on the phone from about 2 hours prior saying she wants to give us an 'update' on things. We listened to the tone of her voice. Tim didn't like the sound of it. I concluded it didn't sound like she was in immediate danger, and she had said 'call me back when you can'. And I most certainly f***ing well did not want to be 'updated' at that moment. So I weighed the situation and decided that with 7 hours allotted for sleep (with me actually sleeping 6 of those, at best), I was not going to be held hostage on the phone for one of those hours, at minimum.

So I will call her in the morning. When I can listen to the latest installment of the Ron soap opera and be rational, patient, sympathetic, diplomatic (at least in theory) and I'm not looking at the hands on the clock spin and trying to hurry up and get to bed. And my teeth aren't still rattled from a fender-bender.

I made myself a nightcap and crawled into bed with my book. Bartenders are always coming up with cool names for drinks, so I challenge anyone to think up a creative name for this:

A large mug of hot milk
A drizzle of Gentleman Jack (Jack Daniels) bourbon whiskey
A drizzle of Godiva capuccino liqueur

It did the trick. Before I could say 'Nighty night', I was out.