Things change..

Let's see now, am I ready for Christmas? Heck no. I thought this year I'd get a head start , but things have a way of changing rapidly. On Thanksgiving weekend, we returned from nice holiday on the lake at my brother's house. Somewhere about the middle of Texas, I'd guess Sonora or Ozona, the winds kicked up and you could see the West Texas misery floating on the wind, cutting the visiblity to about 50%. As the day wore on and we were blown from side to side on the highway, it almost rocked me to sleep. But, I maintained. I know better. Anywehere else, they'd call it hurricane winds but out here they call it a dust storm. Hours later, we pulled into the driveway and my neighbor came waddling out ( she's a tad large) and told me eagerly that my roof had blown off. "Hmmm. ", is all I could say after driving for twelve hours. Upon opening the side gate to go in the kitchen door, I mummured to myself, " you ain't kidding." My roof was laying all over the backyard. That was a sampling of what lay in store for me.

Last Thursday, my son called me to say hi, only to get to the point. On his way home from work, his ice seeking device, which is attatched somewhere underneath his Ford Ranger, had found the only patch of ice on a bridge in Temple, Texas. I'm not sure exactly how it works, but it looks for the slickest patch of ice and there you go, off and sliding as fast as possible toward the guard rail. Thank God, he wasn't injured, but Allstate called to tell me of the certain demise of his truck today. Damn. I just replaced it two years ago. That time, he let his roommate from college drive for about thirty miles. Might as well have removed the brakes and steering linkage as Angel ( the roommate) had never pulled anything before. Oh, did I leave out the part where they decidied to put a towbar on Angel's jeep and tow it behind a Ranger with no brakes on the rear vehicle? It'll push you across Hell's half acre if you apply the brakes too suddenly, which Angel obviously did and proceeded to send them off the highway and rolled, not one, but two vehicles. Totalled both of them. Both of them hanging upside down from their seatbelts. Lights on, cd still playin' and 28 degrees outside, with the wind howling at 1:30 am. Did I mention the wind blows out here or the fact that Angel was underinsured? What a nightmare. GEICO insurance has permanantly blacklisted in the State of Texas from ever being insured again... Things just keep changing.