Whew

I'm tired. It was a busy holiday weekend for us and despite the Hello Kitty duct tape on the car window and the almost getting into a head on accident with a wrong way driver speeding down the fast lane of the freeway and the flat tire and the almost getting into an accident in the intersection if we hadn't driven by IHOP first thing, quite a nice weekend.

We got up early on Saturday with some errands and things we had to do in the morning before leaving town for the holiday festivities. I went to get cat litter and washed out the cat boxes with bleach and put fresh litter in them and then Keith went to get cash and gas and go through the car wash. He's at the car wash and the attendant is telling him to roll up the driver side back seat window which was down a few inches and he goes to roll it up and it just goes CLUNK and won't roll up so he has to push it up by pressing on the glass and then after he goes through the car wash and heads for home it starts sliding back down again. Earlier this year the passenger side front seat window did the same thing and after lots of headaches with one car dealership we went back to the place we bought the car and found out that it was covered under a recall and if any more windows broke they would be covered, too.

So, we drive down to Ventura for the family dinner with the window half open but the weather is really nice in Ventura so it's not that big of a deal but should we stop and get some duct tape to tape it shut for the drive home? Well, one of the bingo prizes was Hello Kitty duct tape so we just used some of that and that is why we have Hello Kitty duct tape holding up our car window.

After bingo and dinner and opening presents we need to get back home and check on the cats who are all probably going where the hell are our people we need them because we don't know how to open cat food cans and besides that our cat box needs cleaning please come home! We head on up over the mountains and come around the bend where Frazier Park is and then start back down the mountain and see CHP lights flashing and brake lights coming on and see the CHP veering across the freeway to the fast lane and all the other cars veering off to the slow lanes and figure there must be an accident up ahead and hopefully the road won't be all shut down and as we are veering off to the right along with all the rest of the cars here comes a car going the wrong way in the fast lane. The CHP can't really turn around to follow it and has to keep driving for a while until the median opens up where he can cross onto the other side of the freeway and hopefully somehow head this idiot off before he kills somebody. So, after all that excitement and the traffic starts moving along again, we are in the slow truck lane just in case something else happens and BANG! something hits the car and we're looking around and then Keith says I think we have a flat tire. So, he pulls off to the side right next to the truck lane and not in the best spot in the world to change a flat tire and it's really cold and windy out there but at least it's not raining or snowing. The tire is indeed flat because whatever hit the car sliced right into the tire and down it went. The jack that came with the car is a piece of junk and he ends up using the pliers from his trusty Swiss army knife tool thing that he keeps on his belt to get the jack to work right and he's cussing and banging and I'm standing in between the car doors because I don't want to sit in the car while he's trying to jack it up but it's too cold to not have any windbreak so I'm using the car doors. And the lantern that Linda gave us for Christmas that doesn't need batteries, you just wind it up is coming in SO HANDY right now and we're keeping that thing in the car for sure. The spare tire finally gets put on the car and we can go home now.

We get home about 10 and are exhausted so we get our pajamas on and relax on the couch for a while and then I go to bed while Keith stays up to 'watch TV' for a while but he fell asleep with the TV on and I couldn't get to sleep with cats coming in the bedroom and noise from the TV so I get up and make him come to bed.

Then, up early again the next morning because we just wake up early no matter what and feed the cats and remember that we have a stocking for them so they get new cat toys and we open the gifts that we got each other. Which was kind of fun, we haven't done gifts for each other in forever. I got new pajamas and matching slippers and socks and two warm fleece shirts and perfume. He got new slippers and handkerchiefs and a shirt and a wallet. So, we both did a good job shopping for each other, but it helped that we gave each other a pretty specific list of what we needed.

Then, breakfast time. We were going to go to IHOP but the line waiting for a table was longer than we wanted to wait so thought we'd see if Coco's was open, and as we get to the intersection of the main highway and the big cross street by Coco's, an accident had just barely happened with two trucks getting all smashed up and dazed looking people wandering around. We went to Coco's and while eating breakfast watched the ambulance and firetrucks and police come and the traffic being diverted around the intersection and the tow trucks coming and the firemen sweeping up. We were thinking that if we had decided to go to Coco's first we would have probably been in the intersection at the exact same time as the accident happened.

We were debating on whether we should make our second trip across the mountains to the second family dinner with no spare tire but figured that the chances of a second flat tire were slim and decided to go ahead and make the trip. Another nice day in Ventura and a nice dinner with Keith's brother Bruce and his family and Katie and her boyfriend and Katie has been very sick with a really bad cold and I sure hope we didn't catch anything from her.

After eating lots of food and sweet things all weekend (and the weeks leading up to Christmas because what's Christmas without some holiday Hershey's Kisses and Nestle's crunch in the shape of a holiday bell anyway?) I started feeling a little icky on the way home so maybe it's time to get back to eating much lighter and much healthier and no, you can't buy anymore bags of Christmas candy even if they are half price now.

So, we survived a kind of dangerous holiday this year and I'm taking it kind of easy today because I still feel a little icky in my stomach. But, it was a good Holiday! And we didn't get killed by the wrong way driver, obviously.