What a Smashing Time

This family has had a smashing time of late and it has left me feeling totally wrecked (yes that pun was intended). I was planning on writing about Alan’s milestone birthday and how things suddenly start to change once you slip right in to middle age. Oh the joys that come with maturity. Okay, maybe I am being a bit sarcastic but it takes a good sense of humor to get through life after forty.

Humor and laughter, now that’s something I could use a real dose of about now. Ten days ago I stupidly backed into a SUV - a large dark gray one! How could I have missed seeing it? I sure didn’t miss hitting it. SUV bumpers are quite a bit higher than my bumper on my little Honda Fit. My bumper slid easily under it so that her bumper hit my back hatch door. Her bumper dented a bit, my door dented a bit more. Nothing major but both cars require repair. I was so bummed as it was my first ever accident in thirty eight years of driving. Not a good feeling. Luckily my insurance company was really nice and made arrangements for estimate and repairs to be done in just over a week. I luckily had taken out car rental coverage so a rental would be waiting for me at the body shop. I would be dropping it off on Monday the 19th.

Thursday the fifteenth was Alan’s big four-oh. We traveled to San Antonio to a really nice resort. The afternoon was spent going down water slides and floating along the man-made river that wove its way through the resort’s park. Drinks and dinner followed with an early bed time for the boys as they had an early morning tee time for a round of golf on a PGA tournament course – Alan’s birthday wish. While they were golfing Fantu and I were treated to a fabulous breakfast buffet and a few hours shopping. We enjoyed it all so much we are returning for my birthday in December. It ended all too quick and we were soon headed back home. The rest of the weekend was uneventful. I was in fact feeling a bit down in the dumps. I wasn’t sure why, but I was and so I spent most of Sunday hiding out in my bedroom.

All too soon Monday morning was here. I really wanted to remain in bed, hiding in my room. Not an option, so I had to get up and get Abate up and off to XC practice. I then had to take my car to Killeen to the body shop to get my little baby mended. Just as I was approaching the place I get a phone call from Abate, “Mom , I crashed my car”. I’m saying - well sure Abate, don’t you get tired of pulling this joke on me? No Mom, I really did have a wreck. I think at that point about a dozen questions popped out of my mouth at once. He hit the back of Elmer’s mom’s car. They had both just turned a corner when a pedestrian stepped out into Elmer’s path and he had to brake suddenly. Abate braked hard too but his car slid on loose gravel into the back of the SUV. The SUV wasn’t damaged but the trailer hitch on it came right into the radiator on the Toyota. It smashed up the hood and cracked the bumper. The damage will probably mean that the car was totaled. We only carried liability on it. But the good news there is we won’t have to file a claim. Bad news, Abate will be months without a car. For him it will be a bit of an inconvenience, for me it will be major! I relied so much on him to get him and Fantu to appointments, practices and to do errands for me. Now it means I will be the one doing them once again. How is it that punishing the child means punishing the Mom more severely? Abate isn’t even that bothered by it as he was getting tired of being everyone’s taxi service. Well at least he knows how I feel.

So if I wasn’t feeling wrecked before, I know I will as we go forward into the autumn minus one driver.