It seems we Shedds always have “fun” stories to tell around the holidays. Where do these stories come from? Who knows. No one can predict the things that happen to us…it just, well, happens. I had fully anticipated that my post-Christmas blog would be about Christmas day, gifts, family time, etc. It is…but there’s more to it than that.
Let me tell you a story…
Christmas day was a smaller scaled event this year. We stayed up until 4 AM wrapping gifts the previous night/early morning. Well, I took a brief five hour nap…awoke at 2:45 AM and started my wrapping. Haha!
We didn’t get up until some time between 9:30 AM and 10 AM. We had coffee and opened gifts. Later we watched Elf and then Sarah and I ran some errands (i.e. depositing Christmas gifts, hehe). We took the purple skittle – that’s the ’98 Dodge Neon for you newbies. I get a little more nervous each time I ride in that thing. Anyway, after our errands, we sat and talked outside our parents house for a long while before going back inside.
Once back inside, we found Mom and Dad watching old home movies. That’s right, they were watching our first documented family vacation, April of 1988. We hit all of the historical sites of Kentucky. I was surprised to see two six year olds and an eight year so well-behaved at Shaker Village. Well, we had our moments, but overall I was impressed. I was even more impressed with my 34-year-old father! Apparently, he and I liked to play tag. I wasn’t very good.
After memory lane, it was time to start dinner. We took a few short cuts this year…which turned out to be beautiful…less work is always beautiful. And, the food was really good! We were going to watch more home movies after dinner, but I ended up reading my new book, Debt-free Living instead. Then Tyler called to wish all a Merry Christmas, oh and confirm that they had arrived safely (sans luggage) in Adelaide. I got to talk to both Tyler and Katrina, which was fun. Then Sarah and I watched the first episode, season three of Grey’s Anatomy. By the time that was over, it was about 1 AM. We were exhausted!
That next morning I awoke to the sound of my Dad’s voice. He was saying something to my mom…something about our cars being hit in the night. I was thinking minor scratches on the driver sides of our cars. We had parked in front of the house…on a dead-end street…in a quiet, somewhat affluent neighborhood. Sarah yelled downstairs saying that as long as she still had her side-view mirror, she’d be fine. Dad laughed and said…”um, Sarah, your car is toast.”
I quickly hopped out of bed, ran downstairs and out the front door only to be met by shock and disbelief. My jaw immediately fell open…the right hand landed on top of my head. I didn’t even realize that my socked-feet were wet and freezing. Here’s what I saw…(I didn’t want to spoil the surprise so I put the pictures on a different page…hehehe, just click on the links)…
Sarah’s car was crumpled like an accordion. Her trunk was in her back seat! My car suffered only minor injuries, compared to Sarah’s. The impact pushed both of our cars an entire car length forward. I even had my emergency break on. I can’t help but wonder just how fast the guilty party was going…or how intoxicated the driver was. There was enough fluid on the ground to assume the driver busted his/her own radiator. And, after pulling the cars apart, we discovered part of a black fender, along with a Mitsubishi emblem.
We also have the headlight casing with an ID number on it. I’m confident justice will be served. 
Like I said before, my car wasn’t too bad. It’s still drivable (as far as I can tell). I have a giant hole in my bumper…and I lost some tread on my tires. Other damage will be discovered later today when I drop it off at the collision center.
Sarah was supposed to head back to Taylor University yesterday at noon. Needless to say, she didn’t exactly depart on time. However, the good news is that Dad had a company car that Sarah could use – a Daewoo! We heard from Sarah last night. She arrived back on campus, safely. However, she was a little confused when it was time to leave the gym. She forgot she wasn’t looking for her purple skittle. Sigh. For the last ten years and 100,000 miles, that car served us well. May its parts live on in other trusty vehicles for years to come.
Hopefully we’ll catch the person responsible for this. I will be disappointed if we don’t…not because I will otherwise have to cover the cost of repairs…but, because in all likelihood this was a young person who had too much to drink and got behind the wheel of a car. Chances are he or she will be a repeat offender. This time, we were lucky. No one was in the car(s). Next time may have a different ending.
