I've been included in a Minnesota anthology "Under Purple Skies", now available on Amazon!

My second chapbook, "The Second Book of Pearl: The Cats" is now available as either a paper chapbook or as a downloadable item. See below for the Pay Pal link or click on its cover just to the right of the newest blog post to download to your Kindle, iPad, or Nook. Just $3.99 for inspired tales of gin, gambling addiction and inter-feline betrayal.

My first chapbook, I Was Raised to be A Lert is in its third printing and is available both via the PayPal link below and on smashwords! Order one? Download one? It's all for you, baby!

Sunday, October 4, 2009

I Should Buy A Lottery Ticket

In the last 24 hours, the car I was driving was hit by another car, the damage done by said car was fixable at a price I could afford, and then I won at Springo.

And it was a great weekend.

The car? Yeah, I was driving from Mary’s to T’s Friday night when my ’96 Honda Accord was struck - glanced, really - in the right front by a ’93 Cadillac DeVille. Judging from the look of that vehicle, post accident, I would say that the reason its right front tire had permanently left its axle was through embarrassment.

What a rust bucket that Cadillac was. If I were that tire, I would’ve ceded from that car, too.

The only real damage to my car, that is, the only damage that had to be fixed by reason of law – as opposed to the kind of damage that’s more in the oh-wouldn’t-it-be-nice-to-fix-this category – was the turn signal, tucked down in the bumper, and the headlight, which were smashed and now litter Dowling Avenue.

The best part of the accident – which, as a quick aside, is like starting a sentence with “you know, the best part of having diarrhea…” – is that it occurred two blocks off the freeway. That is, what could've been a perfectly horrible situation three minutes earlier was instead an expense and adrenalin blast I could've done without.

Mary’s Jon had it fixed by late afternoon Saturday whilst Mary and I ran to the junkyard and then garage-saled ourselves into affordable sweaters, a pair of incredible boots (they’ll fit me when you’re done with them, Mary!) and a teeny-tiny Santa Claus candle for a dime…

When’s the last time you went to a junkyard, by the way? Was it worked by three Mexicans and a gray tomcat? North Imports was a muddy treasure’s island of oily and character-laden car parts sorted and piled on scaffolding to the top of an incredibly chilly pole barn.

Mary and I had stared upward into the shelving. All those bumpers, lock assemblies, transmissions. She had laughed. “Maybe staring up at 60-some years of old car parts with our mouths open isn’t such a good idea, huh?”

When you’re right, you’re right!

And after that? Once you’ve cheated death and the auto part industry, what’s a gal to do? I’ll tell you what she does: She gives Willie a call on her way home and drags him up to the Spring for beer and wings; and when the opportunity to play the Spring’s version of Bingo comes around, she knows she’s going to win, and she hopes it’s a free drink.

Yessiree, I did win the second of the two games I played, but they must’ve given away all the free drinks. The prize? A “The Office” gift pack: two ink pens and a Dunder Miflin While You Were Out notepad.

That's right. Today? Right now? I’m the luckiest person I know.

15 comments:

darsden said...

First let me say I am Glad you are Okay Pearl. I thought I was the only one left driving in the nineties...LOL I thought my 99 was bad but the Cadillac has me beat lol and it will probably still be around when I trade this one in. I drive a car "till the wheels fall off" Nothing I love more than a paid off car :-)

http://howtobecomeacatladywithoutthecats.blogspot.com said...

Wow! You and Nanodance are having the same luck with your cars. (Except hers was totaled.) Just another good reason to have a drink.
Glad you're okay, even if your car isn't.

Mike said...

You are lucky! My car would have been totaled and I would not have won shit! haha

Douglas said...

I am confused... your car was hit by another but you paid for the repairs to your car?

I found out in 1990 that a Mitsubishi Mirage should avoid Buick Park Avenues at all costs. In particular, they should not try to drive through them at 40 MPH.

Jodie Kash said...

Yesterday the boy at the meat counter gave me a turkey basil meatloaf (prolly soon to be in the "Manager Special" section) on him and the girl at Einstein’s ringing up my one chocolate chip and one pumpkin bagel threw in 15 cents left at the counter.

I felt like Homecoming Queen.

Unknown said...

I'm glad all that got banged up was the car. YOu know I don't think I've ever been in a junkyard...that could be interesting.

Ms Sparrow said...

You DO live an eventful life, gal!

Kim said...

I'm glad your ok! Was that cadillac also too embarrased to have insurance to pay for your repairs? That's usually my luck - get hit by someone who can't pay for the damage they caused.

Suzy said...

Hey, you can always buy a new car. But you can't always buy a new Pearl.

Actually you can so never mind.

anon said...

Hey, I have to break new boots in for my BF too! She has those crazy arches that won't let her feet into shoes. Its awesome because I always get the shoes first!

I wish you great happiness with those spiffy new pens and post-its, couldn't have happened to a nicer gal. But I think they should have given you a free drink too.

Jeanne Estridge said...

Which just goes to show, it's not what happens to you, it's how you react to it!

Pat said...

https://www.rockauto.com/catalog/catalog.php

for super-cheap car parts...We had a crunched (Toyota Sienna) front signal cover and got one from Rock Auto for about $25 instead of $80. My hbby even installed it himself.

The Jules said...

Well, that is what bumpers are for.

Liz Wilkey (a.k.a. A Mom on Spin) said...

You're the luckiest person I know, too!

Kavi said...

Am glad you are ok. Its not the distance between the Arctic and Antartic...the distance between the turn lamp and the steering wheel !

And really glad that it wasnt serious at all.

I guess, its time to celebrate though !

Take care !