The Seventh Day of Christmas, Rated PG-13.

My true love gave to me: Seven Swans A-Swimming

Once again, I was late for work this morning. This time the wintry weather was responsible again, although this time it wasn't so kind as to just slow me down. I ended up getting into a fender-bender, which will probably mean $2,000 in repairs and the lack of my van for the next three weeks while they fix it. I'm distinctly unhappy about this. It's driveable, but the hood's buckled and the grill is crushed. Lovely. We're lucky we weren't hurt.

What really sucks is that the roads were fine this morning. I had a wonderful, clear path all the way up the highway - until I crossed into the Lansing city limits. It is an obvious difference; like crossing the border from purgatory to hell. I don't know what their problem is, but is pisses me off. The city needs to get off its lazy asses and plow their damn roads! Grrrr.

Of course the angelic side of my personality understands that surely they are doing the best they can.

(Cue the devilish side again) But damn it, I commute through Lansing every day, and have not seen a SINGLE snow plow or salt truck since this storm started!! That's RIDICULOUS. My accident occurred within the first BLOCK of the city limits. I don't think that's a coincidence.

Anyway, I spent a rather unhappy morning. First I waited on hold after dialing 911. No shit. They put me on hold.

Then I waited for 45 minutes before the police showed up. Then it was another half hour while he ran our registration and insurance info through his computer.

Happily, he let me off without a ticket, since the roads were obviously at fault.

Unfortunately, as soon as I was on the road again, I had another 10 miles of unplowed, ice-covered road still to traverse before I could get safely out of Lansing again. What a hellhole. On that trip, one large suburban going the other direction lost control and slid sideways toward me. Happily I was able to prevent being hit by sliding sideways into the other lane and going around him. At the very next stoplight the minivan in the lane beside me fishtailed and spun out; I avoided that one by swerving out into the intersection and running a red light. Great.

There were two more near misses on my way to work, I shit you not. I'm tempted to write the city of Lansing a letter. This is just plain bullshit. Waverly road is a MAJOR road, and the backstreets in Lansing are even worse. The only street I found that was plowed and salted as it should have been was the one-block stretch of Snow road in front of the fire department; and I suspect the fire department plowed that themselves. Hell, the mall parking lot was in better shape!!

Upon arrival at work, I spent a half hour getting ahold of my insurance company, and another half hour trying to track down a body shop that wasn't completely slammed (great pun) and who might be able to fix my van in relatively short order. You would think I was hunting for unicorns, or tilting at windmills for all the response I got.

At any rate, I will likely end up having to leave work early in order to get this taken care of. What a great bleeding puss boil of a pain in the ass.

Other than that, it's a great day.

Umm.

Last night was really nice, though! Forest and I got home around 7 PM, after a nice relaxing dinner out, and decorated our tree. It is beautiful! I'm really happy with how it turned out. Then we plunked down in front of How the Grinch Stole Christmas and wrapped gifts for hours together. We were in a great collective mood; the holiday spirit was definitely present in full force. After the "Grinch" was over, we wrapped our way through much of Empire Strikes Back and then proceeded to a nice snuggly bed. Unfortunately, Forest was completely exhausted but unable to breathe well enough to sleep, and ended up being completely miserable and awake until after 5 AM. I wish there was anything at all we could do for him. I'd really like him to go see his athsma doctor, but he's putting it off because he doesn't want to inconvenience me, since I would have to give him transportation to get there. At this point I don't really give a rat's ass. I just want him to go and get this taken care of.

I think he's feeling pretty defeated, though; and feels that this is the best that can be done, and he just has to live with it as it is. I think that sucks.

With all of these bright and cheery thoughts, I guess I'm out of here, to see what I can accomplish with my car today. This will mean more vacation time that I can't use for my honeymoon. *sigh*