Bleak outside, cabin fever and our new car.

Hi,

It's snowing and wet with wind. Overcast with no sunshine for the past few days. I like to walk at least twice daily since I no longer live on the farm. Hard work that I cannot due any longer because of my health. I walk to my iPod music to get a good cadence for cardiovascular workout for my heart. I could use my bicycle but the area is covered with snow & ice. In my younger days I delivered mourning & evening newspaper routes using my bike with riser bars along with paper hooks to mount the bag with folded newspapers inside.

Really peaceful in the very early mornings with my delivery route would be the only tracks on the route. Living in southern Illinois we did not have snow plows to clear the city streets. Back then our tires were not knobby but we would get the wide treads to give us some traction. Long before mountain bikes or off the road type bikes. We would entertain ourselves waiting for the paper drop off by skipping bumpers to slide along the snow covered brick streets until the cops would catch us and make us stop. We were young, dumb and fearless.

Really nice to know what's best now. I really do not take many chances these days. Heck our excitement this week was my wife and I along with friends were to meet other friends for dinner out. We were traveling west on a state route just on the edge of town. I was driving our new Honda Odyssey when out of no where I saw three deer on my driver side. No way to evade the deer so I hit the first doe and see her flipped into the opposing lane to be hit again by another vehicle. New Honda with dents on the cargo door, driver door & front left fender. I need to get this fixed fast since we have other things to get done in 3 weeks. BTW, the deer was killed. So don't call PETA on me. Oh, heck call them, I need more excitement for the new year. My wife is pissy fitting about the damage to the car. I told her there was nothing to do but hit the darn deer. I was not going to swerve into the other lane nor to the right to go down a steep embankment that could cause everyone to possibly get hurt. Hit the dam deer, the car can be fixed. Why put everyone in danger? Not my first deer accident.

I've seen my share of auto deer accidents. Too many people think about hurting the dam deer. PETA hearts. Common sense to me is to prevent human harm, we have too many deer now. I would do the same for anything that jumps in front of my vehicle. If it was in a neighborhood and there were children I would do everything possible to evade or prevent from hitting a child that would run in front of me. Cars can be replaced or repaired!

We were late to our dinner date but we finally made it after spending time with the officers recording the accident report. Everyone was concerned about the car since it was new. Just fueled the wife's anger, I told her to forget it. Accident and nothing would change the fact the car was damaged. She just spewed back "but it's new". I then said, it's broke in now. Get over it! We will get the dam thing fixed and I will be out the $500 dollar deductible. Now that would make a grown man cry. The toys I could buy with that money instead of folding out for the repair. Now that makes me upset having to pay that deductible.

I am not a sexist but women have a different perspective on things of this sort. I raised daughters and hoping by example they will be able to discern things better. I can see the influence on my Grandchildren by their mothers that do harp at them. Not the way the daughters were raised by me. Got that from the mother. One daughter has remodeled several of their homes by herself. Her husband could not pour piss out of a boot even if the instructions were on the heel. Sad! His father did everything for him growing up. My daughter would be in my shop watching and asking questions. I decided since she was there, she should at least learn how to do things right & safely. She still credits me with helping her to understand and realize that the challenges were worth the outcome. Really proud of the girls, tomboys that grew up to be beautiful resourceful women that will continue to be successful.

Now that this is off my chest, looking outside the snow is still falling. No change! But I feel better about things after pressing through this posting.

EDIT: Update; Our insurance under comprehensive there was no attached deductible. So I would be paying out other than $45 for special shipping of a door panel from Wisconsin. Shop could not find a replacement panel so I got on the phone to our dealer. Explained our problem and he located 3 panels at different dealers. First one I called did have the panel so I contacted the repair shop with the numbers and he contacted to get that panel to keep things in that dealers network. When we picked up the Honda he was apologetic to my wife to have to add the cost of shipping. She reminded him that I stated "that the cost would be covered by us". I knew the insurance would not cover the special shipping, heck we got the Honda repaired in 4 1/2 days with excellent work being done. This shop has done work for me in the past. I recommend to my friends all the time. Very professional shop! That's one of the nice things about small towns, you get to know everyone. That is the one of the luxuries living in a smaller town. You can say 'Hi' to someone as you walk past and they will not glare you down but will greet you too with a

Happy New Year to all!