Happy Friday all. Welcome to the entry that almost wasn’t, but came together in a rushed half hour around 10:30pm last night. Guess sometimes it all just works out, huh? Moving on…
Today I left work around 11:45pm to meet Sharaun and Keaton at one of the local parks. We had lunch in the shade and then hit the playground for a while before I had to leave and rejoin the ranks of corporate zombies back at the sawmill. I love doing this, having some time during the day to spend with Keaton is the perfect way to break the spell of to-dos and teleconferences.
During lunch there was a couple of moms sitting at a picnic table near us. As their young’ns played some kind of stupid Pokemon or Dragonball game on the playground (“You’re an egg now!” “No, I’m a human already – and if you look into my eyes you’ll die!”), they sat and gabbed. Well, one of them did – the other one just listened and gave deferential harrumphs and confirming nods.
The one talking, and boy could she talk, was rambling on and on and on (and on some more) about a car accident she’d been in recently, and the harrowing events which befell her life thereafter. The thing is, though, she somehow managed to work in the fact that her wrecked vehicle was a Mercedes SUV at every turn of the conversation. Soon, I began to think this was no mere coincidence:
Yeah, I had to take the Mercedes to a special Mercedes body shop that the Mercedes dealer recommended, because not just any body shop can work on a Mercedes, you know.
The rental replacement SUV they gave me was some GM or Chevy thing, and when I climbed in for the first time I couldn’t believe how small it was compared to the Mercedes. I had to call my insurance agent and ask if they had anything more truly comparable in size the the Mercedes, because my back just couldn’t handle that thing – it’s so used to the Mercedes.
The people who hit the Mercedes were Yugoslavian or Russian or something. When they pulled over I parked the Mercedes right in front of them because I was afraid they might try to run.
On top of this, she bemoaned how the wrecked Mercedes had hampered her and her husband’s plan to buy a boat, as they now had no vehicle to tow it with (presumably, the time the Mercedes would be in the Mercedes body shop would ruin an entire Summer boating season?). She admitted, small hints derision vocalized at the corners of her words, that they had “settled for” an old pickup that they’ll “only use to tow the boat around,” but “never to just drive.”
I felt intensely sorry for her rough life. And, also because I am pretty sure she was only telling the story so her friend (and whomever happened to be within earshot) had no option be to be keenly aware she owned a Mercedes, a boat, and a truck specifically for the purpose of lugging around the boat.
Not that I’m not occasionally taken into a swirl of materialism and status-symbol one-upmanship myself, but I hope I never hawk my wares quite like that. Eh, it wasn’t even that egregious an offense… just made for quick and easy writing. And, now it’s over.
‘Night. Have a good weekend, see ya Monday.
Also written on this day...
- drawers: day two - 2007
- never did find any clams - 2006
- world debut - 2005
I would have asked her what kind of car she was driving….
11:45pm eh? Isn’t that a little late for Keaton to be up? Watch out for parks after dark…there be crazy mercedes driving soccer moms on the loose.