Thursday, December 17, 2009

O Christmas Tree

I find humor in strange situations.

Mom and I went to get a Christmas tree this morning. There was a very limited window of opportunity between various appointments she had today, so it had to be right then, and could only last so long. We went to the Davis Ranch tree farm in Sloughhouse, same place every year, and searched for a cedar tree, which I think are wonderful but a certain oldest brother of mine says look like overgrown ferns. Pish posh, they smell great and aren't as prickly as some of the others.

Anyway, although this tradition sometimes has its challenges I secretly delight in finding the perfect Christmas tree, and always try to make sure that *I* am the one who finds that tree.

I picked a big one. A huge one. The biggest tree we've EVER had. It was love at first sight. It's glorious. And it had a pretty substantial trunk to cut through, by hand I might add, all alone I might add.

Mom went to get the truck and move it closer to my selected glorious tree, only to find that the truck wouldn't start. This has happened a few times lately. Okay, no panic yet, probably just needed a jump start. She went up to the parking lot and talked to the guys who worked there, and one of them drove out with some jumper cables. And... that didn't work. It wouldn't start.

Okay, cue some panic. Not for me, I was feeling mildly amused at this point, which is kind of twisted, but I've been through so many incidents with my car that it's hard to get all that worked up about it anymore, especially when it wasn't happening to my car! So, a phone call to AAA, and 35 minutes later a tow truck showed up.

The driver asked what was wrong. "Engine won't turn over at all?" I replied "nope." He says go ahead and give it a try, let's see what's going on. So Mom turned the key and the pickup fired right up. I doubled over with laughter at this point. Twisted, right? It was just so ridiculous. I mean, breaking down while getting a Christmas tree, planning to have the truck towed away with the tree in it, waiting for a tow truck, and then it starts up anyway!? Aaaack! The driver said it was fear of the tow truck that inspired the pickup to start. Heck, maybe he was right.

SHEESH. It's almost as bad as the time the refrigerator repair man came out to fix the fridge and found the problem was that the plug had come out of the outlet.

Anyway, it was exciting, Mom was late, I single-handedly unloaded the tree into a bucket of water and then took the truck to the garage and mooched a ride home from my very wonderful mechanic (who occasionally reads this). :-)

The tree is now in the house, but not decorated yet. Tomorrow perhaps.

I'm 100% frazzled trying to finish Christmas projects. Aaaaaack! I had some setbacks and burned several fingertips with hot glue this evening. Fun. I was counting on doing our family Christmas thing on the 24th like usual but it just got bumped to the 20th and that totally messed up my planned schedule of when to work on various projects.

It'll all get done. It always does.

7 comments:

dougzilla said...

They do look like ferns! And the truck has done that before - it's something with the wangbonger on the framagan I think, or something like that.

Anonymous said...

Whew, I am all caught-up now :-). Good to hear about the Standard! That's exciting. Sorry you burt your fingers on hot glue - that is NEVER fun.
Dan is right, they do look like ferns, but good to know you got it home ok! I want to see a pic!
--CS

Katherine Plumer said...

I think it's the flux capacitor.

Von said...

Yep, done it too.One it was flooded,how silly do you feel?? the other time someone had siphoned off all the fuel and I hdn't noticed!!Silly again, luckily a few years apart and not same driver!
Happy Christmas!

Jan Blawat said...

I hope you get your truck back. Mine is still there. Did you say "hi" to it?

If the truck had needed to be towed, you should have just knocked on the door and had Bob take your tree home. He was probably right here in bed. Better yet, knock on the bedroom window.

Katherine Plumer said...

Jan, I'll bet you could get it towed home... I think I may have suggested that a time or two... ;-)

I did think about pestering Bob, because I saw his truck in the driveway. In fact I said to Mom "if you need to get home why don't you go get Bob James to take you home and I'll wait here for the tow truck." She was too flustered.

Jan Blawat said...

Ah yes, towing. I have a cousin in law who drives a tow truck. John has a trailer that could haul it. I've tried several times over the years to arrange something. I guess I'm just going to have to break down and pay another $100 to tow it home. Or maybe it costs more now.