My sister and brother are very early risers. When visiting them I like to get up as early as I can make myself. We drink coffee, watch Morning Joe and flip news channels whenever Pat Buchanan is more than we can handle. These are my political junkie siblings and I love it.
Leslie had timed her workout session to be back in the house to make breakfast by 7:30. She chatted briefly and then left. Max and I kept on talking about tea parties, odd politician behavior and our take on the world today. Leslie showed back up in about three minutes. We looked up expectantly wondering what she had forgotten.
She stood behind her chair for a moment before speaking. She said she had decided not to work out this morning and back into Sam’s mom’s car instead. We both looked at each other and then back to her. Our stunned silence turned to silent sympathy. The story gets better. Her really cool jeep has a back up camera and beeper. She says the camera lens was dirty and she ignores the beeper because it always beeps when she backs out of the garage.
She said the damage seemed to be contained to the license plate holder and sat down to wait for Sam and his mom to appear. Kudos to my daughter; she took her aunt’s morning wake-up news very well. First there was disbelief “you’re kidding, right”, then acceptance as Leslie handed her pieces of the broken license plate, followed by fairly cheerful resignation after an examination revealed nothing more than a scratch or two under the license plate.
Our favorite part was the backup camera and beeper. Of course, there is the fact that Max and I waved goodbye and didn’t say a word. We were really grateful we were not the ones to provide the first fender bender to the new Jeep, no matter how light the damage.
Leslie established an 18 month statute of limitations on mentioning this new entry in family lore and legend. Judging the action on the subject the rest of the weekend she was probably correct. We do love to joke and tease and poke about each other’s miscalculations. What can I say, except some of my best personal insights have come from laser sharp observations made by one of my siblings?
Stay tuned for more tales from the demolition derby zone………
©2011 Susan Kendall. All rights reserved
