I enter the Christmas holiday in a car crash; a crabby Christmas raven named Rusty

The GMC truck that struck me. It hardly suffered a mark.

Last night, right after I wrote in here about how Jacob had been in a minor wreck in Anchorage, I climbed into the Taurus, headed toward Wal-Mart to meet Margie to do some midnight Christmas shopping and got in a minor wreck myself.

This is how it happened: As I neared the fire station on Lucille, I saw that the warning light was flashing red. This means that you are supposed to stop, as fire trucks will be racing out onto Lucille at any moment. At the same time, I saw a small fire truck, pickup-sized with all the markings, nearing the end of the driveway, less than ten feet from the road. It was partially obscured by the snow berms.

I stopped. Immediately after I did, I began to study the fire vehicle, to see what it would do. Suddenly, I heard a loud wham - the car lunged forward with a jolt and my body and head slammed hard against the seat back and headrest. Without that headrest, I would have suffered bad whiplash for sure.

I got out of the Taurus and saw this big, white, GMC pickup sitting on the road behind me. A young man, late teens or early 20's, sat in the driver's seat. There were young women riding with him.

He got out.

"Didn't you see the light flashing red?" I asked.

"No," he said, "the only thing I saw was you stop suddenly, right in the middle of the road. Why did you stop like that?"

"See the light? It's flashing red! That means you stop!" I answered.

My Taurus. It still seems to run fine, but the trunk won't close.

And so it went. I called the Wasilla police, who showed up shortly, took down all the relevant information, then sent me on my way. They kept the kid a little longer. My neck was a little sore, but not too bad. Other than that, I felt no pain and thought I was fine. I still think I am okay in the long run, but am just a little worried.

After I got home, I sat down at my computer and began to type. Soon, a very strange feeling - a combination of ache and numbness, spread through my injured arm and shoulder and into my hand. Ever since I got out of my last surgery, little things have continually happened that have brought pain and numbness to my shoulder, arm and hand but have gone away.

I can still do all my exercises, so I believe that I am okay.

And that emergency fire station vehicle that they had put the flashing red light up for? It responded to no emergency, but only wielded a snow plow. All it was doing was clearing the driveway of the afternoon and evening snow that had fallen.

So this morning, Margie and I set out to do the shopping that we had done last night. Wal-Mart was our first stop. Margie headed straight to the door, but I started following this raven as it hopped in and out through rows of parked cars. I wanted it fly, but it never did. It just kept hopping away from me.

I gave up.

"I know that individual crow by name," a woman who I found myself walking alongside of said. 

"Yea?" I bit. "What's its name?"

"Rusty," she said. "That crow is named Rusty."

"Rusty, I thought that raven was Jim," I responded. "But then I always get these ravens mixed up."

"No, that crow is Rusty," she said. "I know that crow as an individual."

We walked side by side toward the store through a few seconds of silence, then she explained.

"I knew this old lady - a real, crotchety, crabby old lady. She was so crotchety that one day I told her, 'after you die, you're going to come back as a crow and you're going to be alone.' So whenever I see a crow by itself, I call it Rusty." 

Rusty's buddies.

We bought nothing at Wal-Mart and went elsewhere to purchase our gifts. Then I took Margie home and returned to Wasilla's commercial area by myself, to get some lunch, and buy Margie a present. This is what it looked like on the Parks Highway, right by the entrance to Taco Bell, Target and a few other places.

Once there was a mall here, but they tore down the mall to make way for Target.

I bought Margie's present, or at least the frame for it, in here.

Merry Christmas!Or happy whatever holiday it is that you celebrate!

Comments

[Suzy]

Merry Christmas!

Just up putting the last few items under the tree for the kiddos, thought I'd take a moment to drink my coffee, read the paper online, and check out your blogs.

BTW, I have Rusty's buddies over here too. They've discovered my trash truck, and learned how to get under the tarp. What a mess they leave. Raven poopies in my driveway, big holes in my trash bags...but not even the cats mess with these birds.