Stupid Friday the 13th
Poor Kitty Cat got rear-ended while driving Natalie back from her AP test on Friday the 13th. She was hit by a white panel truck which pushed her car into a CRV in front of her. She and the CRV pulled over to exchange information, but the truck left the scene.
The back of Natalie has a new scratch, but the front is pretty caved in (although still driveable) from getting pushed into the CRV. Kate was not hurt, but devastated by the accident. She called home in tears. Sadly, we had dropped comprehensive coverage on Natalie because she's so old, and since the truck left the scene, there is no insurance from that. We think that repairing Natalie is more money than her Blue Book, so she is toast. Sniff.
Kate thinks she did well to okay on her four AP tests last week (Government, Microeconomics, Macroeconomics, and Statistics).
Friday the 13th also had extra sadness when we went to a memorial service for a band mom alumni. She passed away suddenly and her daughter came home from college for the memorial service. The high school band was asked to play something. She'd been a huge supporter of the band, doing tons of volunteer work running fundraisers. The band director gave kids music from their field show 5 years ago which won the WBA for their division. The song was My Immortal by Evanescence, and it was from their field show titled "Requiem". The director had most of the Wind Ensemble play it, along with a few extra Concert Band kids to fill in. It was voluntary, because it was in the afternoon that the kids had "Day at the Bay", an end of the year field day with free hot dogs, drinks, bounce houses, water features, music, and booths selling extra snacks. The kids who performed all agreed to leave the party early to get to the memorial service. The song was new to them, because it was from the year before the current seniors started high school. Kate and a lot of the other seniors and juniors knew the girl whose mom who passed away. It was beautiful and touching, and I'm so proud of the kids who were willing to show up and play for the service.
Kate fell over sick for Saturday and Sunday. She was not feeling well during the week, but she powered through for the AP tests.
The rest of the weekend was busy and hectic, but not bad. We had a neighborhood garage sale, and we made $68 and got rid of not enough stuff, but it beats a poke in the eye with a sharp stick. And the garage at least looks tons better.
We went to the niece's piano recital on Sunday. After that, Al and I went car shopping. We tried Car Max to check out new cars. We took Josh's tuba case to see if it fit in the trunks of cars. (It fit in Natalie, but not in V, Al's newest car). Since Josh can get his permit in about 8 months, this is going to be the car he uses eventually. So we figured it should be maximally convenient for him to transport the tuba. It can fit in the back seat of V, but that rules out taking extra passengers.
We spotted a Fit, and started considering a hatchback for hauling. At that point, transporting a Sousaphone wasn't out of the question. So after checking out a bunch of cars, we went home and returned with the Sousaphone case. Car salesmen must be used to seeing everything, because nobody was terribly startled by that. But given that the 2 year old Fit was about $14k and had over 50k miles, a new one was looking pretty good. We headed to the Automall and tried a new one.
Monday was wacky shenanigans with cars. Kate drove Rommie (the minivan) to school with Josh's tuba for 0 period. Al took Josh and Lauren to school at normal school time in V, and he unlocked Rommie so that Josh could retrieve the tuba for 1st period. Kate brought Josh and the tuba home after school in Rommie. I took V to get to jury duty at 10. Jurors were dismissed at 10:15 because all our cases were settled. I stopped to volunteer at the junior high on the way home. Al forgot that he had a dentist appointment, and he ended up driving Natalie there and back. After we took Josh to Monday night rehearsal at 6, we took Kate to test drive the Fit. The silver LX we were looking at was gone, and we had a choice of fire engine red, bright banana yellow, or black. Kate immediately started cooing over the black one and she drove it around the Automall. Then we settled in to paperwork. They had a sale which was good, but they matched the price of another dealership we had an email quote from. We got out of the dealership around 8:40 and Al drove V home and Kate drove me to the high school to pick up Josh and Lauren. The Concert band kids were already out and hanging out in the parking lot as we pulled up. I rolled down the window and the freshmen clustered around Josh let out a cheer for Kate and her new car (Josh had told them it might happen). One of the girls ran over to the driver's side and leaned in to hug Kate. Kate's quite popular with the freshmen.
Kate is really excited to have a brand new car to drive. She wanted to name it Nick Fury, or Nick for short. After we got Josh, he agreed that it was a good name.
The back of Natalie has a new scratch, but the front is pretty caved in (although still driveable) from getting pushed into the CRV. Kate was not hurt, but devastated by the accident. She called home in tears. Sadly, we had dropped comprehensive coverage on Natalie because she's so old, and since the truck left the scene, there is no insurance from that. We think that repairing Natalie is more money than her Blue Book, so she is toast. Sniff.
Kate thinks she did well to okay on her four AP tests last week (Government, Microeconomics, Macroeconomics, and Statistics).
Friday the 13th also had extra sadness when we went to a memorial service for a band mom alumni. She passed away suddenly and her daughter came home from college for the memorial service. The high school band was asked to play something. She'd been a huge supporter of the band, doing tons of volunteer work running fundraisers. The band director gave kids music from their field show 5 years ago which won the WBA for their division. The song was My Immortal by Evanescence, and it was from their field show titled "Requiem". The director had most of the Wind Ensemble play it, along with a few extra Concert Band kids to fill in. It was voluntary, because it was in the afternoon that the kids had "Day at the Bay", an end of the year field day with free hot dogs, drinks, bounce houses, water features, music, and booths selling extra snacks. The kids who performed all agreed to leave the party early to get to the memorial service. The song was new to them, because it was from the year before the current seniors started high school. Kate and a lot of the other seniors and juniors knew the girl whose mom who passed away. It was beautiful and touching, and I'm so proud of the kids who were willing to show up and play for the service.
Kate fell over sick for Saturday and Sunday. She was not feeling well during the week, but she powered through for the AP tests.
The rest of the weekend was busy and hectic, but not bad. We had a neighborhood garage sale, and we made $68 and got rid of not enough stuff, but it beats a poke in the eye with a sharp stick. And the garage at least looks tons better.
We went to the niece's piano recital on Sunday. After that, Al and I went car shopping. We tried Car Max to check out new cars. We took Josh's tuba case to see if it fit in the trunks of cars. (It fit in Natalie, but not in V, Al's newest car). Since Josh can get his permit in about 8 months, this is going to be the car he uses eventually. So we figured it should be maximally convenient for him to transport the tuba. It can fit in the back seat of V, but that rules out taking extra passengers.
We spotted a Fit, and started considering a hatchback for hauling. At that point, transporting a Sousaphone wasn't out of the question. So after checking out a bunch of cars, we went home and returned with the Sousaphone case. Car salesmen must be used to seeing everything, because nobody was terribly startled by that. But given that the 2 year old Fit was about $14k and had over 50k miles, a new one was looking pretty good. We headed to the Automall and tried a new one.
Monday was wacky shenanigans with cars. Kate drove Rommie (the minivan) to school with Josh's tuba for 0 period. Al took Josh and Lauren to school at normal school time in V, and he unlocked Rommie so that Josh could retrieve the tuba for 1st period. Kate brought Josh and the tuba home after school in Rommie. I took V to get to jury duty at 10. Jurors were dismissed at 10:15 because all our cases were settled. I stopped to volunteer at the junior high on the way home. Al forgot that he had a dentist appointment, and he ended up driving Natalie there and back. After we took Josh to Monday night rehearsal at 6, we took Kate to test drive the Fit. The silver LX we were looking at was gone, and we had a choice of fire engine red, bright banana yellow, or black. Kate immediately started cooing over the black one and she drove it around the Automall. Then we settled in to paperwork. They had a sale which was good, but they matched the price of another dealership we had an email quote from. We got out of the dealership around 8:40 and Al drove V home and Kate drove me to the high school to pick up Josh and Lauren. The Concert band kids were already out and hanging out in the parking lot as we pulled up. I rolled down the window and the freshmen clustered around Josh let out a cheer for Kate and her new car (Josh had told them it might happen). One of the girls ran over to the driver's side and leaned in to hug Kate. Kate's quite popular with the freshmen.
Kate is really excited to have a brand new car to drive. She wanted to name it Nick Fury, or Nick for short. After we got Josh, he agreed that it was a good name.