Encounter number 2 with kind, cute young guy came yesterday at the car rental place. I went to pick up my chaeap but not cheapest car and it wasn't there, so the guy, feeling sorry for me for what I'd been through ("If I'd just rolled my car a few hours ago I sure wouldn't be in as good shape as you are right now"), decided to give me a free upgrade and gave me a 2004 Toyota Prius. It's a hybrid, half electric and half gasoline engine. What a great toy. It looks really wierd and thus is hard to find, waiting list of several months to buy one. It's a 4-door, has plenty of room. Has a small screen on the dash, like Kristen's car, but this one has a number of displayable screens. What displays most of the time is an energy monitor, so you can tell which source of energy is being use and when the battery is being charged. The engine is so quiet you can't tell if it's running or not, and when it idles it's noiseless, running off the battery. To start it you push a button on the dashboard. The key is a 1 X 2 inch rectangle, inserted into the dash, the gearshift a knob on the dashboard. You have 3 choices, Drive, Reverse (which makes the car beep like a construction vehicle the entire time it's in reverse) and "B", which which I am not yet familiar. Park is a button on the dashboard. The display on the dash is about 1.5" high, just below the windshield, and everything is digital. On the steering column are buttons to set the temperature of the interior, a button to select the track of the CD player, volume controls of the stereo and a button for the air-conditioner. This car is way cool and if I could have 2 cars this would be one of them. It wouldn't be good for winter, though, because you couldn't rock it when it got stuck in the snow, as it inevitably would when I drove it in my driveway. Plus I think they cost at least $23,000. Out of my range. The power of this machine is most impressive and the soundlessness of it mind-boggling. It drives like a dream. So my accident wasn't all bad.

I went to see my car last night, to collect my goods. There were Diet Coke cans all over the back seat and floor. They were projectiles, having come loose from the 2 cartons they were in. Why wasn't I hit in the head with one? Dumb luck. Most of them were empty. Lots of my CD's were broken. Why wasn't I cut with one of them, projectiles that they became? Dumb luck. Ken's boots were fine, and are now ready for me to mail to LL Bean. The change I had collected in my cup holders was scattered all over the car. My long-lost ATM card had been deposited neatly in the door, along with my prescription sunglasses, whew! The car looks horrible and the body shop guy has declared it totalled. If the adjuster agrees I have to buy a new car. Then I'll have to decided whether to buy a new car or talk to cousin Cameron about getting a late model car with low mileage. Either way it will cost me money I do not have. But, as everyone (EVERYONE) has told me: I'm lucky. Now, really, folks, if I were lucky I'd be driving a 2002 silver Honda Civic in need of an oil change with Hakapalita tires on it.

So I'm sore today but not as sore as I expected to be. Have been shovelling Motrin 800's into my mouth as often as I can. Went to the chiropractor for scheduled appointment this morning. He cracked my neck, told me my sacro-iliac joints are messed up (yes, I knew that), I have carpal tunnel (yes, I knew that) and that my shoulders are tight (yes, I knew that) but that he'll be happy to help me with all of these things. It's the sacro-iliac I'm looking forward to fixing, and the neck problem I have when I'm at work. I can't sit comfortably for more than 1/2 an hour, which makes the drive to RI really nasty. He can make that better. My neck already feels better, so maybe I can catalog something boring this afternoon.

Sunny and warm this afternoon, as it's supposed to be all week. I'm really only interested in what it's supposed to be like Saturday (80 and sunny). And I really hate to look forward to the future like that, makes me feel as if I'm wishing my life away. I had the best night last night, totally validated my favorite way of spending an evening: encased in a comforter on the couch with 2 dogs (the smallest one in a constant quest for the best position under the comforter, nudging me and the other dog to make room) while watching tv and doing crossword puzzle after crossword puzzle. It was curative. I need a wider couch, though, that one's not good for 2 dogs and a human. Chances refuses to budge an inch for Tess and Tess does not give up easily. Tonight I need to mow the lawn. Blech.