Christmas cheer, the hard way

The Friday before Christmas I drove to my girl's daycare in a blizzard for gifts which is kind of out of the way because I had to drive all the way into Albuquerque from Bernalillo and then back to Rio Rancho. The things you do for your kids huh. I got out of there quick before the snow really started to stick and before I could really say that it was a bad idea. After learning that I had been laid off from my job, the daycare "adopted" us even as I protested that we weren't that far into the gutter but they did anyway. They are awesome, geez, these people went way overboard but they felt that my girls were worth it. I don't know how to ever thank them enough.

As I drove home the sky started opening up over Rio Rancho and I forgot one of the laws of thermodynamics as there was no conservation of heat by the clouds so the ambient temperature began to drop as heat escaped into space, but I continued home without fail and backed into my drive way. I opened the door and put my weight down my left foot on the concrete which had a blanket of ice beads strewn about. I couldn't stop my self. My left foot went immediately under the driver door and under the truck. My left hand slid down the door and my right hand just gripped the bottom of the steering wheel. What to do. What a site. All I could do was allow my self to drop and, y'know, get up and dust off the embarrassment but no, it was way slick and after thudding on the cold concrete I continued to slide under the truck. All I could do was wedge my left knee under the front tire while I figure out how to get up. I layed there for a while and admired how dark blue the sky was and then noticed that the neighbors Christmas lights had just popped on. All those reindeer looking at me. I could only imagine what a spectacle I thought I was. Ha ha. Big brown dude stuck under his truck, in his drive way. Reminded me of my firefighting days in Window Rock where we'd have to check up on glaaniis sleeping under peoples vehicles. I thought...God, is this a sign? Should I stop being mean to stupid people? Should I invest? Is this what flounders see? Should I carpet the driveway? I hope the truck doesn't slide. That pigeon is eyeballing me. Ha ha. I dug for the only thing that could rescue me, my cell phone. I dialed. "Where are you, you're late," she said! "Karen!", gritting my teeth, "I need some help....", I said as she hung up the phone. She came out and looked in the truck and called for me. I said, "I'm under the truck...I've fallen and I can't get up!" All she could do was laugh. I couldn't stop for a while neither. So she literally had to drag me to a dry area that was a couple of feet away from the drivers side door. We unpacked and went inside. Moral of story, keep your cellphone on you and wear clean skivvies. You never know.