Not Happening

You may have noticed that I have fallen off the 31 Days wagon.   It's true, I can't come up with 31 things that I like about living in NE Florida.   I started the process with a list of fifteen things, feeling sure that once I got started, other things would occur to me.   Sadly, that did not happen.   Not only did the list come up short, but almost nothing makes up for the cultural differences.    We are most assuredly "Damn Yankees" ("Yankees go home, Damn Yankees stay").   We do not fit, and, likely, we never will.

It's not all bad news though.   Sometime in the last year, T2 told me "I still hate it here, but at least I am not miserable anymore".    As he said that, I realized that he is right.    I do want desperately to go home, but, I have found a place here that makes waking up in the morning much easier.   While some of our neighbors do, unashamedly, fly the Confederate flag, our neighbors to the immediate right and left are also "not from around here" and we can be ourselves around them without being dismissed and/or reviled.   Neighbors that we had not met, came forward to offer help and sympathy in the aftermath of the fire.  There is a community here for us, even if it is a community of "misfits".

In closing here is the rest of my happy list:

• Unitarian Universalists (I don't think I/we could have made it this far without them.)
• Kerri & Michelle (The thing is, it took the comfort and safety of the UU for me to feel safe enough to take an emotional chance on outside connections.   I am so glad that I did.    I love and depend on these two lovely ladies.)
• Starbucks (Don't laugh.   They are nice to me there.)
• Hubby and sons (Luckily we are not the kind of people who take out our misery on each other.   We really have been in this together.)
• Good insurance (Post fire, this can not be under-appreciated.)
• Nancy (An early friend who has stood by me even when my hermit tendencies come to the fore).
• Teresa/Kelly/New freindships (Again, comfort in one area of my life, left me able to be open to new friendships.   Being open to new friendships has brought some lovely people into my life.) 
• December (When mid-Dec rolls around and I am still sitting outside at Starbucks, I feel good.) 
• The Sky (We have the prettiest sky here.   The blue is very blue and the clouds are fluffy and distant.   My mom says the sky is like that in Puerto Rico but that I was too young to appreciate it when we lived there.)

That's it.  That's all I've got.   With two boys in college, we are not going anywhere else anytime soon.   However, once the boys are good to go, so are we.  Until then, we still hate it here, but at least we are not miserable.

Tomorrow this blog goes back to it's regularly scheduled mostly knitting content.

The song that never ends

Jax Beach 1May13

Those of you who read regularly know that T1 is being sued due to an auto accident he had almost two years ago (Oct '11).    In that time the driver of the other car settled with our insurance company but the passenger has not.  

For those new to the story, T1 ran a stop sign in Jacksonville.   A small car coming  through the intersection hit him hard enough to drag his '95 Park Avenue across the intersection and into a ditch (his car was totalled).   T1 did not see the stop sign (no excuse!) which was partially (but not totally) obscured by hanging branches.  

There is no doubt in my mind that T1 caused the accident or that the other driver was speeding.   Arguably, the passenger of the other car was the only one involved who was blameless.   However, despite injuries whose only medical treatment was four months of massage therapy, she is holding out for an obscene amount of money.

A couple of weeks after T1's accident I was rear ended while stopped at a red light.   "I am so sorry!  I did not expect you to stop at the red", these were the first words I heard from the young man who hit me.    I was dazed and my head hurt when the EMT's arrived.   I think the kid was more scared than I was when they strapped me to a back board and took me to the hospital (nothing broken just bruises and a concussion).   Within a couple of days, his insurance company contacted me and offered me money not to sue (over simplification but accurate).   My first question was "You want to give me money not to do something I was not going to do anyway?".   My brother says that I have shut up and taken the money.   You know what?   That is just not me.   Yes, we are having financial problems, BUT, Hubby has a good job, our problems are of our own making (whose aren't?), and we are blessed with adequate health insurance.   It took literally months for the nice insurance man to get me to take a minimal amount of money (the guys was really persistent).   I am not a saint.   If my injuries had been worse or my recovery longer, I would have happily fought for what I deserved.   But they were not (thank heavens) and it is not in me to be unnecessarily litigious.   As a mom, and as someone who believes in doing the right thing just because it is the right thing, I am disgusted with this woman's demands.

We went to mediation today.   Nothing was settled.   I was so hoping that this would be the end.   Now it looks like we may go to court in October.

P.S.  Since the only photos I could have taken today would have been of our lawyer, insurance adjuster, T1 and myself sitting at a conference table drinking bottled water and munching on chips, I leave you with another shot taken on the beach last week.   It's pretty where we live.

The Scales of Justice

A happier day :-)

I interrupt this blog to bring you the latest bit of drama from Chez Serenity.   Long time readers may (or may not) remember that our oldest was in a car accident a couple of years ago.   The circumstances were thus:   he ran a stop sign while leaving an inner city school where (as an English education major) he was supposed to be observing a class.    A compact car driving through the intersection hit him hard enough to drag his full sized 1995 Buick Park Avenue across the intersection and over a couple of street signs.  His car was a total loss.  I don't think we know what the final state of the other driver's.   There is no question that the other driver had to have been speeding when she hit him.  Regardless, she would not have hit him if he had seen had seen, and stopped at, the stop sign.

We were told on that very day, that he could expect to be sued and sued he has been.   The driver and passenger sued.   The driver settled.   The passenger is still plugging away.    She is not even claiming any serious injuries but still she has turned down every offer our insurance carrier has made.   Tomorrow we head into Jax for the depositions.   He is nervous.   I am nervous.    I wish this whole thing would just go away.

The Help

Went to see The Help today with my mom & sons.   It was that most rare of things, a movie that was every bit as good as the book.    Do yourself a favor and treat yourself and your family to this important story.

Not soon enough...

Spring '09

My backyard

Lots of crafty stuff going on here at Chez Serenity. I love to knit, but I have to say, that nothing beats an embroidery machine for whipping up nice, fast, Xmas gifts. I have taken photos but can't show them until after the holidays.

Thanksgiving weekend was not the restful refuge I was hoping for. Dinner at my brothers ended when his step-daughter fell to the ground in her first ever seizure. Very scary for all (not the least, her). The doctors let her leave the hospital last night. They have some ideas but, ultimately, are just not certain what caused it. Friday, I spent some time visiting at the hospital. Got lost coming and going. I swear downtown Jax confuses the heck out of me. Saturday..xmas shopping. Sunday...car repair, xmas shopping, & a movie. I'm pooped.

I am still over-thinking my next project. For now, I have woken up a napping F&F scarf just to keep my hands busy. Thanks to the Yarn Harlot, I have added JoJoLand's Swirl Shawl to my "I want it now" list.

Maybe I could pick up the pattern tomorrow and knit it out of stash (Koigu?) thereby staying firmly on the "no yarn for a year" wagon. The thing is, that I have not been in a yarn store in all of this time. I have a feeling that it will be a lot harder to avoid buying yarn when I am in a yarn store. I will let you know how it works out for me.

(((hugs)))