Every Chinese new year has a name…..the year of the frog, the year of the cat……you know…..

Dave has dubbed 2009 as “The Year of the Wrecks.”

First, we had THE BIG ONE!

You may remember it if you have been reading my blog for a while-

it’s the one that traumatized the kids for at least 2 months.

Then, about a month or so after THE BIG ONE

(& I’m not sure I blogged about this),

but my sister rear-ended someone with Ruthie in the car.

Third (& my life has been too crazy to even remember to blog about this one)

but there was an incident a few weeks ago while we were dining alfresco at a Chipotle close to our house one warm Sunday afternoon.

A guy pulled his older & fairly dirty Jeep into a parking slot at the top of a slight incline at the other end of the parking lot.

He must have put it in neutral

& forgotten the parking brake…….

because it began a slow reverse decent as soon as he left it-

& shortly thereafter,

SLAMMED into the fence around the Chipotle outside eating area.

Mere FEET from our table. Glass flew everywhere.

No one was hurt, thank the Lord,

but frightened by the close call,

nonetheless.

Fast forward to 3:15 Tuesday morning………

when a drunk driver tangled with our fence

& the car won!

Apparently,

he & his brilliant friend/accomplice

(insert eye-rolling smilie)

in crime decided in their inebriated state that the former girlfriend’s car needed a good bashing with a baseball bat.

They parked their car on the street next to our house

& walked to their victim’s house.

The father of the former girlfriend,

heard the noise, came outside

& caught them in the act.

They ran back to their car & tried to get away quickly

(not a good idea when you have imbibed a little too much!)

Our fence bore the brunt of the quick getaway attempt.

Dave & I were awakened by a terrific crash at 3:15 or so,

& opened the blind to watch the following drama unfold:

The driver, (after smashing our fence to bits) still trying to get away,

somehow got his car stuck on the curb across the street.

After trying unsuccessfully to dislodge it

(& taking out a cable box in the process),

he & his friend turned off the lights

& tried to once again flee the scene.

By this time,

there were at least a dozen or so neighbors on cell phones outside

& milling around our house.

After Dave hung up with the 911 operator, we realized there was wood in our driveway & it slowly began to dawn on us that he the crash we heard MIGHT have been something of ours……& perhaps we should go & check (we have no windows on that side of the house)

Sure enough, this is what we saw:

(of course it was 3:30 in the morning,

& we don’t have many streetlights,

so the morning light REALLY revealed the damage)

Anyway, by the time the police caught the driver & the passenger,

(who were both drunk)

charged them,

went to the house where the original vandalism took place,

got back to the car in front of our house,

took our statement & a bunch of pics, it was 5 am!

It was pointless to go back to bed then, don’t you think?

& if ever a family could call a year, “The Year of the Wrecks,”

it would be our family in 2009.

Not sure it's a distinction we really want!!!

P.S. I’m still shaking my head…….A DRUNK DRIVER TOOK OUT OUR FENCE!!!

P.S.S The Tooth Fairy is SUPPOSED to be making a little stop at the house with no more gate tonight (yes, I am writing this on Tuesday night-but it will post Wed morning). Lets hope she remembers. She is very tired & she does not have a good history with remembering where Ana lives! She got stuck in a thunderstorm in Hays, KS a few weeks ago when Ana lost a tooth on our trip, & she couldn’t make it to Grammie & Papa’s until the next night. & even then, she almost didn’t make it!