Nightmare After Christmas
Monday December 31, 2007 | 2 comments
The title of this post might be slightly overdramatic because it really wasn’t that bad. Christmas was wonderful—we spent it with our pastor’s family and then hung out with my co-worker, her husband, and their two adorable girls who had a hard time falling asleep after all the Christmas day excitement. It was great to be with friends, although I still missed our families a lot.
The day after Christmas is when the big mess started and seemed to go for days. I wanted to hit after-Christmas sales and Nathan was nice enough to drive me through mad traffic. We took my car and I can’t even remember why we took it, but we did. I am not sure it was the smartest move on our part.
It seems the entirety of Earth’s population showed up at our mall for after-Christmas specials. All six billion people. With hungry, cranky, crying babies. But that’s another post. At a four-way stop sign Nathan waited his turn and then turned left. A truck across from us also turned right, at the same time. As you can imagine, that wasn’t the best situation—two cars turning into the same lane at the same time.
Thankfully, no one got physically hurt, although psychological damage from this incident might take years to resolve. It just so happened that the bearded man in the F-150 truck behind us thought the world revolved around him and his beloved truck, so he mistook Nathan’s obedience to traffic laws for a personal insult on the very core of his manhood.
The man followed us through several parking lots and circled around our car after we parked it. When we exited and started walking to the store, he rolled down his window and screamed words that I have heard before, but NEVER in reference to myself, my husband, or my car. Those were some pretty mean, nasty words.
I realize road rage is a real problem in a huge city with intense traffic, but knowing about it and finding yourself in the middle of it are two very different things. I am still recovering from this yelling incident and I think I might be experiencing a slight case of PTSD. Police were called though, so hopefully the bearded man and his truck will stay away from my car.
The next day I had the bright idea of vising a local DMV to switch our license to Texas ones or, become legal, as they say. Usually you are given 10 days for a change of address on your driver’s license. Nathan and I took only slightly longer. I thought this would be a breeze, but I didn’t take into account that we live in Texas, the most backwards state ever.
For one, DMV is located in a little tiny strip mall. It is not designed to handle 500 people, all of whom showed up to renew their license that day. To get a number in line you had to stand in line for an hour. After that, since there was no seating or standing room, we had to figure out where to spend the next four hours until our number was called. After our number was called, we stood in line some more only to receive a little piece of paper as a temporary driver’s license.
For being an oil state Texas sure doesn’t have much to show for it. I am a veteran driver’s license renew-er. I’ve done it in Virginia, Kentucky and Idaho. There is always a whole building dedicated to driver’s license only AND you always walk away with your new license. ALWAYS. Well, Texas is real different in this regard and I must say I was disappointed—I am just not sure where all the tax money is going. The people are not seeing it, that’s for sure.
On top of the DMV fiasco, my 4-year-old new car didn’t pass inspection due to an exhaust leak. I, of course, had no idea that something so simple-sounding could cost an arm and a leg and then some. I’m still pretty hurt about that. So, after three days of dealing with car trouble in one form or another, we have been staying in as much as possible, avoiding the outside world and all the responsibilities that come with it. We’ll see how long that will last.
{ Speak Your Mind }
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Dear Olga and Nathan,
I found your website serendipitously….. I was actually trying to find the meaning of the Scandinavian name Helga.
A friend’s son returning from service in Irag had some money burning a hole in his pocket and he bought a Saab which he promptly named, Helga. ( Leaving his mother somewhat confused as to why a grown man would name an
auto at all, much less, Helga)
My wife and I are also believers. We pastor a church in Chippewa Falls, WI. Friends of ours are serving as missionaries in Hungary and Lithuania.
I enjoyed your piece on Christmas shopping/ road rage.
God’s best to you both !!
Scott and Kathy
Sorry about your hectic day and car problems! That can be pretty stressful.
I can relate to feeling the sting of others’ road rage… about 3 months ago I felt really convicted by God that my speeding habit (I’ve always gone 5-10 over the limit since ‘95 when I started driving) was sin. I realized, if I call myself a disciple of Christ, but this area of my life I treat hands-off to the Holy Spirit, I’m sinning. It was a pretty radical epiphany and transformation. Well, for the last 3 months driving has been reeeally hard for me. I have 3 kids, one on the way, and yes, I drive a minivan. That makes it worse. I have had 3 specific instances of drivers literally hugging my bumper and flashing lights, revving engines. It has been pretty stressful. Each time I prayed and asked God to help me obey what I believe He has called me to do.
It’s amazing now that I’m on the other side of the fence on this issue how I see that people are so easily ticked off, like you’re supposed to speed or something. It’s crazy. I just pray I don’t get rear-ended or worse someday. I’d rather die as a real martyr, you know!?? ha!
:)