Insurance adjustors have come, taken photos, discussed options, and gone.
It's evidently at least, visible at first glance, fourteen hundred dollars of damage.
To a '94 Nissan Maxima.

...

With like 300,000 miles on it.

...

Right! So fixing it is just kinda out of the question, since I can't imagine someone paying us that much for it two weeks ago before the accident, even with the brakes and tires just replaced.
So, alas. Poor dark-grey car, beautiful little sanctuary from cold and rain and snow and long waits at the bus stop in same, I shall miss that noise you made when we didn't turn left, I shall miss the expressions on Julian's face as your gearshift slipped a little on the highway, I shall miss the mysterious wet spot that came and went in the back seat and the rampant uncheckable growth of mildew in the trunk. I shall miss the way that you would randomly mist the windshield when we hit twenty miles an hour, unless the windows were down or the heater was blowing waves of cold air all over my shivery knees. I shall miss how the seat sagged. I shall miss the way that sometimes the seatbelt would spring out as I was slamming the door, tangle in the closing mechanism, and rebound the door right into me.
But really...for all of that, I loved you dear, you sweet little thing.
And that old woman?
The one in the Buick, with the single popped-out headlamp? The one who screamed we'd ruined her car, and wouldn't get out to assess the damage, and tried to get Julian to not chase after the pedestrians who'd seen her go sailing into the opposite lane and then come around and smack into us? The old woman who lied to her insurance people? The old woman who kept closing her door every time Julian tried to get her insurance information?

One night, while she is sleeping. Justice.


In other news, there is no other news. Things are actually proceeding apace, though--looks as though Julian and I will be flying to England early next year, packing Dan up and moving him here. Joy! 'twill be a complicated move, but still. Having a timeframe for it is a beauteous thing.

Novel is also proceeding apace, and it feels GOOD to be writing the damnable thing at last, after plotting for the last ten months. There are still plot problems, but hopefully a lot of those will work themselves out as it's written.

Also, there is some amusing talk about getting some folks together to road-trip to Utah when my biological father gets married. Everyone should visit Utah once, like prison. It'd be me, and Dan, and Julian, and Soren, and maybe a couple other people who theoretically should spontaneously combust upon passing the state line into the Holy Land.

(Holy Land...hee. Did you know that in that bit of Jesus-drek that Anne Rice has just put out, Jesus' relatives refer to their homeland as the Holy Land? And here, stupid me, all this time I thought it was called that as reference to it being the birthplace of Christianity?)

And. What else have I been reading? Paged through some teen novels--"Teach Me" looks vicious(sleep with those teachers, kids!)and "Wizards at War" was wonderful. Not that ALL the "So You Want to be a Wizard" series aren't wonderful. Beautiful antidote to Potter's silliness. I enjoy those books, but I like the fandom more. And the Potter books will never make you a better person.
Read Pirates! In An Adventure with Whaling! Did I mention this? Funny.
Read "Anvil of the World," by Kage Baker. Am now reading that one aloud before sleeping. Wonderful Lord Ermenwyr.
Read "Identity Crisis," even though I've never been hugely into superhero comics. They generally seem too shallow, and compared to the rest of the stuff I tend to read they really are, but that one was an awful lot of fun regardless.
Read "Glass Dragons" and "Voyage of the Shadowmoon." Damn, but those were really dumb. A step up from Dragonlance; A step down from "Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell." Or possibly two steps down. Or a flight of steps. Interesting ideas here and there, but on the whole the characters were all abominable, and why the hell was the vampire-zombie-boy French? On a world that had nothing to do with Earth? Too much in too small a space.

Read. Um. I tend to pick up a lot, so I forget--Oh, I know! Last night I was working a closing shift, and cashiering, so there were hours with nothing at all to do. I read "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe," through in about half an hour, and was surprised at its brevity--the last time I read it was probably ten years ago and I read slower then. I'm looking forward to the movie, but only for Tilda Swinton, who is the Queen of Love and Beauty, or possibly the King.
(I really think that there should be filmed a biopic of David Bowie, with her playing him. She could do it easily.)
Anyway, I'm really only rereading the Narnia books so I can tear them to pieces. I am looking for understanding. I never forgave Lewis for his horrible treatment of Susan--women in general, really, but Susan in particular--and his intimation that you have to live in a dreamworld to find Heaven. Susan tried to find peace and happiness in the world that she was born to, and for that, she lost everything she loved? Stupid! Painful. Not teaching good lessons to the little ones who read the books. Irritating.
(and Aslan's sacrifice always seemed terribly self-serving. He didn't warn the poor children, but he knew exactly what was going to happen after he died for a little bit. He did not tell them to take heart, just let them think that he would be totally destroyed. But then, he seems to like to see things cry.)

Anyway, it is growing dark, and cold, and the rain has stopped for some little while. I am going to bus into work, and get my Kate Bush CD. (Yay, Kate Bush! Let us see just how evocative a reading of the digits of Pi can actually be, shall we?)
I was working last night, but the Strict-On-Sale date was today, so even though it was sitting there with my name on it, I wasn't allowed to purchase it. Alas!

Later.