The Joy of 2007

This has been a Joyful year for me and My First Wife. We saw many Joyful moments and blogged about them. Unfortunately, there were a few sad moments, which we mentioned, too. Along the way, I wrote and posted five pieces of short fiction.

So to thank everyone for stopping by my blog this year, I compiled the ten blogs that received the most comments. I’m going to replay them this month. I’ll include two short stories, too, because I love to write and am not ashamed to enjoy what flows out of my pen.

So check in and reread some of your favorites from Pancake Flats. Can you guess Number One? It was my favorite, too. Stay tuned.

Bonus: I have a couple of Christmas posts in the back of my mind.

Well, let’s get busy! Number 10, from May 2.

The Joy of Rude Interruptions

…well as I was saying, something went wrong with the A/C on our car last fall. When we turned it on, terribly hot air came screaming out. We had it checked out at one of those places that was having a “winterizing” sale. They said that for the low, low price of just $680 we could have it fixed in no time at all.

Well, for $680 we decided to wait till Spring. At that time, we’d pick a $680 bill off our money tree to pay for it. In the meantime, we got a second opinion from our regular mechanic. He’s been real good and helpful to us over the years. He quoted about the same price, but promised us a loaner car, too.

Well, it’s spring and, while our money tree hasn’t blossomed much, I let My First Wife take the car to our mechanic. He called about four hours later.

“Mr. Nichols, for just $1,200 I can la-da-da dealership la-da-da-da order part la-da-da…”

“What?!” I belched. “You said six-hun…”

“Or,” he rudely interrupted, “we’ve got a car like yours that we’re parting out and I can just switch out what you need.”

“How much?” I winced suspiciously and quietly.

“Fifty-one dollars.”

“!!!”

“And…” he rudely continued, “we’ve already done the work, so your car is ready to go.”

Hey, who needs a money tree when you’ve got an honest mechanic?

God bless him.