Yay! Wheels at Last!

Courtesy of the tax refunds, we were able to get 2 running vehicles for the two households, allowing the poor old Toyota to get a valve repair and letting me sleep an extra hour or so on days when Imp... needs to be at work early. Large suckiness to have to drop her at 7, the boys at 7:30, and me not needing to be in until 3 or 4pm. 20 miles to go home for a few hours, and 20 miles back. Now the trips are the same in number for totals, but not all in one vehicle.

The new one for me is a 95 Mercury Tracer wagon, aquamarine green, with a rather adrogynous character. My musings on naming went thusly: Mercury=messenger of the gods. Hmmm, angel=messenger from God. Both the boys are named for Archangels. So my wagon is christened Ariel, who is associated with both water and air, so the color is appropriate. My sense of absurdity prompted me to pick up the official car mascot(every new car needs one) in the form of one of those fake stone carved boxes at Dollar Tree in the shape of an angel-this is now velcro mounted to the dash for small items like meter money. I also found a cute car magnet with a rainbow over clouds with a dove and "hope,faith,love" on it. HA! I can have my rainbow and NOT be a cop magnet (every vehicle I've driven here that sported a rainbow sticker tended to be stopped for having a taillight out, or other specious reasons frequently. Without the sticker, I've driven unmolested with burnt out bulbs for days until I had time to replace them). I'm also seriously thinking about "ARC-NGEL" as a personalized plate(that one's available). Snort.

The wonderous amusement of this week is that the boys's grandparents d'Imp... are visiting, so Imp... has Ariel for her use-being less contaminated by cat hairs. HER folks are from a Jewish tradition that hasn't been religious in generations. So not religious in fact that I was told to rewrite my naming ceremony for the eldest because there was too much God in it. I said to Imp... "It's a frickin' RELIGIOUS ceremony. I'm already stretching it thin being A)not Jewish, B)not a Rabbi or Moyel, and C)had already made it as general as I could and keep it at least a smidgen accurate." I caved. Of course, the Kodak moment came at dinner a few nights later when we were explaining why we had circumscised Implet and tried to conform to Jewish law/tradition as closely as possible-I stated that he might as an adult suddenly wish to practice his birth religion, and it was a lot better to be already circumscised than to trim it as an adult. Grandpa's reaction to the thought that his grandson might wish to be religious? "I should hope not!", said in a horrified voice.

Call me oversensitive, but as eclectic as I am, I am quite religious/spiritual and that comment offended me. I made sure my own(admittedly from a fringe church)ordination was actually proper and registered before I did the ceremony-it made a difference to ME, not in any practical sense. I am very respectful of anyone's belief in a Creator. I may find what they do with that belief abhorrant, but Pollyanna that I am, I think those who find belief in a higher power(from within, not from being indoctrinated)to generally be good folks. This was offensive especially coming from these great tolerant 1960's liberal academic types.

As Imp... puts it, I hold a grudge until it dies of old age, then have it stuffed and mounted. I needed to put a sticker showing a Disney Pooh on it to make my subtle digs complete with Ariel, though.(Grandma has a hatred for all things Pooh from Disney-hee). Ah, well, I think the MU has a new outfit for the visit with Pooh on it-chosen with malice aforethought by both of us.

Unfortunately, I must have a nice family dinner with them on the morrow. It will be pleasant(probably), though my other grudge-one Imp... shares-will be present. See, the Mu has Down Syndrome, and both grandparents were advocating aborting. Even with him being only about 6 months behind his peers(and with them or ahead in spots), and even with both grandparents loving him to death, they STILL think he should have been aborted. That's almost enough to make this pro-choicer a pro-lifer...well, not really. It just is really hard to deal with folks who believe your son should never have been born. It doesn't matter that of parents for him to choose, the two of us are maybe the best damn moms around when it comes to knowledge and experiance.(even grandma, with her degrees in chid development says this) Yeah, he probably should have picked moms with more $$$ while he was at it, but maybe none were available to give him what he needs. The child is tenacious in mastering skills, and is trying very hard to keep up with his brother, who is at times a shooting comet of competence, brilliance, and empathy. Of course, at other times he's just 6 and a handful. This is when I wonder if I'll let him live to be 7 :)