Life: Idiotropic

What I didn't remember in yesterday's post was that I did actually make it out of the house on Saturday. Not a huge deal, really, except that it turned into something strange. We went to get Luci's new glasses, parked, walked there, the glasses weren't ready, so come back Monday? Ok. We thought we'd go for a quick coffee before heading home - an outing not completely wasted. As we neared our truck, we saw a BMW parked diagonally in the street. I looked closer. It was actually touching the red car parked across the street. Kirk unlocked the doors, Luci started to climb in the car, the BMW began to move. It appeared that the old man driving it was trying to park in the spot between us and the car in front of us. There was plenty of space. Lots of space enough for 2-3' clearance on either end.

I stood there and watched as he backed away from the red car in front and across the street from us and backed right into Kirk's truck. He didn't stop, flinch, or make any motions of acknowledgement, even as Kirk walked up to his car and said, "Hey, you hit my car!"

Nope, this man kept trying to park. He hit the car in front of us, hit us again, then repeatedly hit the car in front of us over and over again. Backing up, pulling forward a bit too far. We called the police and watched and waited. A man came over after a while who seemed to know the old man and tried to help him park pushing the car this way and that. Even with help, the old man hit the car in front of us, but the man helping didn't seem to care. To us, it seemed very strange.

But then, here we are in Spain. Things are so very different here. More mellow. More laid back. And car insurance is different too. With us, we get upset. We want our cars to stay nice and ever little ding costs us $$$ in deductibles and rising premiums if we opt to get it fixed. This situation in the states would have been dramatically different. To them, it's "no pasa nada." Not a big deal, nothing happened. Just a dent, no one hurt. And... by the way, their insurance company will pay for the entire car to get completely repaired dings, dents, and all not every three years as I thought, but every year according to the police! If my insurance told me to take my car in every year to get fixed, oh how different I would feel. No ding, dent, or scrape would matter!

The police arrived. They were mellow too. I told them what happened. They took a report, and got the insurance information. Friendly and helpful. It was a great police experience. I know know what will happen now with the old man - if he'll be allowed to drive or not. I hope not... really, we were all lucky that there weren't pedestrians around. He didn't seem to lucid. But... can't complain. No injuries. Just dents and a missed cup of coffee. I guess they're right - no pasa nada.

Which is kind of a funny lead in to today's holiday and the reason that this weekend stretched into 4 days - the Day of the Immaculate Conception. That was today. Strange for me to think of those terms with Christmas, and not something I'd think to celebrate, but hey - it's a day off of work/school for us! Not feeling 100%, we stayed home mostly today, but I did drive over the mountain behind our house with the not quite so little girls and we took a hike. They loved it. My Luci - once Luci Molasses - is now Luci the Mountain Goat. A climber who runs ahead and loves hiking. It's beautiful back there and the trails stretch for miles. We'll do this often. We saw large groups of walkers today as we ventured out. Wasn't sure how to celebrate a holiday like this, but I guess we did ok. Seems to be the thing to do on a beautiful sunny warm day.