Weekend Assignment #246: Surprise!

As Karen says in her post, it's been a wacky year with not much in the way of good news. So, we are supposed to relay some surprising good things that happened to us this year.


Weekend Assignment #246: A strange and sometimes difficult year is drawing to a close. Tell us about something that happened this year that was a pleasant surprise for you personally.

This has not been a year full of good news for our country, or the world. First, gas prices skyrocketed, followed by the real estate stall, then collapse, followed by the country and global economies tanking. Many, many people have lost their jobs this year, and next year won't start out much better. But, it's Christmas time; a time of good cheer. I can come up with some pleasant surprises.

I have a few, nothing really special. One has to do with our older car. The car is about eight years old now, and fast approaching the 100,000 mile mark. Well, now that Jenn has a job four miles from home, that magic number may take a little longer to reach. We have had the magical 'check engine' light on many times over the last year. As you may know, when the car has to be tested for emissions it will fail if that light is on. Sure enough it did. So we took the car in to get the situation taken care of -- several times. I blame the place that we took the car to. We always bring the car where we bought it because they give us a car to use while it is being fixed but, as I mentioned, Jenn changed jobs and is no longer near that dealership. So we took it to the one up the street. They just don't seem to try as hard since we didn't buy it there. At least that is what I think.

Anyway, we were getting to crunch time. We needed to renew the license on the car but we had to pass the test first. So, I made an appointment with the place were we bought the car and took the hour drive out there. They worked on it for a while and were pretty sure they isolated the problem to a short in the A/C fan and fixed it. Then, to top it off, they went and took the car to get the emissions tested for us. I thought that was really nice! It saved me a trip, and they made sure it passed. Sure, the little light comes on every once in a while again, just to say 'hi' I think, but we are good for another two years on the emissions test. Maybe we'll dump it by then. We'll see.

The other pleasant surprise happened tonight. At the kid's school my daughter's class sang and told stories during the Advent service. It was a nice surprise to see our daughter sing and be happy up there. When she was at her old school she hated doing these things. She would usually cry and/or not sing. This time she was happy to be up there. I think she might have hurt her wrist waving to us.

Extra Credit: Are you looking forward to the new year?

Yes, we have a couple of trips planned, which is a huge thing for us. Let's just hope the economy holds together enough for us to go. We already have deposits down!


So, any surprises that you want to share? Or, things you are looking forward to next year?