Merry Effing Christmas

Here we are at the cottage for Christmas. We arrived Monday night to find that the driveway had not yet been plowed, but the snow was soft and fluffy and we powered through it. However, the tree that had fallen across the driveway brought us to a quick stop. But Greg raced to the shop, and brought the chain saw out, and cut it into manageable pieces and we were able to continue in. There was about 15” of snow up here.

Tuesday we ventured into Renfrew for some last minute shopping. As soon as we started out, things were strange in the truck. First, the ‘Service air bag” warning was displayed. In 5 vehicles with air bags, we have never seen this warning before. By the time we got to Griffith, things had gotten much worse. The dash electronics had gone goofy. All indicators and gauges were out, but every couple of minutes, the dash would come back to life and I would know my speed and the radio would come back to life. The heater and wipers were working. I stopped, and Greg got out to check that the lights were working, and they all seemed alright, so we continued into town to the GMC dealer. When I arrived at the dealer, we realized it had not recorded any mileage from the cottage to Renfrew.

At the dealership, they witnessed the strange behaviour of the truck. At one point, after we turned it off, they could not even start it. After watching the gauges come to life, I was able to start it. They took it into the shop and hour later, they reported they could not get it to screw up again. It did not report any error codes from the incident. It seemed OK the rest of the day. We finished our shopping and headed home. The truck was fine all the way home.

After supper Greg and Kyle got the tree and decorations down from the attic.

This morning 2/3 of the tree went up along with some garlands and a few Christmas kick knacks are also set up. While the tree is mostly decorated, I am leaving the box of tree stuff out in case Mandy wants to put some more on.

Mandy and her boyfriend were going to be up today as he does not have to go back to work until Boxing Day. But she called at supper time to tell me it was too late and she still did not have her laundry done, so they are going to come up until tomorrow (Christmas Day). At this point I will believe it when I actually see her. I guess that I should put the rest of the tree decorations away; I don’t see her doing much to the tree tomorrow.

Right now I feel pretty shitty about Christmas. This is the 3rd year that Christmas Eve has been fucked up. I have decided that next year either we go away for Christmas, or if we stay home (or here at the cottage), someone else can do all the work, all the shopping, wrapping, decorating and cooking all the bloody meals. At this point I have had just about enough of this merriment. Merry effing Christmas