A good alternative career for me would be car sales.  Just now I sold our grey van without breaking a sweat.  I sealed the deal with a nice man, then phoned Denis at work.  I asked him for how much he thought we should list the van.  He said, “I dunno, maybe $5,000, but we’d never get that for it.”

He then added gloomily, “On a lot, you’d only get $2,000 for it on a trade-in.”  I said, “Would you take $4300 cash?”  When he said he would, I said, “Well, I’ve already sold it!”

Ain’t life grand for Denis?  It’s his van, and I listed, showed and sold it, and all he had to do was clean it out.  I think it’s wonderful that his life is filled with surprises like that.

We had a 1966 Chev Impala that I smartly sold a few years ago for $6900.  Same scenario.  Denis, long-faced, said some co-worker had offered him $5000 for it.  I laughed and said, “Watch this.”  I listed it on a classic car site and a nice man from Tacoma flew up, bought it, and drove it home.  Unfortunately, it was winter, and when he e mailed me later he said the Snohomish Pass with summer tires was quite the experience.

Now I’m on the look-out for an older Honda of any make.  I had a 1982 Honda Prelude from when it was new until 2005.  I still see it being driven around by the people who bought it.  You simply cannot kill a Honda.

Wild unpredictability is what it’s always like here at 3321 Hall Road.  Two weeks ago I thought I was going to try and live within my means, and here I am, shopping for a car!  Not that I need more shopping after the weekend I just had.  It wasn’t my fault, though, as I needed it as a sedative for my nerves.

On Friday morning Luke woke up and said he had a terrible pain in his lower right abdomen.  I told him it was probably appendicitis, and when the pain continued to get worse I drove him to emergency.  It’s funny, but our car practically steers itself there.  Kelowna General Hospital Emergency ward, here we come again!

Sure enough, it was appendicitis, and Luke had an appendectomy on Friday evening.  I guess because that caused some sort of nervous prostration I found myself cruising the aisles of my favourite clothing stores all weekend.

I ended up with two pairs of pants, three tops and a pair of sandals.  Tomorrow Nicky and I leave on our two-week trip to Germany, so I decided that I simply needed some new clothes.  While packing, I’ve hidden my suitcase from the dogs by putting it out in the sunroom and running back and forth.  They get really upset when they see it so I try to protect them from all that stress.

Nicky and I are flying from Kelowna to Vancouver, Vancouver to Amsterdam, and finally Amsterdam to Stuttgart.  The whole sojourn begins tomorrow afternoon around 3:00 PM and ends at 5:00 PM their time on Saturday!  I will be feeling very, very sick by then, I can assure you.  However, as I want the schnitzel, spaetzle, strudel and riesling, I have to be willing to suffer.