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The Universe Plans These Things, You Know
assembled @ 8:53 a.m. on 2005-02-06

Due to all the clamoring�ok, so one person asked--here�s what I meant by �car accident�. Two weeks ago today, I was on my way to church. This was the morning after a lot of snow, but I didn�t seem to be having any problem. A guy in front of me on the expressway did, however, spinning out of control. I hit my AB brakes, and came within six inches of hitting him, miraculously not sliding at all.

Being a nice person, I pulled over to the right, put my hazards on, and got out my passenger side to see if the guy was okay. As I got out, he was driving away, so I got back in the car. As I was sliding back into my driver�s seat, �making a bridge� across the two seats, as Pearl likes to say, WHAM! Another driver had spun out, and his back end hit mine. My taillight is busted, the fender and bumper crunched in a bit, but luckily no one was hurt. I had a small bruise on my hip, but when I think about what could have happened had I not been back inside the van yet, I realize I am incredibly lucky. So it (hardly) bothers me that we had to wait over an hour and a half for the police, and when I went to church the next week, I found out they had cancelled service anyway, but hadn�t had my number to reach me and let me know.

Le sigh.

On top of that little adventure, the next day I called a veterinarian, since the right side of Anna�s face was swollen, and had been for a few days. Anna is our foster cat, truly belonging to Maverick. We�ve been taking care of her for about 5 years now. Mav is more broke than we are, so I figured I would just take Anna to the vet and get her looked at. Mav knew I was taking her, but I wasn�t going to ask him for any money.

I thought it would be a little thing, but it turned out that she had a horrible infection in her gums, and the bones under her sinuses were starting to break down. That could be cancer, we still aren�t sure. But we needed to get the infection cleared up; meaning surgery to remove the teeth and clean her up, or Anna would obviously die.

So.

Option A: I call my broke friend and say, �Hey, your cat will die unless you spend lots of money you don�t have!� Forcing him to have her put to sleep (and me to have to attend that), because there�s no way he can pay for anything else.

Option B: I have her put to sleep, because we really can�t spend a ton of money on surgery either. And I say this without talking to her owner first, and also it just seems wrong to me. Let the cat die because I don�t want to spend the money? Ick.

Option C (and the one I chose): Say, �If she needs it to live, then we have to,� and just pray it�s not too much.

Let�s just say it was a lot. We can still make our house payment, but money will be really, really scarce for a bit. And I really don�t want this to cause resentment between Hero and I, and Mav. Normally, it wouldn�t, it�s just generosity between friends. Family, really. But now all the breathing room we had worked into our budget is gone again, and things are so tight we can hardly breathe. And Mav keeps talking about getting his old car up and running. I shouldn�t be annoyed, I really shouldn�t. That�s not being a good friend. That car is a symbol to him of all that�s not working in his life, and he feels if he could just get that working, then everything else would fall into place. I don�t know how to say, �Could you please give us money?� without sounding like a greedy, selfish unfriend.

Le big sigh.

--N

then || now