#EvacueeDiary VII In The Wind

Many of my neighbors now began an insurance company story, but I don't have one of those, my insurer performed to the letter of their contract within 6 weeks of the fire, and in February I had the first experience of missing a monthly visitor, the mortgage payment. That obligation had been discharged as my insurer discharged theirs. 

I drove out of Altadena in a Chevy HHR that gave me years of dedicated service without ever asking for anything but oil and gas. I was happy to drive to any school and park on the street without thinking about its security or if someone would hit and break my heart, but I didn't want to drive it anymore, it was always going to be the trip out of Altadena from now on, even if I had my favorite 2nd graders to guest teach. So, I began thinking and then searching for something I'd never had, a car bought using only my specifications. 

I let my mind race and I drove everything, and then I looked into what Hyundai was doing with its luxury models and Genesis label. I put the magnifying glass on the effort and liked what I saw, it was an S class Mercedes for 50K less, and had all the bells and whistles to make my tech mind swoon. I grabbed Sweetie and went down to Genesis of Pasadena looked around the showroom and liked what I saw. The units in there were sexy sleek and they looked unique, I liked them. I did not like the Black one they had in the showroom and I didn't want the G70 they also had, so the sales dude I had took me outside and showed me there G80's. She was right up front. Genesis does a good job with their paint schemes and she had a special grey paint job,so demure, finer than frog's hair. I took her for a drive, it was like she melted around me, and the first time I stepped on her twin turbo's I let off fast, I was going 60 before the sales dude's fear registered and he said whoa! I got back to the dealership and listened to the salesdude tell me about everything, but I was already sold, and I took her back to my Mom's house in LA and gave away the HHR on Facebook. 

Did you know that even after being married for 40 years, it's difficult to be be...married in your mom's house? After a disaster like Sweetie and I had just experienced, your desire to be married...increases, you want to be married like bunnies, I think something in the make up kicks into repopulate the earth mode after living through disaster and even though we're a bit past that age, the genes neither knew or cared, and since we had a new car we decided to use it, and here is where #evacueediary begins. It didn't begin in the fire, it begins now. 

Our first ride was to San Simeon, and then Laguna Beach, and then Carlsbad, and then back to Laguna Beach. Look I said bunnies right? and so it went through February and March until another reason I say my life is a continuous stream of miracles came to pass, my daughter had our 3rd grandson and now we had 3 ages 14, 12 and baby, and something started to form in my head I'd repeat many tines, to myself and to anyone who asked how I was after the fire, If God came to me and told me he would take all I owned and in return give me my new grandson I would feel guilty for defrauding God so quickly would I say deal, and that's exactly where I was. 

Sweetie and I then set our sights at Las Vegas for although we had taken 4 or 5 hops in our new car I had not had the chance to unleash her twin turbos or engage all of her modern drive by wire and by herself technology, so we went. She also had a name stick on her, and it still does, she is Moon Unit, or just Moon if you're nasty.

We had a ball in Vegas and since I'm writing this when we went to Speed Zone I smoked her and I extracted many favors from the victories I achieved in mini golf as we got a weekend pass. We went to the Sphere and other shows and were super married for the 3 nights we were there. 

On the way out of town as we headed for the 15 and back to Los Angeles sweetie said something like all we have is our go bags and they're with us, and I idly said hey why don't we go by the Grand Canyon, it's a fun drive and she answered, why not, it's not like we're not packed, so we went, and after another weekend this time filled with marriage and breathtaking beauty when Sweetie said all we got is our go bags before we even got in the car. 

When I got on the freeway, I pointed Moon east and let her turbos sing.

Welcome to the #EvacueeDiary.