Leissl and I are entered in the first ever Tequesta Rally Trial in West Palm Beach this weekend in Rally Adv A.

Click for Saturday’s judging program.

Click for Sunday’s judging program.

As (bad) luck would have it, I happened to crash the front end of my truck on Friday. 

This is not something that has ever happened to me before, so probably, I’m still in denial.  So much so, that I have been parking it at the body shop – yes, it’s still drivable – and walking to and from work – so no one among the gossip channels gets a whiff of what happened.  I’m thankful it hasn’t been raining.  I don’t have rental insurance, so until the body shop says, “Today is the day we are going to work on yours,” I’m not starting a rental agreement.  This could take two weeks.

Oh, and this is what was at the opposing end of the crash.  I hate these things.  They’re like cages on wheels.  You can see right through them.  The man has a landscaping business and told me two of his workers got hit recently, too.  That’s three incidents.

<sigh>

So I have reserved the cheapest vehicle I can find, which is an Aveo, whatever that is.  I know it doesn’t have cruise control, which is really going to hurt my drive up to WPB this weekend.  My leg doesn’t like to hold one position for long.  Yikes!

My airbag didn’t deploy.  Or from what I hear, explode.  So no bloody nose or other injuries from the thing.   I did have a very sore neck and had trouble getting up after bending over for a day or two, and the left elbow had these really interesting sharp pains come and go.  But I seem to be in the clear now.

One thing that this brings me to is Peggy Lee’s song, Is That All There Is?  I could never understand the point she was coming from.  It seemed like such a flippant string of lyrics.  But as I faced this trailer knowing I was going to hit it, what happened was, well, what happened.  There wasn’t that life flashing before my eyes that I’d expected.  Maybe that’s because it wasn’t necessary because, luckily, I’m still here.  There were no screaming people, or obnoxious police.  Everything just happened to a lesser extent that I could have imagined.  And I think that’s the gist of it.  That’s all there is.  Life happens as it happens and not as we imagine it will happen.  We so like to enlarge reality or create a reality in our heads that never manifests.  Maybe that’s it.  Maybe.

The truck wreck happened, and now I have to go through this process of managing while the truck is being fixed, of waiting to see if the insurance premium is going to increase, and all that other extracurricular stuff while I  live my routine  life.  The dog show I’ve been looking forward to, reading a special edition of Clean Run, making dinners for the dogs and me, practicing agility and rally.  And while I’m at it, figuring out if I can repair the dryer that just stopped heating or considering the option of buying a new used one.  All that stuff is still there, and in order to live life and hopefully, enjoy it, I can’t let the sludge overwhelm me.   Not at this point, because living moment-to-moment, that’s all there is.

IS THAT ALL THERE IS?
Peggy Lee

SPOKEN:
I remember when I was a very little girl, our house caught on fire.
I’ll never forget the look on my father’s face as he gathered me up
in his arms and raced through the burning building out to the pavement.
I stood there shivering in my pajamas and watched the whole world go up in flames.
And when it was all over I said to myself, “Is that all there is to a fire”

SUNG:
Is that all there is, is that all there is
If that’s all there is my friends, then let’s keep dancing
Let’s break out the booze and have a ball
If that’s all there is

SPOKEN:
And when I was 12 years old, my father took me to a circus, the greatest show on earth.
There were clowns and elephants and dancing bears.
And a beautiful lady in pink tights flew high above our heads.
And so I sat there watching the marvelous spectacle.
I had the feeling that something was missing.
I don’t know what, but when it was over,
I said to myself, “is that all there is to a circus?

SUNG:
Is that all there is, is that all there is
If that’s all there is my friends, then let’s keep dancing
Let’s break out the booze and have a ball
If that’s all there is

SPOKEN:
Then I fell in love, head over heels in love, with the most wonderful boy in the world.
We would take long walks by the river or just sit for hours gazing into each other’s eyes.
We were so very much in love.
Then one day he went away and I thought I’d die, but I didn’t,
and when I didn’t I said to myself, “is that all there is to love?”

SUNG:
Is that all there is, is that all there is
If that’s all there is my friends, then let’s keep dancing

SPOKEN:
I know what you must be saying to yourselves,
if that’s the way she feels about it why doesn’t she just end it all?
Oh, no, not me. I’m in no hurry for that final disappointment,
for I know just as well as I’m standing here talking to you,
when that final moment comes and I’m breathing my lst breath, I’ll be saying to myself

SUNG:
Is that all there is, is that all there is
If that’s all there is my friends, then let’s keep dancing
Let’s break out the booze and have a ball
If that’s all there is