Bumpity, bump, bump!
3:30 p.m.
A very interesting thing has happened. A couple of weeks ago I noticed that the plastic front bumper of our Subaru Outback was dented on the passenger side, possibly from driving into a snowbank. In my version of events, I informed my husband of it, who duly noted it and said we should talk to the dealership guys about it when we got the oil changed. At that appointment they gave me an estimate of how much it would cost to repair it, which seemed a little steep to me, but they were concerned that the paint would chip and have to be touched up.
When we bought this car in December 2002, we also bought extra insurance for it from the dealership which pays for our deductible in the event we have a claim. This has already paid for itself when we had to replace the windshield after it got cracked from a wayward stone on the highway. Hubby wanted me to call the responsable to see if this repair would be covered in the same way. He wanted me to call today, and I informed him that I was going to the studio and would not call the dealership until I was ready. After all, the dent wasn�t going anywhere and the estimate wouldn�t change.
Then we got into an argument. He complained that he has to �do everything around here� and I said that it was just a couple of days, blah blah blah. Then he told me that the fender got dented when he made his last trip to Toronto for the CD launch and he informed me about it on his return. At this point, we really got into a yelling match, because I have no recollection of his version, and he has no recollection of mine. It�s like we come from alternate realities and somehow landed in the same kitchen and have experienced totally different events. So weird!
Then, I drove the Subaru to the university this morning, and I ended up parking just outside the sculpture studio behind the cars of other fine arts professors. As I was carrying my clay and tools into the building, I took another look at the fender, and decided that I really am going crazy. There was no dent. Zippo. Nada. I met the woodshop technician inside and asked him to take a look. He told me that in the cold weather the dent probably gets �set�, but as soon as it warms up, the plastic returns to its proper shape. Which is why they make bumpers out of plastic these days. He assured me that I am not crazy. Hah! Easy for him to say!
The seminars in goddess class today were about Ceres and Wicca. Ceres was your Roman grain goddess (from whose name we get �cereal�) and really was a contemporary manifestation of the Great Mother. Wicca is a less-noxious name for what people commonly call �witchcraft�, and is probably the least understood and most derided religion of our time. Modern practitioners are attempting to regain knowledge and traditions lost due to the zealous eradication of everything that had to do with women�s knowledge and lore by the witchfinders of the middle ages. It is estimated that more than 9,000,000 women were burned or hanged or drowned or crushed to death over a 300-year period in Europe, and America when the frenzy reached the new world. Remember the Salem witch trials? Such an incredible waste, and all because of fear and prejudice. Even today Wicca is severly misunderstood and reviled by Christians as witchcraft and devil worship, when it is a peaceful religion whose aim is to live in harmony with the natural world and find the �divine� in all living things. I think it sounds just peachy.
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