The Hubners And The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Year

There are days when I just want to yell at the universe, “Give me a break!” A series of events take place that snowball into a dumpster fire of epic proportions, leaving you to put out that dumpster fire before your life is overtaken by burning trash. That’s sort of how I feel about the year 2024 as a whole.

I feel that dealing with our daughter’s school/work/life struggles were a big chunk of 2024, and also the last quarter of 2023. I’m not blaming her in the least, but when she’s struggling I’m struggling. And there was a hell of a lot of struggling. By mid-summer this year she seemed to have righted the plane and while not blue skies and zero turbulence all the way, what turbulence there is it feels like just the natural flow of life.

Of course the biggest fumble in 2024 was my wife and I’s Colorado trip. Financially, I think I would have been better off just burning the money we spent in the backyard. I’m not sure if it was Colorado or if it was just me, but I felt I was in this constant state of panic and worry. Even on the night we decided to hit a dispo for some of that “Rocky Mountain High”, I indulged too much and ended in an anxiety spiral(what pulled me out? Watching 2 hours of Brooklyn Nine-Nine.) And of course the whole time I was there I was worrying about our dog Otto being thousands of miles away from us. Wondering how he was and if he was freaking out the whole time.

And that led up to last week when we had to say goodbye to our Mr. Pooch McGooch. That was an absolute gut punch, mixed with the feeling that someone tore my heart clean from my chest and stomped on it. We knew that it was coming, and the weekend before clinched the deal. I knew his heart was struggling, and he wasn’t comfortable anymore. It does get a little easier everyday. Just a little, though.

So I thought that maybe after that massive blow to our family and our hearts that we could possibly coast for the remainder of this rather shite year, and into 2025 for hopefully a much better year. Here’s where I yell up into the universe, “Give me a break!” Wednesday night I got a call from my wife who was supposed to be grabbing some ice cream and heading home after work. First words out of her mouth were “So don’t panic, we’re fine!”

That’s always a good way to start a conversation.

My daughter was on her way home Wednesday night from work with her pooch Celeste. The temps dropped drastically in the course of a half hour and these weird snow squalls started popping up. She had little visibility and was driving on a sheet of ice. As she made her way out of town, out of the blue she sees a car sitting sideways across the highway, no lights on or anything. She immediately turns her car to avoid t-boning it and clips the front left part of the car with her back right end of her 2014 Honda Civic. She spins three or four times doing 360s and ends up on the left side of the highway in the median. Her and Celeste weren’t hurt, just freaked out.

Fortunately my wife was still in town and our daughter’s phone had enough juice to call someone so my wife got there quick. She said besides the car that was sitting in the middle of the road, there was another car on the opposite side of the highway and a work van in the ditch. It appears my daughter came up on some sort of accident that had just happened. And for some stupid reason the driver in the car that was blocking the road had none of their lights on, making it nearly impossible for our kiddo to see it until she was close enough she could see the reflection of her headlights on the car itself.

Her and Celeste stayed the night Wednesday night, and her car was towed to a local body shop. After talking to the mechanic there – as well as our insurance company and adjuster – my wife said she thinks the car will be totaled. Tons of damage to the back right door, as well as the wheel itself getting bent makes the repairs probably over half of what the car is worth. It’s a shame as this has been her car for the last 5 years, and she’s taken good care of it.

2014 Honda Civic, we hardly knew ye.

So now we have to wait until insurance goes through the process of running everything through the other guy’s insurance and see what kind of money we’re going to get for this mess. Until then, our daughter is driving my wife’s Ford Flex and my wife is picking up a rental from Enterprise at some point today for us to drive. Our insurance covers the rental(sans the $50 deposit), so at least everyone still has a car to drive. I’m sure the money we get will not get us a car as nice as what we’ve had for the past 5 years, but whatcha going to do? Hoping our insurance plays hardball with this other guy’s insurance and gets us money for the car, inconveniences, and mental and emotional distress.

Despite all of this, something really nice did happen last night. Our son’s girlfriend gave us an early Christmas gift from her mom. It was a lovely card and this clear glass cube with an image of our boy Otto in it. I would have thought that it would make me sad, but my wife and I were so happy to see him in his prime. His full beard, the dark eyes, and fluffy hair as if he’d just gotten out of some photo shoot. It was how I wanted to remember him, not as the withered and tired old man we had to give some peace to last week. After a series shit sandwiches and kicks to the head we’ve received this year, I’m hoping that beautiful gift is the slice of contentment we’ve needed for some time.

I’m hoping this is the last bit of whining I share for the remainder of what’s left of 2024. It’s Friday, so that’s always a good thing. One more full week of work, then I work the 23rd and I’m done until January 2nd. Gonna keep my head low until then. 2024 may be in its golden years and becoming an old, withered year at this point. But I don’t trust it. If I let my guard down it may knock me on my ass one more time. Like Lucy pulling that football away at the last minute, send old Charlie Brown flying down on his ass.

Happy Friday.