What a day!

I've had a very full day.

My husband left this morning to go to the cabin - he took all three dogs so that's nice to have the house to myself this evening. He forgot the camera so there will be no new cabin pics.

My receptionist gave me her two week resignation today. BUMMER! She is one of the best receptionists I have had - I will very much miss her. I immediately created a requisition for hire, it has to post for 5 days and then I'll get a list of qualified candidates. After interviewing I will select one, then have to wait an additional two weeks before they can start at our department. It means I will, again, be short-staffed for awhile. This is becoming a chronic problem. I can't seem to get caught up.

I was heading to church this evening when I got back-ended just after going through an intersection. The guy behind me, in an F150 pick up, was not going really fast but he didn't see the line of traffic stopped in front of him. I got stopped and looked in my rearview mirror and I could see I was going to get hit. I stomped my brake once (hoping he would see the flash of light) and then held it down. He hit me and my car bounced but I didn't hit the car in front of me. Thankfully! This all happened in about three seconds. It's the weirdest feeling to know you are going to get hit and just cringe and wait for it.

We both pulled over into a near parking lot and I insisted on waiting for the police. I wanted it on record that I didn't cause the accident. It looks like more than $500 damage to me - I don't estimate damage very well but my back bumper has a huge dent in it and my trunk is smashed up and has a crease along the top. I didn't try to open it, but I'm guessing that if I did, I wouldn't be able to shut it again.

The good news is that the young man who hit me was very nice and took full responsibility. He called the police and his insurance company within earshot of me and never once blamed it on me. He had two kids with him and the baby slept through the entire thing. His 5-year old was very chatty and told me, "you shouldn't have stopped in the middle of the road." I informed that nice young boy that I had to because the cars in front of me were stopped. He then told his dad, "you shouldn't have run into her car." His dad agreed. We had further conversation and I almost felt bad for him when the police showed up. He got a $150 ticket.

An hour after the accident I arrived at church just in time for the kids class. We only had 5 kids so it was an easy evening.

Here's another project I've been working on. One of my co-workers is retiring after 42 years with our department. Over the past several years I have presented some of the retiring staff with an original drawing or painting. I've had this idea in mind for some time and finally sketched it out on paper.

All winter long at work we have ravens trying to get into the garbage. In the summer it's seagulls. I plan to paint this in watercolor with a dark blue background behind the seagull that is also used in the raven's feathers. Then a pale yellow behind the raven with bright yellow on the seagull's feet. I may include a sun and moon but would rather depict winter/summer. I haven't quite figured out how to do that. I had thought about having a tree right in the center with bare branches on the raven side and fully leafed out on the seagull side. I'll have to play around with that a bit more before I decide. The ribbon going through the middle will be red with small lettering that is personal to the person retiring.

I'll show more of this design as I progress.