If a tree falls on my car and no one’s around to hear it…

“A tree fell on my car. A TREE fell ON my CAR! A TREE FELL ON MY CAR!!!”
There, now you know what it was like to hang out with me last night. I just kept repeating “A tree fell on my car,” over and over. I’m wildly entertaining like that, you know.
So, it’s not so much of an interesting or exciting story. (Other than the part where a TREE falls ON my CAR.) See, I was supposed to pick up Adam at his house last night because he was going to come over to assemble some new drawers for me. (He still came over — just took the metro. My drawers fit perfectly into the spot right next to the radiator… fractions of an inch to spare on either side.) Anyway, when my car is parked within view of my place or my walk home, I tend to throw a glance over to make sure it’s still there. I stayed at Adam’s place on Tuesday night, and last I’d looked Tuesday evening, my car was just dandy. Yesterday, I’m walking home from the metro, glance over to check out my car, and… (all together now) A TREE FELL ON MY CAR! Or, had fallen, I guess… I didn’t see it fall when I looked over. Yeah, anyway…. So, I walked over to my car, somewhat in disbelief, stepped through the tree-rubble everywhere, and lifted the giant limb from the hood/roof.
Oh, I should pause here to describe the tree. It’s not like a giant tree or anything, and really a more accurate description of the event would be A TREE LIMB FELL ON MY CAR, but that doesn’t have the same dramatic effect, now does it? Anyway, the tree. So, I’m terrible at guesstimating measurements, so let’s just say it wasn’t like a giant oak or anything, but it wasn’t exactly a sapling either. If the trunk had hit my car, it very likely would have been totaled. At the very least, the damage would have been such that I probably would have had to get it towed. I guess maybe the diameter of the trunk was 20 inches or so?
So, I arrive at my car and as I get closer, I see that the trunk of the tree missed by car by less than a foot. The trunk actually fell exactly parallel to my car… it was a branch that hung over the street that happened to hit my car. Still, it was one of the main limbs of the tree, so perhaps I should say “A THIRD of a TREE FELL ON MY CAR.” Upon looking at it again this morning, in the daylight, it was pretty obvious that the tree was completely dead. The trunk had actually shattered into a zillion pieces upon hitting the sidewalk and the limb on my car looked as though it had snapped off pretty easily.
The damage. Well, considering a TREE (limb) fell ON my CAR, it’s actually somewhat minimal. It’ll still be expensive as all hell to fix, but at least it is fixable. It dented the hood, the roof, the driver’s side door, and the panel above the front left wheel well. The driver’s side view mirror is hanging on by a couple of wires. A chunk of tree is somehow lodged under the panel of my car, in the corner where my hood, windshield and panel above the wheel meet. I cannot pry that chunk of wood free for the life of me… looking at it, I can’t quite figure out how it possibly got under there in the first place.
This morning we went out to take some pictures of the scene. One of my neighbors had left a note on my car, with a print out that showed that he had reported that very tree as dead and a potential hazard and had asked for action from the city in July of last year. July. The print out also showed that it was to be inspected in August and “resolved” in December. So, I think I have a decent case to get reimbursed by the city for at least my deductible, if not the entire cost of my repairs. Hopefully it’s not too much of a pain in the ass… but it’s dealing with the bureaucracy of this city, so that’s probably too much to ask for.
My car appears to be drivable once I ghetto-tape the sideview mirror back on. It’s not exactly pretty, but the damage appears to all be cosmetic at this point. It could have been a LOT worse… the trunk could have fallen a foot further to the north, the tree could have been bigger, I could have been in the car, the tree could have hit a person…
Now I just need to raise $1000 worth of deductibles (this incident, plus the fender bender last July). *sob* — again.

Peppermint Bark

I gave homemade peppermint bark (along with fancy glass mugs and flavored hot cocoa) to some hard to shop for relatives. I heard from my mom yesterday that the bark was a total hit… people kept asking her where I bought it! It’s pretty hilarious, because peppermint bark is SO SUPER EASY to make. I mean, the price of peppermint bark online or in the store is just ludicrous considering how simple it is. So, for those of you out there who’ve never made it before, here’s the recipe.
Equipment:
Double boiler, or glass bowl that fits into a pot.
baking sheet with sides
parchment paper
Ingredients:
2 bags of semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 bags of white chocolate chips
peppermint extract
crushed candy canes (I found already crushed ones in AC Moore, but you can crush whole candy canes in a ziploc with a rolling pin.)
Directions:
Line baking sheet with parchment paper. Melt semi-sweet chocolate chips in double boiler or in a glass bowl over a pot of boiling water. Once chocolate is melted, pour it into the lined baking sheet and spread evenly. Put into refrigerator for 10-15 minutes (can be done while you clean the double boiler/glass bowl and melt the white chocolate chips). Melt the white chocolate chips, stirring in two or three teaspoons of peppermint extract (or more to taste). Once chips are melted, pull off heat and stir in crushed candy canes. Pour candy cane & chocolate mixture over semi-hardened semi-chocolate layer in baking sheet. Sprinkle a layer of candy cane pieces on top. Stick the pan back in the fridge til chocolate hardens.
Tada! Soooo easy… literally just melting chocolate, stirring, and pouring. Now tell me you’ll never buy store bought again!
(Bark is best stored in the fridge because it makes it easier to break into pieces. It’s also really easy to mix and match extracts and mix-ins and get creative!)