I Will Buy You A New Life

If you read the post below, you know that my son's car was totaled.

The other day, we found out it wasn't the man who they said. Rather, a man with a very similar name. (First names are the same and last names are different by a couple of letters, both men are around 400 pounds, and they live in the same little neighborhood. I can see where the mix up was.) Not that one person's life is more tangible, but this guy's life circumstances were far better than the other man, who incidentally, I can't wait to see.

Simply a case of poor choices that resulted in his death. You just wish you could go back and say, "Dude, it's a $400 car and a DUI ticket, hardly worth your life."

Choices, we all have them. All I can do now is show my kids and their friends how that 33-year-old man chose to live and die.

Because Lane 1 could only afford liability insurance, and the man didn't have insurance, we again eat the cost of someone else's poor choices. The last time was when my brother in-law tried to off himself in our house. I'll spare you that tangent too.

And to all of you who have offered to take up a collection for a new car, thank you sincerely, but please refrain. We are Lanes. We always come out of a pile of shit smelling like roses, 'cuz that's just how we roll. One of the men from a nearby church, who doesn't even know us, also offered to take up a collection. The thought is honestly appreciated, but completely unnecessary. Of course, I'll wait a lot of years before I tell my son I turned down money from all of you thoughtful people.

As messed up as the whole situation was, Lane 1 managed to make himself a pitcher of lemonade with his lemons. The little shit has gotten out of homework all week, because he lied to his teachers and said his books were all in his car at the police impound lot. I secretly love his creative bad side.

Last night a police officer came over to release the Omni from impound, I have to pick it up today. He explained that the investigation took longer because of hearsay and rumors, common stuff in a small town. Besides the fact, what family wants to believe a loved one's death was a result of something so injudicious? I can't blame them for demanding a full investigation. The final report states the same as the scenario I posted below. It honestly breaks my heart to think about.

Yet, we roll with the punches, try to learn a lesson in all of this and move on to the next chapter of life.

I proudly present to you...




...Lane 1 and The Green Machine! Can I get a woot, woot?!

Searching frantically with every free moment, Mr. Lane and I found this little gem a few towns away. I wish I had video footage of the big surprise. You guys, he lit up like a little boy again. His big ol' brown eyes filled with tears of joy. He had this proud peacock strut as he walked over to give his old mom a big bear hug. His smile had finally returned. He hugged me so hard I couldn't breathe.

He was so excited, he could barely speak, "Thank you, Mom."

Breathing that boy in, I sheepishly said, "Well before you give me all the credit..."

He broke our awesome embrace, looked at me with his head cocked to the side like a confused puppy, and asked, "Did I pay for this?"

I smiled at my son for being so smart. "Me and Dad cleaned your account out this morning, and Grandpa and Nana are floating you a loan for the rest."

With a shrug of his shoulders, he reached in for another hug. "That's alright, Mom, it's awesome! I love it!"




Sealed with a kiss and a promise to not be riding dirty, Lane 1 celebrates as if it were a Toyota.

As he grabbed his keys off of the table to leave this morning, he was singing, "I will buy you a garden, where your flowers can bloom. I will buy you a new car, perfect shinny and new." And that, pretty much made my day.

Thank you for all of the, love, prayers, well-wishes, concern, comments and emails at Yahoo and Hotmail, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, sheesh, you guys were posting everywhere, even on ANT's blog. It means a lot to the Lane Gang to know how much you all care.

XOXO ~ Lo