The New Year Begins

I've been terrible about blogging lately. Here are a few of the things that have been going on in the Judd household since our New Year's Eve spent at Chris and Kelsey's.

January 2
Dan's Mercedes was beginning to show signs of age. The last time he had it in for service, he was warned about several rather expensive repairs that were probably on the horizon. Ever since then, he's been doing his research so he could make a good choice for his next car. He finally made his decision to go with a Volkswagen CC. On Thursday, January 2, he drove his well-loved Mercedes down to Georgetown and traded it in for a new red VW CC.

(Not a very good picture. I told Dan I'll get one of him and his new car to post in the next few days.)

January 12
We started Sunday morning, January 12, like we do most Sunday mornings. We drove across town to Starbuck's for breakfast, and then headed down 31st St. toward our church building. We were almost to the corner where we turn off of 31st St., when a black SUV came up from behind us, in the other lane. He was going at a pretty fast clip, and seeing a car ahead of him, in his lane, he apparently decided to go around him instead of slowing down. The problem was, WE were in the lane to his right, and he moved right over into our lane, forcing Dan off the road and causing us to hit the curb - hard! The SUV didn't stop and was going fast enough that we couldn't read his license plate. Yes, this was his brand new car, twelve days old, still wearing its dealer tags! Thankfully, Dan reacted quickly enough to avoid actually being run into by the SUV, but hitting the curb destroyed our two passenger side tires and the alloy wheels. We had to have the car towed. We never made it to church that morning. But we are very thankful that no one was injured. Dan now has his car back, and it's like new again.

January Weather
Like nearly all of the nation, we were affected by the well-publicized "Polar Vortex." We had very cold weather for Central Texas - in the 20s, with wind. But we recovered and had some nice warm, almost spring-like days following that. Today, though, the temperature started out in the 40s and has dropped steadily all day long. Tonight we even have a little bit of snow on the ground, and it's in the upper 20s.