Is My Head Dented From Beating It Against This Wall?

We got our tax rebate last week. Although I am not in favor of the bizarre policy of our government to try to fix a sagging economy by sending everyone money they don't have, I'm unfortunately not principled enough that I would refuse said money. And, although the powers that be are trying to talk people into spending this money as soon as humanly possible, The Professor and I had just been discussing some options we would have for a good savings vehicle for some savings we had accumulated, our tax rebate, and tax refund. We try to live pretty cheap here at Chez Necessity, and by pinching pennies as tightly as possible, we were pleased to be able to even have such a discussion.

Thus, we come to today. I went to Trader Joe's, which is actually one of the more pleasant activities of my week. I love Trader Joe's. When I first moved here, I must admit I didn't get the whole Trader Joe's thing. I had heard good things about it, and went in thinking it would be a large specialty market like The Fairway in Manhattan. It's not. It's tiny. But the longer I've lived here, the more attached to it I've become. So much so that I think I would consider the proximity to a Trader Joe's before I would move (if that ever happens, which I'm starting to seriously doubt, but I digress). I purchased our groceries, filled my cloth bags, and left, still feeling the Trader Joe's love. All that quickly subsided when I got out to the parking lot and was met with this:


This is our poor car - not even a year old. We traded in our gas-guzzling mini-van last year for it, choosing it specifically because it gets great mileage and is listed as a SULEV (Super Low Emissions Vehicle). It is now a Super Scraped Up Vehicle, and of course there was no car in sight who had done the damage, no note, and not a single person in the parking lot who had seen the deed.

I guess I will be supporting the economy with my tax rebate check after all - I'm trying not to think about government conspiracy theories, but can you blame me?