Huckleberries: Best Christmas gift wasn’t under tree

My holiday vacation began with a bang Dec. 19, an hour after I punched the time clock for the last time in 2007. My wife called from the Spokane Valley Mall to say she’d be home soon. Ten minutes later, she called from the intersection of Sullivan Road and Interstate 90, shaken. She’d been involved in a three-car accident. Our Honda and a Subaru had been clobbered turning left onto the freeway by a car driven by a distracted Cabela’s employee who’d blown through the red light. My daughter was riding with my wife. No one appeared seriously injured when I arrived at the scene. Which amazed me. Our car was totaled, although it hadn’t taken the brunt of the impact. I don’t see how the driver of the sandwiched car walked away from the wreck. His airbags saved him from serious injury. My wife and my daughter could have been seriously injured or worse, if the middle car hadn’t softened the near head-on blow. I received the best Christmas gift possible when I found them alive and well on the side of the road.

All systems go

Kootenai County Sheriff Rocky Watson tells Huckleberries he plans to move multimillionaire Duane Hagadone’s Casco Bay “cabin” to Watson’s Cougar Bay property by mid- to late February, if (knock on wood) he hits no snags. Watson has been waiting for Hagadone to take down his Christmas lights before proceeding in earnest. The prep work on Watson’s property is about half-complete. Sheriff Rocky hopes the water is high enough to allow a Kalispell, Mont., contractor to ferry Hagadone’s house in two parts the short distance between the two bays. Otherwise, the structure will have to be broken down further and moved overland, which would increase the relocation cost. Hagadone plans to replace his cabin with a mega-mansion that may include a controversial, 200-foot commercial dock and a helipad on the lake in front. It’ll be interesting to see if Hagadone’s new digs are scenery friendly. Or if it causes as much community commotion as his new 30,000-square-foot place in Palm Desert.

Failure to communicate

In a recent blog post, Phil/A Family Runs Through It describes a conversation with his young son about Basil, the family cat. Junior: “Did Basil have a lot of other brothers?” Phil: “Yes, I think he came from a litter of eight.” Junior: “Oh. Do you think they miss Basil?” Phil: “I’m sure they don’t even remember him. They haven’t written or called the past few years.” Junior: “Kind of like Mommy’s brothers.” Phil: “Yup.”

Huckleberries

Famous Last Words (from a local dispatcher to an ambulance crew responding to an incapacitated heart patient last week): “A big mastiff will jump on you when you come through the door. But per R/P (reporting party) it’s friendly” … Overheard: “I will kill you if you don’t close that right now” – frazzled thirtysomething mother to two young daughters in the games section of the Youth Ranch Thrift Store in CDA Saturday … “Dogs are the friendly Goldwing riders of the domestic animal kingdom, cats ride Harleys and flip off police officers” – Bob Salsbury/The Unbearable Bobness of Being blog … U.S. Sen. Larry Craig was a shoo-in to make Mad Magazine’s “20 Dumbest People, Events & Things of 2007.” Surprisingly, he finished a distant No. 18.

Parting Shot

At Huckleberries Online this week, I posted a link about Mayor Carmen Kontur-Gronquist of Arlington, Ore., who has stirred up the natives by publishing MySpace photos in which she adorns a city fire engine wearing only a bra and panties. Then, I asked: “How would you react if your mayor posed scantily clad for a personal MySpace page?” Hauser Thoughts blogger D.J. Nall said she’d gladly publish a photo of new Mayor Don Werst in skivvies. A Post Falls Berry Picker reacted differently: “Clay Larkin in lingerie? No thanks.” Seems it depends on the mayor.