We married off the Older Niece down in Iowa this weekend, and it was one of the better weddings I’ve attended, I think. They chose to do the whole thing low-key, low pressure.

So I had to make my own pressure.

I left too late. I should have left at 7:30 a.m. at the latest on Saturday, but I thought that if I waited till 8:00 I could drop off the package I’d promised to mail to my new publisher at the Post Office, and still have plenty of time.

Unfortunately the Post Office doesn’t open till 9:00.

So I hit the road (taking care to go around the area where they’ve closed off Highway 35 south, at Highway 62, for repair). We had snow on the ground, and a nasty west wind was shooting across my bow.

I stopped in Faribault, the town of my birth, to mail the package there.

Unfortunately, although I was born in Faribault I never lived in Faribault, so I’d completely forgotten where the Post Office was. I found it at last, but lost some more time.

Then, just by the Owatonna Cabela’s, the grill of my car flew off. I assume this was the delayed result of the accident I had last winter, when the young woman wiped my front bumper off in the drug store parking lot.

Since I’d had the bumper reattached in a fairly slapdash manner, I assumed it was the bumper that had gone, along with my front license plate. So I made a circuit at the nearest exits, to retrieve it.

I found nothing worth salvaging. But my hat did blow off, across the oncoming lanes. I retrieved it at considerable risk to life and limb. And more lost time.

I pulled in to the church exactly ten minutes before the service began. Which meant that I had to read the Scripture lesson they’d ask me to read, cold.

Fortunately I’m an excellent cold reader.

Humorous highlights: The report of a comment of a bridesmaid, while shopping for a dress: “I’d rather drink toilet water than be in another wedding!”

A subtitle from a Korean horror movie which The Younger Niece sent The Older Niece from China. There’s a scene where an actress creeps into a bathroom and pulls back a shower curtain, to find some kind of monster lurking in there.

She runs away, screaming words in Korean.

Her words, as translated in the subtitles: “THE VEGETABLE IS GORGEOUS!”

Can’t tell you how many times I’ve had the exact same sentiment.

To top it all off, I borrowed a book from my brother which turned out to be absolutely delightful, and part of a series of which there are several more to enjoy. I’ll review it as soon as I’m finished with it.