A LITTLE UPDATE

Grandson Mark moved to Albuquerque a couple of months ago to start a new job at the city's Biopark (Biopark is evidently New Mexico-speak for zoo).  As many of you know, I went with my daughter, granddaughter, and grandson to Albuquerque to spend Thanksgiving week with him, and to bring him his furniture and his snakes.  (Yes, Mark likes snakes.)

Rosie, one of the zoo's elephants is pregnant and is expected to drop this week.  Because anything can happen, have been rotating night sifts to eye an eye on Rosie should he deliver early.  Mark's shift that Sunday was from 4 am to 8 am, after which he would start his regular day.  (Mark's workweek is from Friday to Tuesday.)  We arrived in Albuquerque that Sunday, dropped his stuff off at Mark's apartment complex, and left so he could get a couple of hours sleep before his elephant detail.

Mark went out to the parking lot at 3:30, unlocked his car, and brought his water bottle that had been in the car into his apartment to fill it for the day.  When he came back five minutes later, his car was gone, stolen.  Mark missed his elephant detail as the police came and took information.  They were moderately sure that the car would be recovered soon, saying that it was usually kids joyriding.  It happened that Mark's credit card, debit card, driver's license, and his keys to the zoo were also in the car.  Much of the week was spent notifying banks, insurance companies, and trying to arrange transportation so Mark could get to and from work.  Mark could not rent a car temporarily because he was underage; you need to be 25 to rent a car, and Mark is 24 and 7 months -- besides which, his driver's license is gone.. 

Luckily, my daughter and her husband has just purchased a new truck and were preparing to sell their old car.  If Mark's car was not recovered, they could drive the old car to Albuquerque this month as a replacement.

When we left to return to Florida on Friday, they still had not recovered the car, but at least Mark had all the logistics figured out.  On Monday, Christina got a call from the insurance company.  The police had recovered Mark's car, but its condition was unknown, but the car was now sitting in the police forensics lab -- something that did not bode well.  However, the insurance company had made a deal with Enterprise Car Rental to allow Mark to rent a car for the interim; luckily, Mark's new license came in the mail on Saturday.

The police called Tuesday to inform us that they had the car and that it was a total loss.  It had been set on fire...and was used in the commission of a homicide.  They would give out no further details as it was now an open, major case.  Mark is very quiet and unassuming (and also the most awesome man I know), and when we informed him, he just said, "Gee.  I have murderers in my apartment complex."  (To be fair, it's a very large complex, and I doubt that more than 20 or 25% of the residents are murderers.)

So, a) sometime in the middle of the month, Christina will be driving once again to Albuquerque to drop off a Volkswagon Jetta; or, b) a few days either before or after Christmas, she will be making the trip with Walt trailing her in the new truck.  Either way, she's not looking forward to the drive.  At least she'll get to spend more time with Mark, which is always a good thing,

A quick fun fact:  Of the 70 major cities in the U,S,, Albuquerque ranks #17 in homicide.