A few weeks ago my son totaled my car on his way home from Butte College where he is a multimedia arts major. Art labs often run late. The bus schedule at Butte, is inadequate, at least for those of us in the south end of Butte County, which means that he has no choice but to drive. When a family emergency such as this strikes, our minds race to all sorts of worst case scenarios, at least I know mine did.

Just like any other parent my first concern was my son and he was on the phone telling me he was OK. Whew! What a relief!

The next question was concern for anyone else involved in the accident. Luckily, he was alone in the car that day, a rarity. Also, even though he did a couple of donuts in the middle of the main north/south artery of Butte County, at rush hour, no less, he didn't hit anyone and nobody else hit him. More relief!

The next question I had was where had the car finally come to rest? That stretch of the highway is pretty unforgiving with deep irrigation or drainage ditches along both sides of the road in many places, high over passes, bridges, giant levees and all of the other road hazards of a driver's (or his fearful parent's) worst nightmares. The place where the accident occurred just happened to be in a rare spot with more of an indentation than a ditch and the car came to a rest in a nice, soft, un-fenced, rice field. Being a compact car it couldn't have taken out more than a couple of pounds of rice, even if the farmer claimed an extraordinary yield, so at least property damages would be low.

Here's the part where I became overjoyed: The rice field is one of the HUGE fields owned by none other than that scandal-ridden, farm subsidy-depositing, Republican boot-licking, millionaire good ol' boy and California congressional district one candidate, Doug LaMalfa. Even the Republicans and the Tea Party folks are abandoning him like rats from a sinking ship. He's the guy who repeated the old lie that abortion causes cancer, just to refresh your memory. To me, my car landing in his rice field was like stepping on the Grinch's toe! It may not have really hurt him, but it sure made me feel good at a time when I really needed something to feel good about. I only wish my poor little car was a Hummer!