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It's been a running joke in my family for many years that we are a television show.

A friend once, in complaining about the show "Party of Five", said that his biggest critique was that that much interesting stuff didn't happen to anyone. It wasn't realistic.

I hadn't noticed. My family is just like that one--or any other soap opera family--except with fewer people. As I often say, we have only 8 people who are divided into thirds not speaking to each other.

We seem to have a yearly excitement that starts in September and suddenly concludes in May. And, oddly, we can track all the really interesting events to sweep's months. There's more, but I won't get into that.

I realize we put too much thought into this and it makes us seem really strange to ... just about everyone. But, somehow it all works.

A few years back, DH and I also realized that his great-aunt's family met the qualification for having their own show.

Sadly, they've just had their opening episode.

This afternoon, she was killed in a car accident. Her sister, DH's grandmother, is in critical condition, on "if she makes it through the night..." status. Her brother walked away without a scratch. They were rear-ended by a semi driver doing 75 mph.

Great-aunt's grandson (otherwise known as DH's second cousin) was supposed to get married next weekend. AFAIK, the wedding is still on. But I don't know if he even has the news yet.

Please ignore my tactlessness at this point ... the show it definitely off to a new season.

Call it a coping mechanism, if you must.