Saturday after we visited with Eddie and had a very unsuccessful trip to get me a new cell phone we headed out to Thomas' Aunt & Uncle's house for another dinner. His cousin Mike and his wife were in town, so we all got a chance to visit and catch up. After begging Thomas to take us home for about half an hour I finally told him at 8:45 that we had to go. His Auntie's house is like a museum and my kids are like bull's in China closets. I figured enough food had been smeared on the nice table cloth and the mirrored walls.
Just about then Thomas' phone rings. He didn't check it until we were in the car and all I could hear was a official sounding female voice saying something about an "accident" with the "residents of 281 Burton Ave." I said, "How can that be? All the residents are in this car!?" He called the RPPD back and they said there had been a "traffic accident involving our residence at 281 Burton Ave." Since we were just around the corner she said we'd see when we arrived. And boy, did we.....
There were two firetrucks, two police cars and many of their occupants roaming about the scene. My knees were just a-knockin' as I stood in the street and looked at my house..... Thomas' truck.... When one fireman saw my face he said so sympathetically, "This is your house isn't it?" Thomas just got out of the car and burst out laughing.
Thomas' front tire used to be in the dirt here. This guy, whose blood alcohol level was 3 times the legal limit to drive, had been going at least 40 down the street toward our house and never hit the brakes. There was one eye witness to the whole thing and then 3 other neighbors came out after they heard the collision to see the guy fall out of his truck to the ground. The newspaper says he sustained "minor injuries."
That crack above the header was new. And the building inspector posted a restricted use sign on our garage.
It didn't take long for us to gather ourselves and count our blessings. Well, once we figured out how to crawl through the hole in our garage and get in (we weren't carrying a front door key because we only ever use the garage to get in and out of our house, dumb I know.) Better our empty house than a car full of people! We were thankful we had homeowners insurance, thankful for the helpful officers (even though I swear some were younger than me). Thankful that we weren't home when it happened which we very well could have been, then my car would have been trapped in the garage or smashed as we were backing in. Thankful it was only our garage and not our living area, or were the power to our house was. There was so much that could have gone badly. This was the best case scenario and I know the officers must have thought I was crazy as I shook my head, raised my hand and muttered, "Thank you Jesus!"I still can't convince Caelen that it wasn't the firefighters who crashed into Papa's truck. She's still mad at them. The first thing she said when she saw the entire thing was, "Papa will never go to work again!!"
But things settled down and we headed into the insurance process and over to Mom-in-laws to celebrate our last Christmas.
"Um, guys, I can't reach my food!"Merry Christmas!!
1 comment:
Wow. That is so much worse than I pictured when you first described it! I hope that all got cleared up quickly and you don't have to spend a dime of your own money.
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