Crash

In looking at the pictures I wonder how I wasn't hurt more than I am (sore neck, sore chest, bruised knee and I bit through my tongue.) I'm telling people that the car did what it was suppose to do - save my life.


Here's what happened:

I'm going down Carleton Rd from Kroger to Gier School for a meeting
I go through the intersection at Carleton and Fayette and this woman decides to turn left from Carleton Rd onto Fayette St. turning right into me.
Of course this happens at 4:00 when the elementary schools are getting out
Cars and buses and cars full of kids are backed up.
When the accident happened my airbags opened. I have never been in an accident like this before. I didn't know that there was a powder smoke that filled the car after the airbags were deployed
I thought the car was on fire. I couldn't open the driver door because the other vehicle was up against me.
I climbed over to the passenger side. The frame was bent so as I was pushing on the door a woman was pulling from the outside. We finally got it open and I was able to get out of the car.
After my meeting I was going to work out so I'm in shorts.
The woman in the other vehicle is pinned in and she asks for an ambulance. I'm already embarrassed because of the accident, now more rescue vehicles are coming.
The police came - yes all the guys I used to work with.
Randy (the investigating officer and my neighbor) doesn't even recognize my car
The police chief comes and is talking to Dan - his comment is, "With both of you teaching you could at least afford to buy your wife some long pants."


I am very lucky to not be hurt. I know nothing about tickets or the other driver. I'm assuming she got a ticket for turning in front of oncoming traffic.
For the last two days I have been dealing with my insurance company. I have been very pleased with the prompt service. I have a claim number, an agent, a medical agent (I have severe neck pain) an adjuster (who totalled my car and forwarded the paperwork to the check cutting department) and my local agent. From what everybody is telling me this should be settled by the end of next week.

Today Dan and I went to Adrian to get the Saturn. That will be my mode of transportation for a while. I have no idea what kind of car I want, so we're going to take it slow and I'll be driving in the sardine can for a while.

View from out my window

It's Wednesday and I am home. As I sit there watching the news and sipping my coffee this is the view I see: breathtaking.

I'll post more later filling in the details as to why I am home on a Wednesday.

WOW

A few weeks ago we has severe winds here. As we ate dinner last night, Dan and I both looked out the back window at the tree line. If you look closely you can see how the branches look permanently bent to the east. This is across all the tree lines in the subdivision. Quite impressive.

This is what my son is reading for pleasure

It used to be that the boys read Sports Illustrated. Then they graduated to Men's Health. Now Matt has a subscription to The Economist. My baby is growing up.

Gangster Trivia

Did you know.... Al Capone had a cut on his cheek. This scar on his face was given to him by a guy when Capone tried to hone in on his girlfriend.

The opening scene of the movie Blues Brothers (with the nun) was actually shot in a Jewish meeting hall.

The term bootleggers comes from a time when moonshiners would keep their alcohol in their boots-waiting until church was over to sell to patrons

We can thank Al Capone for expiration dates on food. He made the milk producers put dates on the bottles because he didn't want kids drinking spoiled milk like he had to.

We can also thank Al Capone for Jay's potato chips.
While on a trip to NYC he tasted this new snack food called Mrs. Japs chips. He brought the operation to Chicago and they took off. When WWII started the name Mrs. Japs chips was changed to Jays potato chips.


After the tour we had lunch at Ed Debevics. Matt and Dan had never been there. Our waiter was great. For those of you who don't know about E.D. the waitstaff insults the customers. Dan and the boys loved it. The highlight of lunch was when all the help danced on the counter.

Matt's major award

Between Christmas and New Years Eve we took an overnight trip to Chicago. We did one of the many tours available - this one called the Gangster Tour. At the end of the tour the tour guide raffled off a few prized to get the patron to buy the merchandise. Matt won a coffee mug. This is the first time Matt has won anything - so like the father in A Christmas Story - Matt now has won a major award.