being thankful
Even though I have lots and lots to be thankful for (family - both biological and chosen, friends, job, and house being high on that list), I mostly can't stop thinking how thankful I am that no one was seriously hurt in the car accident we were in last weekend.
We have to give a statement to Joe's insurance company and I am not sure what to say because it all happened so fast. The first part I know - Leah & I were in the back of Joe's Element, talking about going to Davanni's after we got home from Rollergirls. I don't know exactly what speed Joe was driving, but I know that I felt safe, not worried about the roads or driving (and I am a paranoid back seat driver, so that means it was definitely a reasonable speed). Then it was like someone flipped a switch and the world was covered with ice. Several people in cars ahead of us were fishtailing and losing control. Braking was barely working at all. The Saturn in front of us stopped and Joe couldn't quite stop in time - we hit it going maybe 5 mph.
Time really does crazy things, because it couldn't have been more than a few seconds, but I remember thinking that we were fine and then realizing that there could be any number of cars behind us unable to stop. The other passenger told me later he had time to put his arms out to brace himself and then realize what a bad idea that is, and put them back down. Joe was watching the headlights approach in the rearview mirror, which was probably freaky as hell.
It is the next part that I can't say for sure what order things happened. A truck spun out beside us and went past us trailing flames a la Back to the Future. You can see in the photo how it ended up. Another vehicle (maybe the truck, or the other car) hit us at the front driver side. At some point that fourth car crashed into the guardrail on the other side of the road. He saw flames too and had to jump out across the median into the eastbound lanes of 62, while the rest of us jumped out onto the shoulder on the westbound side where we were.
Another car behind us hit the guardrail too, and over the past week I've been thinking how we didn't really say thank you to that driver for driving into it instead of hitting us.
As I said on Facebook, it was one of the weirdest and most random nights ever. The girl in the Saturn was supposed to be going to Burnsville, but we invited her to stay at our place (we were only 3 miles from our house), thinking that there was no way in hell we'd want to be driving alone that far after an accident. Her name was Amy, too. You'd think it would be awkward to hang out with a random stranger whose car you just hit (well, her sister's car, actually), but it wasn't. She just finished her teaching license and moved across the country to be with her boyfriend, so we had a lot in common.
At 230am I got a text message from iloose2 , asking if I was awake. I was semi-asleep but still wired from the accident and answered immediately. He was on his way back from a movie at the zoo and had only made it as far as Richfield (11 miles) in 90 minutes. So he and his mother and her other kids came to crash in our living room instead of trying to make it back to Chaska.
Amazingly, we all slept late on Sunday - a good thing, because I didn't want anyone to leave until the roads started getting better, which didn't happen until noon.
I couldn't get on the highway Monday morning - it was still that weird rainy mix and I just couldn't bring myself to do it. Luckily I can get to work on city streets in just a few extra minutes. By now I am mostly back to my standard old nervousness when driving though. Trying to focus on the fact that no one was hurt, instead of how bad it could have been.
We have to give a statement to Joe's insurance company and I am not sure what to say because it all happened so fast. The first part I know - Leah & I were in the back of Joe's Element, talking about going to Davanni's after we got home from Rollergirls. I don't know exactly what speed Joe was driving, but I know that I felt safe, not worried about the roads or driving (and I am a paranoid back seat driver, so that means it was definitely a reasonable speed). Then it was like someone flipped a switch and the world was covered with ice. Several people in cars ahead of us were fishtailing and losing control. Braking was barely working at all. The Saturn in front of us stopped and Joe couldn't quite stop in time - we hit it going maybe 5 mph.
Time really does crazy things, because it couldn't have been more than a few seconds, but I remember thinking that we were fine and then realizing that there could be any number of cars behind us unable to stop. The other passenger told me later he had time to put his arms out to brace himself and then realize what a bad idea that is, and put them back down. Joe was watching the headlights approach in the rearview mirror, which was probably freaky as hell.
It is the next part that I can't say for sure what order things happened. A truck spun out beside us and went past us trailing flames a la Back to the Future. You can see in the photo how it ended up. Another vehicle (maybe the truck, or the other car) hit us at the front driver side. At some point that fourth car crashed into the guardrail on the other side of the road. He saw flames too and had to jump out across the median into the eastbound lanes of 62, while the rest of us jumped out onto the shoulder on the westbound side where we were.
Another car behind us hit the guardrail too, and over the past week I've been thinking how we didn't really say thank you to that driver for driving into it instead of hitting us.
As I said on Facebook, it was one of the weirdest and most random nights ever. The girl in the Saturn was supposed to be going to Burnsville, but we invited her to stay at our place (we were only 3 miles from our house), thinking that there was no way in hell we'd want to be driving alone that far after an accident. Her name was Amy, too. You'd think it would be awkward to hang out with a random stranger whose car you just hit (well, her sister's car, actually), but it wasn't. She just finished her teaching license and moved across the country to be with her boyfriend, so we had a lot in common.
At 230am I got a text message from iloose2 , asking if I was awake. I was semi-asleep but still wired from the accident and answered immediately. He was on his way back from a movie at the zoo and had only made it as far as Richfield (11 miles) in 90 minutes. So he and his mother and her other kids came to crash in our living room instead of trying to make it back to Chaska.
Amazingly, we all slept late on Sunday - a good thing, because I didn't want anyone to leave until the roads started getting better, which didn't happen until noon.
I couldn't get on the highway Monday morning - it was still that weird rainy mix and I just couldn't bring myself to do it. Luckily I can get to work on city streets in just a few extra minutes. By now I am mostly back to my standard old nervousness when driving though. Trying to focus on the fact that no one was hurt, instead of how bad it could have been.