*** ker-SMASH!!! ***
Call it Fate, call it Good Luck, call it "Someone watching over me..."
The return trip to Shaunavon was thankfully uneventful, up until 1km outside of town. I could see the flashing lights of emergency vehicles from the distance, and when I arrived at the accident scene I was perhaps the 7th vehicle in line, heading Southbound. There were a number of other vehicles on the other side of the scene, also blocked by the wreckage.
A small car was in the ditch on the West side of the highway, and the remains of a larger Northbound vehicle with its front end entire crumpled in was sitting in the middle of the road. Emergency crews were arriving and beginning to extradite the victims from their respective vehicles. According to some of the people who had arrived on the scene before I had, the accident had occured only about 10 minutes prior. The smaller car had been Northbound, and was attempting to turn into the driveway of a farmhouse on the West side of the highway. While it was waiting to make the turn, the larger car (also Northbound) rear-ended it at full speed!
Thankfully there were no fatalities, unless you count the vehicles themselves. The larger car's front end crumpled in exactly as it was designed to do, absorbing most of the shock of the impact and thus sparing the lives of the people inside. Thankfully they were wearing their seat-belts, or there would have been fatalities. Both vehicles had to cut open using the Jaws of Life, and three people were taken to the local hospital. I do not think any of them were in life-threatening condition given what I was able to observe, but there are definitely going to be injuries.
My "Good Luck" was in not being mixed up in the accident. As I mentioned, the accident had occured only a few moments before I arrived at the scene. Had I left Calgary a few minutes earlier, had I been driving a little faster, had there not been a lineup at the washroom at the service station where I refueled... Had I arrived on that scene only a few minutes earlier, it may have been entirely possible to have been part of the accident, instead of merely being a witness to its aftermath. There, but for the Grace of God, go I.
On a lighter note, once we were turned around and detoured around the accident, I arrived back at the farm without any futher incident. trixstir was watering the plants in the front yard, and the kidling was vegging his brain on the TV. I had brought more plants from Calgary, most importantly two young trees that I wanted to get into the ground immediately. Thankfully the evening was reasonably cool, and we set to work digging two holes to plant the trees in. The ground is a lot harder than I had hoped for, but with some amount of effort I was able to dig two holes about 3' in diameter, and appropriately deep for each tree.
During this digging, our friend Foxalopex from Ontario arrived for a visit. He had actually been visiting friends and family in Calgary (as I noted in a previous entry, we had dinner together with Qualin, Calzephyr77, and TimbanGreywolf) and decided to make a trip out to see us on the farm. Thankfully, Trixstir had finally managed to get the kidling to clean his room, so we bunked Foxalopex in the kidling's room for the night (our guest-room is still being repaired.) We tried to take Fox into town for supper, but by the time we got the two trees planted, every place in town was closed for the night! So, in the end we cooked up a batch of burgers and ate those. Fox and I stayed up late, chatting about this and that, and sometime after midnight we took his photography equipment outside and he took shots of the star-lit skies.
I think it was close to 1am by the time we went to bed. I know it was very late, and it sure felt good to sleep in my own bed with Trixstir again (even if she does snore!) ;)