Bus Accident, Moving Plans, Savannah, etc.
Wow, the last little while has just been busy... well, I guess that's not entirely true. There's just been a lot of planning going on.
Ya see, we're moving to Beaverton in September. Normally when we move we're sooooooo unorganized, and it's a real bitch getting everything done. I've now taken controll of planning, budgeting, etc...and I'm all over it. Planning a couple of garage sales, going through all of our junk, and deciding what to keep and get rid of. We've decided that we're basically getting rid of almost all of our furniture, and we're just gonna start fresh. Our stuff is all pretty old and run down, and we decided that we wanted new stuff. I created a budget for the next few months that will allow us some serious saving opportunities. If all goes well we're gonna have a good handle on finances when it's time to move.
I will state that I was against moving to beaverton initially. That is a driver friendly area. It's a big tech/business community (Nike Campus, Intel, Techtronix, etc). Being a bus rider it's not incredibly practical. However, we found a couple of places on a couple of bus routes that put us in connection with everything. It was tough finding decent places that will accept my dog (Cassie, she's an adorable black lab that basically runs the show around here! ha ha ha). Most of the places have no problem with my Cat (Diva, the name says it all), but we narrowed it down to 5 different places. We went out to see several of them this past weekend.
We started off at Hunters Run. As it turned out that was the only place we saw! I fell in love with the place. It's fantastic! It's located right behind Fred Meyers. There's a couple of resteraunts, a Hollywood Video, and a couple of other things a block away, and it's just gorgeous. It's on this huge walking trail, and there's a pond with a wood bridge, a playground for when my nieces come to visit, great floor plans, etc. I was sold from the word go. We went and talked to the Leasing Agent, and she said they were having an open showing of the Exeter floor plan (the one we want) in April (they're nice places, so they go fast), so we're going to go back and see the apartment for ourselves in a few weeks. If all works out THAT will be my future home. I liked what I saw/read on ForRent.com, but after seeing it for myself, wow. It's just perfect. Oh, and it's across the street from a big aquatic park too. My sister is a big swimmer, so that's perfect. I guess it also has tennis courts, and a skate park. Lots to do. It'll make transitioning from a house to an apartment a lot better having so much to do/see out there.
We're still planning on going to see the other complexes in a couple of weeks, but only as back ups.
Anyway, so we left there with big smiles. All was good until the bus neared our stop. I looked at my mom, and saw her grab the bar, and brace herself. I looked forward and there was a car sliding sideways at us at about 40-45 mph!! I grabbed the bar, and SMASH! It happened so fast, it was all so surreal. As soon as we'd stopped I jumped up, and followed a man off the bus to see if the people in the car were ok. The car was annihilated. There was one man in the car. When I first saw him he was up against the passenger side which was entangled with the front of the bus (by the door). He was bleeding from the head, and shoulder. Initially he was unconscious. The man in front of me was talking (before we got hit) about being a serious hiker, and the lack of medical facilities in certain areas. It was obvious he knew some basics. Thankfully he knew what to do. It was at that moment that I wondered what I would have done had he not been there. I mean I flew off the bus to check on the car, but I don't know jack. All I know is that if someone is conscious to keep them talking, and DON'T move them in case of neck/back injuries. The hiker got into the backseat of the car, and checked the guys pulse. He was saying a couple of things to an onlooker who was on the phone with 911. Then he tried to move the guy!! I was like, "DON'T MOVE HIM! He could have neck or back injuries!!" He stopped, and agreed. The car wasn't on fire or smoking, so we waited for the paramedics, firemen, police. The driver of the car was in and out of consciousness for the next couple of minutes. We both talked to him (the hiker being more prominent, for the record. I was kinda freaked, so I wasn't as helpful as I would have liked to be). He was pretty messed up. After seeing the car I'm surprised he wasn't dead. He wasn't wearing a seatbelt, and I'm pretty sure that his head smashed into the corner of the bus on impact.
When the police came the officer was trying to talk to the guy, and had the hiker get out of the car. The hiker walked up, and said, "That guy stunk of alcohol." After a few minutes when the adrenaline started to fade I was looking around. There were skid marks starting almost a block away on the other side of the street. I'm no driver, but it looked pretty obvious that he lost control at the bend in the road, and locked his brakes. He must have been flyin'. They took him away in an ambulence, and the consensus was that his injuries didn't seem to be fatal (thankfully), but it was so freaky!
I banged my knee, and pulled a muscle in my shoulder, but aside from that everything was fine for everyone on the bus. I actually didn't say anything about either because it wasn't super important. I don't even have a bruise on my knee, so no biggie. We gave statements to Trimet, and the Police, and then walked the block to the Max stop we needed to be at. 20 minutes later we were browsing the setting at Cedar Hills Crossing like nothing had happened. I was shaking like a leaf though, and when we sat down to eat at this awesome little place called "Noodlin'" I just felt horrible that we were behaving as though nothing had happened. It almost seemed like it happened to someone else. It was so bizarre.
Ok, enough of that...next...
At the same time, Adrian & Rayna brought my new niece, Savannah up so we could all meet her. She's totally precious. We visited with them before we headed out to Beaverton. She wasn't even two weeks old, and just so tiny! awwww....ha ha ha
We met them at my Grandma's house so that we could all visit for a bit. It was so nice, but at the same time I was sad. I wished my Grandpa had been there to see her too. It's interesting because I've always been a bit wishy-washy on the whole religion thing, but my Grandpa was steadfast in his beliefs. There were times I actually faked interest because he didn't have anyone to really share with. That seemed to make him happy. I wish I could have believed more, for his sake. However, now that he's gone I KNOW that if there is a Heaven, he's in it. And if he is, then I think he saw her for himself.
I know, it's a bit mushy, but I truly do feel comforted by the idea that he believed strongly enough that if there's any chance that Heaven exists, he was bumped to the head of the line because he made reservations. :)
Oh, and after we left Grandma's we were waiting for the bus, and I ran into Marie/nw-photochick. She was meeting another friend, and they were going shopping. So we chatted for a bit while we waited for the bus. That was fun.
Anyway, this is just shy of being a novel, so I am gonna close for now, but hopefully I'll post a bit more regularly now.
I have a shit-ton of things to do around the house to start preparing for the garage sales, and moving, but I'll definitely be around. :)
More later...
Ya see, we're moving to Beaverton in September. Normally when we move we're sooooooo unorganized, and it's a real bitch getting everything done. I've now taken controll of planning, budgeting, etc...and I'm all over it. Planning a couple of garage sales, going through all of our junk, and deciding what to keep and get rid of. We've decided that we're basically getting rid of almost all of our furniture, and we're just gonna start fresh. Our stuff is all pretty old and run down, and we decided that we wanted new stuff. I created a budget for the next few months that will allow us some serious saving opportunities. If all goes well we're gonna have a good handle on finances when it's time to move.
I will state that I was against moving to beaverton initially. That is a driver friendly area. It's a big tech/business community (Nike Campus, Intel, Techtronix, etc). Being a bus rider it's not incredibly practical. However, we found a couple of places on a couple of bus routes that put us in connection with everything. It was tough finding decent places that will accept my dog (Cassie, she's an adorable black lab that basically runs the show around here! ha ha ha). Most of the places have no problem with my Cat (Diva, the name says it all), but we narrowed it down to 5 different places. We went out to see several of them this past weekend.
We started off at Hunters Run. As it turned out that was the only place we saw! I fell in love with the place. It's fantastic! It's located right behind Fred Meyers. There's a couple of resteraunts, a Hollywood Video, and a couple of other things a block away, and it's just gorgeous. It's on this huge walking trail, and there's a pond with a wood bridge, a playground for when my nieces come to visit, great floor plans, etc. I was sold from the word go. We went and talked to the Leasing Agent, and she said they were having an open showing of the Exeter floor plan (the one we want) in April (they're nice places, so they go fast), so we're going to go back and see the apartment for ourselves in a few weeks. If all works out THAT will be my future home. I liked what I saw/read on ForRent.com, but after seeing it for myself, wow. It's just perfect. Oh, and it's across the street from a big aquatic park too. My sister is a big swimmer, so that's perfect. I guess it also has tennis courts, and a skate park. Lots to do. It'll make transitioning from a house to an apartment a lot better having so much to do/see out there.
We're still planning on going to see the other complexes in a couple of weeks, but only as back ups.
Anyway, so we left there with big smiles. All was good until the bus neared our stop. I looked at my mom, and saw her grab the bar, and brace herself. I looked forward and there was a car sliding sideways at us at about 40-45 mph!! I grabbed the bar, and SMASH! It happened so fast, it was all so surreal. As soon as we'd stopped I jumped up, and followed a man off the bus to see if the people in the car were ok. The car was annihilated. There was one man in the car. When I first saw him he was up against the passenger side which was entangled with the front of the bus (by the door). He was bleeding from the head, and shoulder. Initially he was unconscious. The man in front of me was talking (before we got hit) about being a serious hiker, and the lack of medical facilities in certain areas. It was obvious he knew some basics. Thankfully he knew what to do. It was at that moment that I wondered what I would have done had he not been there. I mean I flew off the bus to check on the car, but I don't know jack. All I know is that if someone is conscious to keep them talking, and DON'T move them in case of neck/back injuries. The hiker got into the backseat of the car, and checked the guys pulse. He was saying a couple of things to an onlooker who was on the phone with 911. Then he tried to move the guy!! I was like, "DON'T MOVE HIM! He could have neck or back injuries!!" He stopped, and agreed. The car wasn't on fire or smoking, so we waited for the paramedics, firemen, police. The driver of the car was in and out of consciousness for the next couple of minutes. We both talked to him (the hiker being more prominent, for the record. I was kinda freaked, so I wasn't as helpful as I would have liked to be). He was pretty messed up. After seeing the car I'm surprised he wasn't dead. He wasn't wearing a seatbelt, and I'm pretty sure that his head smashed into the corner of the bus on impact.
When the police came the officer was trying to talk to the guy, and had the hiker get out of the car. The hiker walked up, and said, "That guy stunk of alcohol." After a few minutes when the adrenaline started to fade I was looking around. There were skid marks starting almost a block away on the other side of the street. I'm no driver, but it looked pretty obvious that he lost control at the bend in the road, and locked his brakes. He must have been flyin'. They took him away in an ambulence, and the consensus was that his injuries didn't seem to be fatal (thankfully), but it was so freaky!
I banged my knee, and pulled a muscle in my shoulder, but aside from that everything was fine for everyone on the bus. I actually didn't say anything about either because it wasn't super important. I don't even have a bruise on my knee, so no biggie. We gave statements to Trimet, and the Police, and then walked the block to the Max stop we needed to be at. 20 minutes later we were browsing the setting at Cedar Hills Crossing like nothing had happened. I was shaking like a leaf though, and when we sat down to eat at this awesome little place called "Noodlin'" I just felt horrible that we were behaving as though nothing had happened. It almost seemed like it happened to someone else. It was so bizarre.
Ok, enough of that...next...
At the same time, Adrian & Rayna brought my new niece, Savannah up so we could all meet her. She's totally precious. We visited with them before we headed out to Beaverton. She wasn't even two weeks old, and just so tiny! awwww....ha ha ha
We met them at my Grandma's house so that we could all visit for a bit. It was so nice, but at the same time I was sad. I wished my Grandpa had been there to see her too. It's interesting because I've always been a bit wishy-washy on the whole religion thing, but my Grandpa was steadfast in his beliefs. There were times I actually faked interest because he didn't have anyone to really share with. That seemed to make him happy. I wish I could have believed more, for his sake. However, now that he's gone I KNOW that if there is a Heaven, he's in it. And if he is, then I think he saw her for himself.
I know, it's a bit mushy, but I truly do feel comforted by the idea that he believed strongly enough that if there's any chance that Heaven exists, he was bumped to the head of the line because he made reservations. :)
Oh, and after we left Grandma's we were waiting for the bus, and I ran into Marie/nw-photochick. She was meeting another friend, and they were going shopping. So we chatted for a bit while we waited for the bus. That was fun.
Anyway, this is just shy of being a novel, so I am gonna close for now, but hopefully I'll post a bit more regularly now.
I have a shit-ton of things to do around the house to start preparing for the garage sales, and moving, but I'll definitely be around. :)
More later...