Friday, May 20, 2005

Adam

Yes, yes, I was planning on adding the Dr Pepper pictures; I did the first batch at work, and ran out of time to continue adding them, so figured I would add them with a later post. So here, given all the respect they deserve in a separate post:


Image hosted by Photobucket.com Here's Adam holding the offending can. You can see the red circle on his cheek where impact occured. He still has a faint line several days later.



Image hosted by Photobucket.com Better shot of the circle. The tab pattern is more noticeable in this one. Blessed by the good Dr, he was.


I have larger versions of these, plus a few more; if anyone is interested, I can email them. They're large, though. Most of the landscape shots are over a meg, and the people shots are over half a meg each.

Crash photos

So, back to the crash...

So we've stopped moving, there was a crashing of glass, and then nothing, just the light sound of the engine roaring above us. I dreaded to look, but had to know whether or not I had killed Adam. My head snapped right at the same time his snapped left and we both said "Are you all right? Yeah!"

I started reaching for my cellphone and realized, you know, maybe we should get OUT of the upside down van first. I reached for my seatbelt, realized I had broken glass everywhere below me, and tried to situate myself so I wouldn't fall on my face. At this point I realize the airbags never went off, and say so. In fact, I couldn't STOP saying what was coming into my head. I babbled about hoping my seatbelt would come undone, babbled about hoping the door would open... you get the point.

I did manage to get the door open, though it took some pushing, and I hear Adam behind me say "I'm following you!" I stepped out, a few feet below the edge of the road to an incredulous Andy. "Are you guys all right?" Behind me Adam is struggling to get through the small space we could open the door. "Yeah, yeah, shut up," he says. It takes Adam a few seconds, but we get out and practically run up onto the road. We stand there for a few more seconds, staring at the remains of my first car, before all we can do is start laughing. Adam and I hug, and I realize I should probably turn off the car. I run down, turn it off, and struggle for a minute trying to take out the keys before finally giving up.

It starts to rain at about this time, and I call Bridget and tell her I wrecked the van. Andy gives his wife directions to where we are, and they come down. I call 911, and Andy gives more directions and they send the Highway Patrol.

Andy at some point is telling us about watching our headlights disappear, and makes the comment, "You guys don't know how scared I was." Adam and I, in unison, tell him "Yes, we do!" A group hug ensues. It's about this point we notice the ring on Adam's face, and the bloody lips he gave himself protecting his face from glass.

Nothing much else eventful happened; the cop didn't even get out of his car, just told me he wouldn't file a report because then he'd have to file a charge, and all that would do is raise my insurance. The wrecker was impressed by the wreck, and then we drove home.

And, as promised, pictures; click the picture for larger versions:

Thursday, May 19, 2005

I am Alive

And I am quite thankful for that.

I totalled my van Saturday night - and when I say totalled, I mean there was NOTHING salvageable from it, except perhaps the front passenger door. Adam and I were the only ones inside, thankfully, and we walked away with no major injuries. I, in fact, had only a minor abrasion from my seat belt. Adam had a few pieces of glass in his arm, and a mark left by the marauding Dr Pepper can that smacked him in the face. How do we know it was a Dr Pepper can? We could see the indentation of the tab on his face, inside of a circle.

As Rick informed me I must start...

It was a dark and stormy night. Well, not so stormy. It rained gallons for a few minutes and then cut out. We were following Andy to his house when the van started to hydroplane and drift to the right. I was trying to ease the wheel to the left to keep us from hurtling off into the darkness when the wheels left the road. We bounced around, scraped on the road, and then hit something REALLY HARD. This something was a 4 or 5 inch tall concrete barricade on the side of a bridge, which prevented us from flying into a 10 foot gully. Instead we scraped along this barricade before hurtling off into the woods. We took out a grove of bamboo, fishtailed, finally flipped, landed on the roof and slammed the passenger side of the van into a tree.

I'll post pictures and the aftermath of the wreck later.

Saturday, May 14, 2005

End of a Journey

this is an audio post - click to play

My Turn

this is an audio post - click to play

Friday, May 13, 2005

Parking Lot

this is an audio post - click to play

Dip Cone

this is an audio post - click to play

RAD CHIC

this is an audio post - click to play

Livingston, AL

this is an audio post - click to play

SKWUREL

this is an audio post - click to play

12 Miles

this is an audio post - click to play

Start of a Journey

this is an audio post - click to play

Friday, May 06, 2005

The Big Day

Well, Bridget graduates tomorrow. Today, technically. In six hours. Wow. I can't begin to describe how proud I am of her. And she's getting out with a 3.0, too. It's now physically impossible for me to get a 3.0, unless I stay and take classes JUST to raise my GPA.

I have a final to take in about 4 hours. For those I have not yet filled in, I missed my science final on Wednesday because my DAMNED ALARM CLOCK didn't go off. I have been kicking this classes ASS, and I woke up with 30 minutes left until the teacher left. To cut this rather long story short, she is letting me come take the test today in her classroom at Natchitoches Central. Bridget's graduation starts at 10am, we're going to eat right afterwards, and the teacher will be leaving at 3pm, so I'll be arriving there bright and early at 8am to take this test.

On another note, I recently lost my wireless mouse as I was transferring my computer from work back to home and had to switch back to my old IBM wired mouse. We've since found the wireless one, but I think I'm actually gong to stick to the IBM. The response is much better, and I don't have to wake it up; it's also much more comfortable to use. The wireless was kind of oddly shaped.