T-Bone

Friday morning - I was excited because I did not have any meetings at work. See, Friday is the only day I don't teach, but it is usually filled with meetings. This past Friday was a rare gem. So, I was being rather leisurely in my morning routine. Decadence of all decadence, I turned off my alarm and let LJ wake me...which he did at 6:45. RJ took him out for garage sales - their Friday morning ritual and I lollygagged while drinking tea, watching news, pumping milk, etc. Toward the end of my lollygagging...as I was transitioning into serious primping for work...I felt insanely nauseous. If I didn't know better, I would think it was morning sickness all over again (but, we know that morning sickness is not confined to the morning...oh, aren't you glad I was blogging during LJ's first trimester?!). I decided I needed to eat some toast and that made me feel well enough to continue. As I'm about to get dressed, the phone rings...

I answer it and it is RJ on the line. He asks me how I'm doing and I reply..."you know, I thought I was going to hurl earlier...I felt really sick." To which he says, "LJ and I are both fine, but we've been in an accident." All calm as can be...so, I ask where they are and head off to go meet them. I did get dressed first...and they weren't far away. All the way there I was thinking things like..."ok, he said they're fine, but there could be blood, so don't freak out if there are cuts"...AND..."I don't know how bad the accident is, but RJ would have driven home if it were a fender-bender"...AND..."My feeling nauseous earlier really isn't a big deal goof-ball, but hey...what if I felt sick right when the accident happened? What if I have an insane amount of mother's intuition?!"

When I got to the accident site, things were pretty much wrapping up. I saw RJ's truck...smashed in from the front...he obviously hit something head on. But, I didn't see the other car. The accident happened on a busy street near our house and in front of our neighbor’s mechanic shop. I went to RJ and took LJ from him...there was no blood on either of them. Then I saw the other car...a KIA SUV...hit dead-on on the driver's side. Her side-impact airbags had deployed. Both vehicles were hooked up to tow trucks, the policeman was finishing up talking to RJ...telling him who to call and when to get the report, that the other driver's insurance was up-to-date, etc. We went over to the other driver...she was not hurt and she seemed concerned that LJ was all right. She had a pink slip in her hand, so this gave me a clue that she might have been at fault. Mind you, I still have not heard what happened yet.

Once we left the scene, RJ filled me in...

He had been southbound in the inside lane of a 4 lane road with a turn lane. There was a truck with a trailer (also southbound) in the outside lane (on his right). This truck was stopped and wanting to turn right onto a side street. The KIA was wanting to turn left onto the road (to go north on the street on which RJ was traveling south). RJ thinks the truck with trailer made her feel like she had to get going because it was waiting for her to move so it would have room to make the right turn (these trucks with trailers need a lot of room I guess). So she pulled out and RJ slammed on/started pumping his brakes and tried not to hit her right in her door, but did just that. Apparently, in the biz...this is called T-Boning someone. Hence...T-Bone! Yep, RJ has earned himself a new nickname...and you have to say it like Krueger on Seinfeld...T-BOOONE.

Upon screeching tires and thudding impact, LJ burst into tears...RJ thinks the loud noise scared him. RJ pulled out his cell phone and made his first ever call to 911. RJ says that LJ was just staring up at him with tears streaming down his face and screaming sobs coming from his mouth...he was probably wondering why daddy was not comforting him and why, in the midst of no comfort, daddy was playing with LJ's favorite toy (the cell phone). Fortunately, there was a policeman behind him (the accident was not too far from the police station) almost immediately. The other car had slid across the intersection and was on the other side of the road...she is lucky she wasn't hit again on her way over. RJ unbuckled LJ and they cautiously exited the vehicle and walked across the street. The other driver was fine, but was crying and wanting to know if the baby was all right. After all was said and done, we did take LJ to the doctor...just as a precautionary measure to make sure everything seemed fine.

So, T-Bone's truck is history...he was looking into buying a new truck anyway, this makes the decision for him!

My mother’s intuition nausea occurred approximately 7 minutes prior to the accident, so I guess it was just garden-variety nausea and not some super-great 6th sense.

Hope you had a less eventful end of last week!

Love,

MJ, LJ and T-Bone