Thursday, I sent my Guardian Angel into early retirement......

Somewhere, there's a guardian angel on prozak...... For the record, I'm not making fun, it's a way of dealing with things. I truly believe someone (or multiple someones) was looking after me last Thursday! I went to see my dad to fix his computer, dropped by my oldest sister for lunch and a chat, and returned my other sisters' chairs we borrowed for the races. I'm a little banged up, and won't be able to use my left hand for a while, but I'm afraid I demolished my little aubergine aka my ford Ka.

On the way to my sister, they have a lane divider that consists of cement boulders that sit about 15 inches tall or so and are about a foot and a half wide. Some moron cut me of, I swerved trying to get onto the side road, didn't make it and sailed like a rubberduck on an oceanwave over the bumps...... My little aubergine stopped on the 8th bump. When I looked up, there was one car backing up to get to me, and one car coming the wrong way down the exit to get to me.

When the lady from the car that was backing up got to the passenger door, she had already called the police, ans she was coaxing me out of the car when the lady from the second car came walking up. I didn't want to get out, because I didn't want to see the damage I did, but the smoke coming out from under the hood helped in the decisionmaking process. The odd thing was, that in the back of my mind, I knew the car would have to be towed, so I stuffed as much of the belongings that were all over the place in my purse on my way out. I keep hearing the noise the car made, and I can still feel the shaking of the car, but beyond that, not much.

The first thing asked, was if my neck and/or back hurt, had I hit my head, was I bleeding anywhere, and luckily the answers were all "no". I found my phone, and surprised the ladies that were there, AND my brother in law, when I calmly told him, "I'm all right, I wrecked the car, I'm under the bridge on "Berekuyl", can you come get me" and meanwhile I sat on the side of the road, just talking like I had just parked the car, and was having coffee with the girls! I remember ending the call to Willem, looking down at my hand and thinking, "damn! I broke a nail....... I'm normally not that cool under pressure, so I have no clue what was going on.

The ladies stayed till both the police and my brother in law got there in case the police needed their information. They didn't, so one left and the other gave me her phone number, in case the insurance needed it. I forget which one, but one of them told me I was lucky, because she had witnessed a similar incident a couple of monts ago, and the car flipped and the driver was killed. The first set of policemen mentioned it also. They were not the ones called out, but passing by, so they stopped. They secured the scene, put pilons up and called it in again. It was kind of strange, because they were Marechausee, the Dutch military police, and the people Mike has to call if anything is wrong, but since I was driving, and Mike was not on scene, they had to turn it over to the regular police afterall. Missed part of the conversation/explanation I think.

Anyway, the one thing that sticks in my mind, was the inexpliccable lack of visual damage to the car, and the fact that people were passing by the accident real slow, while taking pictures with their cellphones!

I kept walking over to the car, checking that I had turned off the engine, because there was initially radiator fluid leaking, than I spotted brakefluid, and after that oil... People must have thought I had lost it, but I just kept limping back and forth.. My hand hurt so bad it was making me sick to my stomach, but it moved around just fine, so I figured it wasn't broke, and since I wasn't complaining about anything they luckily didn't call an ambulance. I didn't even plan on seeing a doctor about my hand at that time. The second set of police were talking to Willem, and also told him how lucky I was that the car didn't end up upside down and got me killed. I kept thinking, they're just being nice and trying to make me feel better because I'm upset about the car........

Once the towtruck came, and they hoisted my little rucksack on the flatbed, Willem took me to their place, about 10 minutes away, where I called Mike, still pretty levelheaded, I thought, and asked if he wanted to come up and get me, because I had been in an accident, or if he was ok with Willem taking me home after we cleaned out the car the next morning, but I kinda would like to see him..... He came:-) a little confused why I wasn't driving the car home, a little ticked off because he was tired, and not looking forward to a 3 hour round trip, just to say hi and leave me at my sisters, but he came. After talking to my sister and brother in law, and getting the exact location, he understood why I wasn't bringing the car home. By that time, my hand was hurting so bad, I almost passed out, so up to the hospital we went, after calling ahead so we knew when the best time was to get there, so we didn't have to wait very long. They took xrays, and nothing is broken, just severely, severly bruised. This in not a typo, thats what the doc said. LOL. They wrapped it up tight, and gave me 24 painpills with the understanding that if it didn't feel any better by Monday, to go see our GP. We went back to Nicky's place, where Mike got directons to the nearest gasstation that would be open at midnight ( NOT at all a given to find one open after 10 here) and a cup of coffee to stay awake and he left.

I went to bed and woke up in a flying panic at 9.45! That lasted until I hit the kitchen, and found absolutely no one awake, not even the light in the fishtank was on yet...... My nephew has a hard time being ON time, and has his alarm set ahead 3 hours:-). So, I had a cup of coffee in the back garden, with a slice of bread and a painpill. Mike called my cell a little after that, and said he was going into work, make sure there was coverage, and than he would come up. He sounded worried.

So, after waiting till 9 to call the insurance and the company that had our car, we went to clean it out around 10.30 or so. Mike had called that he was on the way when he left base, and if we could, would we wait going to the car. He knew I was useless in carrying things to and fro, and he didn't want to stick Willem with all the work, so the family had a leasurely breakfast, and right at the end of it, Mike came in, shared a cup of coffee. and off we went.  When we got there, the reality hit of how bad it could have turned out. The engine was sheared off the engine mounts and was laying on the ground, and while clearing behind the backseat, Mike showed me a hump that was about 5 inches high above the drivetrain hump that used to be about 3 inches below it, where the car had hit the boulder, and there were several of those......... The funny part, or at least the part that hit my funny bone, was the sign in the windshield, that read..... "Do not start" with the car key taped to it. I know, my mind does NOT work like everybody elses. LOL

The wheels that had looked pretty normal, except the flat right front, when it was sitting on the side of the road, now looked like they had been sledgehammered sideways, the plastic wheelcovers were bent (not broken though) away from the wheelhub, 3 of the 4 hubcabs were on the floorboard, and what ticked me off, was that there were dents in the doorjam where they had lifted the car. They were not part of the accident. Now, IF by some miracle, they do NOT total the car, we have to fix that. Also, the car is a unibody. Had they left that in good shape, somebody would have had a good body to put in place of a rusted one............. I know it is silly, but that bothers me. Had they taken the time to pull the straps around the bottom, the body itself would still have been ok. But... I'm rambling. :-)  

The really weird part started friday morning right after I got downstairs and before I even started on my coffee. My oldest sister calls around 7.15 asking why I hadn't called my dad to let him know I got home safe, because he called her out of bed at 11.30 the night before, and they just got off the phone again.......... I told her the reason might be that I didn't GET home safe............that I wrecked the car, and had sat at the hospital till after 11.00, I had gotten painpills and had a very unrestful night because of the pain."Nuf said, right?

Now here's the rest of that conversation: Oh, well, are you ok? Yes. Are you in the hospital? No. Are you home, because you should have called dad. No, I'm at Nicky's. Why didn't she call? I will call dad and let him know why you haven't called, than.  

10 minutes later dad calls. Mind you, this is not an abreviated version, but the whole thing:
D:  Why didn't you call? Peet said you wrecked the car, how is Mike getting to work now? Are you at the hospital?
Me: No, I'm at Nicky's.
D: I don't know what to do with that  

At that point, I'm listening to a dead line. I'm also thinking to myself.... Is THIS the reason we moved around the world, so I can be with the family? I had better friends in Iowa. Heck, I had closer aquaintances in Reno! Mind you, besides the fact that there was more fuss made that I hadn't called, and that Mike was without a car.... they totally blow over the fact that I drove around the US for 20+ years, and they wouldn't know where I was, at ANY time!

My REALLY, REALLY big thing, is that I'm "getting-together" close to Nicky again. I did not realise how much I had missed her, until we got together again. Feeling wise, we were never apart, but all the little things we used to do, and didn't and can do again........... yeah, that makes the crazy part of my family tollerable, but not less alarming.  Nicky's whole fammily is awesome, Willem is the big brother I never had, and the kids are like our own. (Without the sleepless nights and the diaperchanges LOL)

After cleaning the car, we went back to my sisters place and spent the day. It was very nice, very relaxing, and very much taking my mind off what could have happen....... I guess that's what sisters do :-) We went to the zoo for a little bit, checked out how big the polarbear cubs had gotten, watched the Malaysian bears get fed, chatted, sat and had icecream, chatted some more, strolled a little more............ H E A V E N!!

I think, since this took me most of yesterday day to type, that I will post it, as is, and keep you updated a little bit at a time. Hand is killing me, so I'm going to look for a nice long movie, glas of milk (Would have liked a tall cold Guiness, but Mike keeps telling me that is NOT a good idea, and I'm letting him be the voice of reason, today. LOL) and see if I can coax our purring, fuzzy roommate to sit with me, instead of on the keyboard Mike is trying to use  :-)  I'll post pictures of my little aubergine in a day or 2, when I can look at them without crying.

Don't forget to hug a loved one and stay safe....

Hugs,
Pauli