As we have everything packed and ready to leave, we get everything in the car. I open the garage to find that it is pouring down rain. I knew it was raining, I just did not realize that it was torrential downpours.
I ran back into the house to grab something I forgot and the power went out in the house. This was going to be a problem because while I could get my car out of the garage because the door was already open, I was not going to be able to close the garage door until the power came back on.
Lance ready to go. He was a little concerned about the rain. He was still ready to go to camp. Evidently the rain has not ruined any of the fun they have been having at camp this week.
Fortunately, the power did not stay off more than a couple of minutes and we were able to get out of the garage and be on our way to REI to get the CamelBak bite valves we needed. We had just under an hour to get all the way to REI and back in the rain before I dropped him off for carpool. This should not be a problem, but with the rain it was going to cause some slower traffic. Hopefully it would let up before we got to the store so we would not get soaking wet in the process.
What we did not expect…
Was the impact that would hit us from behind at the stop light not even a mile from the house. We were stopped at the red light by the Windwood Church on Spring Cypress. I had this impression to look up and there I saw the car coming in my rear view mirror. My thought was “it is not going to stop in time” so I started to roll forward a little bit. I was stopped at the red light so I could only roll a little bit and had to stop. I prayed the light would turn green and it did, but you can only move if the cars in front of you are moving – they were not.
I am watching this all unfold very quickly in my mirror and thinking to myself “just relax” and feeling this sense of calm come over me. I think in my mind I knew there was nothing I could do about it and I knew I needed to just relax to lessen whatever it was going to do to me. I just proceeded as if I was doing what I was supposed to be doing until I felt the “bang” on me and then I stopped. It was pretty hard. She moved my car forward a little bit as I was barely moving as it was. She hit me hard.
What you cannot really tell in the pictures above is that with the scratches (gouges) in my bumper from her license plate, there are clear indentations where the bolts/screws where that were holding that license plate bracket in place. Three of them. The 2 lowest one are clear as day in person. Also, the yellow paint goes all the way across the bumper.
It is hard to tell from her car where the old damage stops and the new damage begins, but you can tell that she popped the bumper on impact in the second picture. It also broke the Mustang grate off the front of her car and left it laying in the street between our two cars.
The good news is that my car is big and did exactly what it was supposed to do. It took the impact she dished out. Every single bit of it. Did I feel the impact? Oh yes! I felt it. It was hard and I am going to be feeling it tomorrow. In fact within an hour my headache pain with from a 3 to a 6 on a 10 point scale. It was quickly pushing a 7 by the 2 hour mark. Full blown migraine. My right shoulder was hurting pretty bad by the 1 hour mark. I was feeling the impact. The accident completely freaked Lance out. He said he was terrified. He had never been in one before I do not think.
I love my car even more now. It did what I needed it to do. Those were wet, rain slicked cars and it protected Lance and I from someone’s sheer stupidity. It was stupidity. As hard as she hit me, she was clearly speeding and could not slow down fast enough or she was clearly distracted and did not even see that the light was red. Either way it does not matter. It was her stupidity. The really stupid part is that I was right next to the middle turn lane on the road. Clear and unobstructed. She could have avoided the accident all together. She could have swerved and gone into that lane. While it might have freaked me out, she could have missed me. I am very mad about the whole situation now. I was calm at the time for the person that clearly had no clue how to handle an accident, but now I am just mad because I get to deal with the aftermath.
In spite of the many minutes it took for me to get all of the accident stuff taken care of in the rain, Lance and I still made it to REI. I was made that my iPhone sounded like crap. I had it out in the rain taking pictures of the accident and it sounded all crackly. There was water inside my case. I was even madder at that point. Fortunately, after pulling it out of the case in the car and using on the kid’s dirty socks (see they are good for something) to dry it off along with its case, I was able to get it on the outside and dry out all the little ports that I could visibly see water in. It still sounded kind of funky and distant. I let the air conditioner blow on it on the way home. It sounded much better then. It just made me madder that someone’s stupidity was causing further problems.
Anyway, we got into the store and got what we needed and we were back on our way. I had used my phone to call Lance’s Den Leader to let them to know that if we were more than 5 minutes late to just go without us and explained why. We did make it back. By this point, my head was killing me. I thought I should pre-treat Lance for a headache as well. While he was not complaining of one, he did get that forward head motion just like I did. I had them swing by my house to get him some Tylenol as they did not have any and they were on their way off to camp.
I prayed that Lance’s day goes better than it started out.
Unfortunately, it did not last long. By 3:20PM I was receiving a text telling me that he was in the Scout Hut with a migraine and not feeling well. I was afraid that the headache would hit him eventually. I grabbed him a Coke on the way over to the camp. I did not want to pick him up if I did not have to. He had already had some Advil by the time I had gotten there and so I sat and waited with him while he drank the Coke. We just waited quietly. We were watching the Webelos that were doing a class in there on First Aid. It was not entirely boring. By 4:15PM, I decided it was time to go home. It had been almost an hour and he was not getting any better, it was time to go home and sleep it off. So Lance left halfway through the day.
Lance showing off his BB Gun target from yesterday. He wanted to show it off next to his bull’s eye drawing on the back of his shirt.
Lance’s BB Gun target. He said that they drew their own targets on the paper plates. He said that his was the smallest in their group. Way to shoot, Lance!
Lance was so proud of himself with his bull’s eyes! I am impressed that he drew his target and managed to hit it. He could have drawn a larger one from what he said, but he went small and still hit it.
Today at camp, they worked on…
Wood working! Lance’s tool box (from above).
Look at the details on this tool box.
Of course, it would not be fair to say that it was complete perfection. There were some bent nails on the other side. It even appears that he had problems spelling his own name? Overall it is a really nice looking tool box and it is not huge like the other boys have made in the past. It was just a nice little project.
Then Lance finished his requirements for…
Lance finished the requirements for his Whittling Chip. These are pictures of his finished “whittled” bar of soap. This is a spear. I am not entirely sure. That is what he said it was.
He is just happy that he finished this because this means he can use a sharp knife now.
And this is what all the ruckus was about this morning…
This little green valve was what we went after. Well they are originally blue. You can buy one for $12 if you want a blue one or you can get a 3 pack of these pastel colored ones for $12. I vote for the 3 pack and it just so happens that I have a little boy that LOVES green so he was happy to have the green one.
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