Mr. Toad's Wild Ride

Had nothing on this afternoon's hijinks.  My landlady, someone else and I were getting ready to play Gin Rummy.  As we were getting everything ready, I heard a speeding car and then a very  loud crash.  As in the fall doesn't kill you, it's the sudden stop at the end.  I raced to the door, saw that the accident was really bad and started telling people to call 911.  Nobody responded instantly so I went inside and used the landlady's landline and spoke to the second dumbest operator I've ever had the misfortune to interact with.

I told her about the accident, that we needed an ambulance ASAP,  gave her the address and  tried to get off the phone so I could go help.  She told me to calm down, give her my name and wanted to ask me more questions.  I gave her my name, spelled it for her and then told her I had to go because I was the only one around with medical training and the driver probably didn't have time to wait and then I hung up on her.

I ran across the street just in time to stop some guys from moving the injured person from his seat.  The airbag had deployed and there was blood everywhere.  The windshield was shattered and the  rear end of a parked flatbed truck was occupying the aforementioned space and it had just grazed the driver.  Probably because he had his head down and to the right looking for something instead of driving.  Like the first paramedic said, it was a miracle the driver wasn't killed.

I asked the driver some questions and determined that he had hurt his neck and I was pretty sure he had a compound fracture of the leg.  He kept mumbling something about he shouldn't be here and that wasn't supposed to happen.  I told him that's why they call them accidents.  I held him in place and had him concentrate on his breathing to calm him down.  And yes, his legs had sustained some damage, they stripped him bare before strapping him to a board to put him on the gurney.

After the cops had most of the stuff under control (it took almost an hour to pry the Ford mini SUV from the truck) we went back to our game.  One of the ladies was having hot flashes and had turned on the ceiling fan.  The landlady put up with it for a while and asked her to turn it off.  Menopause Patty yanked on the chain so hard that she broke it and it was stuck in fast mode.  Even though I'm terrified of heights I climbed on the table, turned off the fan at the source and reconnected the chain.

We managed to play almost a round and then the electricity went off in the neighborhood.  For about an hour and a half.  We kept on playing and when we were almost done, in comes another tow truck for the Vietnamese lady from down the street.  Her car was missing the right front end.   Her husband drinks too much and takes it out on her, so we all knew it couldn't be a good thing.

The electricity came on and we wrapped up the game, but then I had to go do a Mystery Shopping job at the movies.  I completed the task and came home and relaxed at L's house for about an hour and then went home.  I was getting ready for bed and heard a diesel engine.  Being the nosy curious type I looked out the window to see the firetruck leave and one of our drama queens was in the back of the ambulance.

What a wild night, I just heard a group of motorcyclists blaze past a little faster than the speed limit just like all the people did after they passed the accident.  Wouldn't you want to drive slower so that you don't make the same kind of mistake?

Mom is asleep and has missed all the excitement.   This day has kicked my ass, I think I'll take myself off to bed and hope that the bedbugs don't bite.  Or that we don't have an earthquake.

BBB