As though things weren't already rough

Kate and I were in a car accident this morning.

Before my phone starts ringing, I will assure you that we are all fine. I have a very sore neck/back (and strangely, wrist), and Kate has a small bruise from her seatbelt, but we're all good.

We were innocently driving along and some dumb bloke ran his stop sign ("I thought it was a four-way stop."). We spun around so we were on the opposite side of the road facing the direction we were coming from. This is the dialogue I heard in my head:

"B-I-N-G-O" -- oh wait, no, that was outloud.
"There's a car at the window."
"I'm spinning."
"Kate's crying."
"Turn into it, turn into it! I stopped the car! Yay!" (no seriously, i remember specifically praising myself)
"Why aren't the brakes working?"
"Put it in park dummy!"

If it weren't for some very nice people who stopped to help me I would have been a mess. Or maybe, because I had support I was able to be a mess. I'm hoping that I would have been less of a mess if I were on my own. These two guys in suits walked up and asked if we were okay. I was holding the phone at my ear with my shoulder and trying to get a screaming Kate out of the car. He then realized what I needed was help calling 911 and just took over doing that. I can't say how much that helped.

(lesson of the day: do not remove baby from carseat until EMTs arrive. lesson learned.)

Another woman stopped and waited to give her account since she saw the whole thing. She stood around and entertained Kate and tried to lighten the mood which was greatly appreciated. she lives in our neighborhood (no surprise there, people in our neighborhood are AWESOME) and was nice enough to wait with me.

(lesson: write down contact info of nice people to send them goodies. i know her name and her street but not her address so i might be knocking on a lot of doors.)

Kate enjoyed watching the fire engine show up (to my surprise since she hates loud noises) and was good about waiting around until the cops got there. She even let a fireman touch her without any problem. We got a clean bill of health and didn't have to go to the hospital. The car on the other hand... he hit us right at the place where Kate sits. Exactly there. But, the door didn't hit her (thank goodness). I think if we'd had side curtains she would have gotten thrown to the middle seat from the impact of the airbags. Anyway, we're curious to see if they fix or scrap the car. The door was messed up along with the wheel well, tire, and undercarriage. Seems fixable, but who knows. The carseat is going in the dumpster however.

Tomorrow I get a rental car and go buy a new carseat. Today I had a hard time focusing on doing much of anything other than talking to insurance agents. I'm pretty much taking this as a sign that I need to stop complaining and be more appreciative.

MESSAGE RECEIVED, OUT THERE! OKAY?

On a lighter note, did you know you can plant sprouting onions?