This year, the option of trick or treat wasn't a luxury for me. On the afternoon of Halloween, I got one of the biggest tricks of my life. On my way to the DMV, a Ryder moving truck ran a stop sign and I ended up crashing into the cab of it head on.
This was my first accident, and the last, hopefully. It was a very surreal experience. It happened so incredibly fast that I can't even fully describe the event. It was as if someone changed channels very quickly -- you're watching Disney and the next split second you've been switched over to a horror movie. One moment I was looking down Elm Street and listening to the Rolling Stones on the stereo. The next, I had an airbag in my face and the world went spinning. Or so it seemed.
I didn't even know what I had hit until I climbed out of the Jeep. And there it was in all its broke-ass glory, that stop sign ignoring Ryder truck. The Jeep was still running. Some guy turned it off, and I asked him to find my cell phone. I sat there for a few minutes on the sidewalk trying to breathe. A combo of seatbelt and airbag had left my chest on fire. My knees were ablaze, as well. My right side began to ache.
The two men in the Ryder truck were transferred to the ED. I was triaged at the scene and released. I wasn't bleeding or broken (that I knew of), and my heart rate was only 96 despite the epinephrine coursing through my veins.
Within a few minutes my brother and my buddy Jason showed up. I barely remember calling them. I really didn't have to do anything. I sat in Jason's truck while he gathered my belongings out of the poor Jeep. Shingus stayed with me and just lended his brotherly support. I don't think they know what a comfort to me they were at the time. I love those guys.
And of course, I have to find the cantankerous irony in the situation. I had the accident on Elm Street... on Halloween. Freddy Krueger was nowhere in sight, but the thought is somewhat comical, nonetheless.
I made a trip to see my doctor when everything was over. I walked away with a couple of fractured ribs, a bruised kidney, and two jacked up knees. I am sore in places that I didn't even know I had.
Optimism still reigns, despite the nightmare on Elm Street. My kids weren't with me. I am alive. And well, for the most part. It could have been much worse. The insurance company just rang to inform me that my Jeep is a "total loss." No surprise there. I suppose no treat was in the cards this year...
So long, Black Betty... Thanks, Jason, for the enlightening photos...
