She had quite a ride ...
AA- glad to hear your wife is ok. What happened?
Thanks Zale, Pelorus, and you too Rope. She just lost her Father in May and we both think somebody up there was looking out for her.
If was somewhat of a freak accident, while turning around in a friend's driveway not half a mile from home she went down an embankment, took out three sumac trees as she slid down it. I think that the heel of her foot pushed the floor mat up onto the gas pedal as she dug in to try to get it stopped because she said the motor was racing as she tried to stop.
She bounded through a shallow ditch at the bottom, and when she hit the road below with the brakes locked it slewed her sideways leaving skid marks as it started to spin, then she went sideways across a parking area for the local bike trail, hitting a curbstone which flipped her over across the bike path, and then she rolled it three times (leaving a big divot each rotation) out into the local ballpark from left field into center field where she landed on her wheels and the thing took off again, burning tracks in the turf. It stopped upright in right field. She climbed out the shattered window on the driver's side (even though the passenger door still worked) to make her escape.
It's a busy road, and the bike path is usually filled with bicyclists and walkers. Good thing there wasn't a game going on or the parking area would have been filled and the outfield populated with little kids. It could have been much worse. I was up a tree when the call came from the Chief of Police telling me there had been an accident. He assured me she was OK, just being taken via ambulance to the Hospital.
Of course I raced to the scene, just in time to see the Colorado being winched up onto the car hauler. Then to the ER to wait with her for the attending Physician to review her X-rays. When they released her I took her back to the job with me and she helped us clean up so that JohnBoy could go home early to babysit.
I had told him there would be a bonus if he finished the job (trimming three small trees) when I left. When we got back I went up in one of the trees to clear it from the wires (I had told JohnBoy not to go there) and while I was up there I looked down and Carl was raking, Debi was picking up sticks, and JohnBoy was sitting on the cooler smoking a cigarette watching them hustle so he could go home early.
That really teed me off, and I chewed him out pretty good for being a lazy slacker. The next day he didn't show or call, so I fired him for the 9th and last time. Later I found out he cut my newest climbing line, 120' of Imori, and just stuffed it back in the bag. When he called two days later asking about work I told him that he had used up his 9th and last life with me (something I told him when I brought him back after the 8th firing), and that I wan't firing him for the cut rope, but for being a no show, which is what I fired him for all eight other times.
So JohnBoy is history, I'm done with hiring relatives. Three Nephews and a Cousin has shown me that it just doesn't work. Now I'm doing all the climbing again until I find someone who has the right stuff. Anybody over 50 looking for work as a climber?
~ the Aerialist ...
