It’s been one of those weeks here his week. Truly, I could say it has been several busy weeks strung together that has caused the lack of postings, but this one begs to be told.

We were blessed to have visitors from Ohio. Hubby’s aunt and cousin came in for four days. They didn’t catch us at the best of times.  Normally, CO is bright and sunny but the weather was more in keeping with Ohio and the midwest than was our norm.  It turned cloudy and the snow began to fall within a day of their arrival.  The days were not just filled with clouds. There were other events that cast shadows upon our days causing diversions and pulling from our giving our all to our guests.

I feel that they did not get our full attention for several reasons. First, it was during the work week – work has provided many challenges lately that require more decompression time that the drive home alone provides. Then there was the first snowstorm that layered the roads with ice and snow and making access to some planned activities prohibitive.

This might not have been much of a factor in an of itself had I not come home early on the second day and then received a text from #2 son which read, “my car flipped!”

My initial reaction is that he is at least conscious if he is texting, but seriously, we need to talk about how in this instance, a mother wants to hear a voice, not see a text of this nature.

I call and he says he is fine and car is on the driver’s side in the road and emergency help is there. He was headed to his girlfriend’s home and was just a few miles down the road.
I jumped back into my car and headed down there.

I found a spot to park off the road and made my way to the group of sheriff cars, fire engine and ambulance. The chief fireman said my son was in the ambulance staying warm and I was welcome to go in. He and the paramedic were just chatting away as he had only slight scrapes on his one wrist and elbow and required no medical attention.

(for those of you doing close inspection, the bottle is pop)

The scariest part was when the trooper came back to my car after the tow truck had flipped the car back on all four wheels.  We rolled down the window and he asked, “son, is there anything you want to tell me that is in your vehicle?”

Let me tell you, that even if you believe your child is honest and states that he is not part of a crowd that does drugs or drinks, you still fly through a myriad of possibilities that he either might have been part of or that his friends who ride to lunch with him might have left behind.

Not to make light of the situation, but I was tremendously relieved when Trooper Cleveland (not even making that up) stated that he noticed that junior had some bottle rockets in the car.  Our eldest son had purchased a slew of pyrotechnics and various fireworks in Ohio (or maybe Indiana, Ill, KS or some other stop on the way from Ohio to CO) and here some were in the back of his car.  The trooper relayed that he was not going to ticket him for these (he had after all been a teen and had them as well) but did admonish that they should never be used here in our mountains where we are subject to wildfires and to lose them quickly. Not a conversation that hadn’t been already had in our house, so why they were in the car would be one of those conversations that will wait until everyone’s legs still aren’t shaking.

We had the car towed and left on the road above our house. (dirt road, no through traffic, we’ll deal with it in a few days)

The very next morning, #1 son leaves for work at around 5:30 am. I had opted to hang around the house for a bit before going into work, so when he came back not quite an hour later visibly shaken, I was there to hear of his auto escapade.

It was a morning of gale force winds across the front range and as he was driving along Interstate 70 heading down to work, one of those powerful gusts took him off of the snowpacked lane he was in, through the median.  When he finally came to rest, the car enveloped in the snow he had plowed through, he had no idea which way he was facing or where exactly he had come to a stop.

To his horror, when he finally cleared some views out the windshield, he was sitting in the fast lane of the opposite side of the highway!  Fearing for his existence, he managed to get cleared and back into that direction of traffic and just came home to shake in Mom’s arms for a bit and be thankful that there was no damage to him, anyone else, or the car.

At this point, I was not about to leave my nest where I could watch my peeps and sent a text to work (I know, shouldn’t text about emergency situations, but it was only work and I could include visuals)

Turns out, with the advent of apps that report accidents, either his was already on the radar, or someone else had succumb to the same hazards as he had.

The traffic map showed an accident at the very spot.

We managed through the rest of the week without another daily accident. Our extended family had a minor ‘got stuck on the way to school’ incident, so we counted that as the third one in the -everything happens in three – scenario.

And if we were unsure if we had been sparred the third accident, we received confirmation yesterday.  While at an intersection with a traffic light for us to turn onto our four lane highway through parts of Evergreen and us being the first in line to turn, a car failed to stop at the red light and T-Boned the car next to us that had been first in line at the second turn lane.  I had caught sight of the car and held fast my  position but the car next to me did not and was smashed into.

Enough with the auto incidents. We may just walk to church this morning to give our blessings of how fortunate we all have been to be unhurt and only have auto damage to deal with.

Drive safe my friends.

Love,

Sally