Friggatriskaidekaphobia: a morbid, irrational fear of Friday the 13th

(posted from an email to family - finally, the full and unabridged story of "the mattress incident")

Hi all,

Some of you have heard by now about my Friday the
13th accident. To quote the great Samuel Clemens (or
was it Samuel Adams?), "rumors of my death have been
greatly exaggerated".

However, the much loved VW Cabriolet I bought for
Sarah's 30th...is no more, fallen victim to the
ravages of the roadway. This sorry tale resulted from
a unfortunate decision to make a lunchtime run for a
present for Sarah's birthday (damn Gemini's) on a day
when I had her car and she mine. My chosen route took
me on the freeway, where we had to climb a small
summit - about 600 feet elevation. Being in a 20 year
old VW, it was slow going and I was in the right lane
behind an equally slow truck. As we crested the
summit, I moved into the middle lane to pass the
truck, where to my surprise, I see a floral blue
pillow-top queen sized mattress. Now boxed in on the
left and right and without enough time to stop, I hit
the mattress dead-on.

At this point, one of two things happened: either the
mattress got stuck under the car like one might slip
on a loose rug, or it catapulted the car up like a
four year old on, well, on a mattress. Either way,
the end result was a violent swerve to the right,
followed by one, two, three rolls. Now, I've been
asked many a time if I saw my life flashing before my
eyes, or whether the whole incident was in
slow-motion. As much as I'd like to add more drama to
the story, the truth is that I hunkered down in the
car and squeezed my eyes shut like a kid doing a
cannonball. I saw nothing but the backs of my eyelids
and felt the world revolve around me.

Miraculously, I didn't hit any other cars, my head
didn't get scraped off on the roadway, I stopped with
the rubber side down, on the side of the road no
less, and in a fortunate spot where there actually
was a side of the road to stop on, as opposed to one
of the many canyons that are on that particular
stretch of roadway. During the roll, I white-knuckled
the steering wheel and pulled my head down as close
to the stick shift as possible. As for direct damage,
I had a bit of road rash on my left elbow, and an
abrasion on my head where I lost a bit of hair (I'm
hoping it doesn't grow back there so I can continue
to be prompted to tell the story).

But - when the car stopped, I didn't know that I was
ok. Having some smattering of first aid training, I
understand the concept of shock, and figured that I
could have a broken back and a missing arm and who
knows what else, but just not feel it. So, I sat
there in the car, listening to the radio (still
going) for a few minutes until many a kind person
came to my side. I continued to sit in the car until
the CHP came, followed by a fire truck and paramedics.

I'm now realizing that this had been a really bad
accident. Hopefully the only bad one I'll ever have -
and I'm pretty much ok, so I'm going to have some
fun. Here is where my real disappointment starts to
set in.

Naturally they want to take me to the hospital to a
full check-out, which I agree to. They can't get the
door open, so they go to get a pry-bar. Not one of
the little ones we've all used to change a tire, but
one of the 4 foot long hardened steel ones. "Bring
the jaws of life!" I suggest, but no dice.

They pop the door, put me in a neck brace and gently
maneuver me out of the car onto a back board, where
it takes 6 big firefighters to carry me to the gurney
and into the ambulance. "Sorry guys, been trying to
lose that last 100 pounds." "Hey buddy, do you want
to keep the mattress as a souvenir"? Hahaha. Laughs
are had by all.

Into the ambulance we go, where I eagerly request the
siren be turned on. You see, I know this is my one
time to experience all the facets of an accident
victim - the jaws of life, the siren, the neck
collar, etc.; how often can you experience these
things without being about to die? Again, they
politely refuse my request, telling me I'm not in
serious enough condition to warrant it. Apparently,
if you're ok enough to ask for the siren and the jaws
of life, you don't need them. Muh.

So. I get to the hospital all nice and quiet like,
where the doctor feels me up, does a full cat scan,
and after giving me a stern lecture on my blood
pressure (of all things), discharges me. Well, talk
about a new lease on life! That night, Sarah & I went
out with friends (she drove) and celebrated both her
birthday and the fact that I was still there to enjoy
it. I felt great!!!

The following week and a half was excruciatingly
unpleasant; one morning I woke up so sore that I
couldn't move, and thought for sure that the days
following the accident had been a comatose dream and
that I was in fact paralyzed. Luckily, not the case,
and I am now back to 95% percent.

So, I'll close with an apology for the long and
verbose email, and share some of the photos of the
remnants of the car, along with my love to each of
you. I want you all to know that I care deeply about
each of you, and am glad that I have a few more years
to spend with you.

S cab for cutie

A brief week after "the mattress incident", my sweetie has found a replacement for the ill-fated cabriolet. very cute.

makes one wonder if, had i not made it, would she have replaced me as quickly and easily? >:-)

dear sweet Buddy

he was so worried about my accident (how worried was he?) that he made himself sick just thinking about it. well, a few hours of empty stomach drinking at sunshine company didn't help...

more pics...

friday the 13th: attack of the killer mattress

anybody who is reading this blog likely already knows about the accident on friday. rolling 3 times in a convertible was quite an experience; one I would be happy to never ever repeat. i have this feeling that there is some deeper, almost religious meaning in this event - walking away without dying seems pretty unlikely. i'm trying to digest this event still, and will blog more about it as things work themselves out. i'll post some pics tomorrow after a visit to the towyard where the car is at, and will try to write more soon.

till then, please let these pics hold you over...

a haiku per buddy's request

buddy vents anger
at the kids, teachers and staff
"ima kick me some ass"

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SARAH!!!

YAY IT'S SARAH'S BIRTHDAY!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY - I LOVE YOU!!!

in honor of Sarah's special day, her favorite Robot Chicken clip:

and perhaps her second favorite (she wants to cuss him out...):

festivities will begin at Wine Steals in Hillcrest at 6ish on Friday the 13th. Come join us!

my practical side is a whiny bitch

so, as i was driving home from class tonight, i think i struck the final blow in the years long battle to transform myself into a daily motorcycle rider. to bring my vast readership up to date on this battle, i'd dreamt many a time about having a motorcycle as my main mode of transport. the cool factor was huge in my mind, as well as the ease of parking, the fuel efficiency, and the fun of riding.

i've owned in the past, mostly cheap honda's that were fun for a weekend goof-off but not really reliable enough to use daily. as these were side vehicles, toys if you will, i never put much money into them. my last was sadly left behind when we moved from CT. where it is now, i'll never know. moment of silence for that POS.

...

with gas where it is now and some crafty salesmanship, i had fully convinced my better half on the reasonableness of getting a new bike. plus, there's actually some money floating around so that i could get into something that would be reliable enough to be part of my daily commute. in effect, i could make the transition to one of those guys who rides all the time. with sunny san diego weather, why not?

then, my practical side started sniping at me. "what about days when you need to take the kids to school, or pick them up?" "what about helping out with a costco run?" "what about getting a cup of coffee in the morning?" "do you really want to deal with the hassle of changing shoes, like mr rogers, when you get to work?" "do you really want to be riding home in the dark, nice and cold, at 10 pm when class gets out?" and most painfully, "your eyesight is not so good. what if you can't pass the vision exam to get your M1 license back?" finally, "what if you're not really a good enough rider to do this every day, and you get yourself killed?" finally, "what if you're more into the idea of riding a motorcycle than really riding one?" the one really hurt. jeebus christ, my practical side is a whiny, mean, hateful bitch.

but, i think it's probably right. with that said, i think i've decided to get my kicks on a different kind of bike, and find another solution to the increasing price of gas.

got a new bike in the garage...

regrettably (or maybe not so much) said new bike is for the boy. took him out for an 8 mile trek on Saturday afternoon, in which there was surprisingly no whining. I think nick has learned the value of mid-ride trail mix and M&M's.

little do they all know that this purchase is part of my grand scheme to move up to a dually once the boy needs a bigger bike. he could then have my current hardtail and i can move to the world of daul suspension-y goodness.

of course, as my good buddy buddy seems to moving to the other end of the spectrum, with the single-speediness, and the fixed-geariness, and the cyclo-crossiness...he might just end up riding a uni for all i know, and mebbe then i can snag the s-werks fer dert cheep...

nick on the trail:

ok, so my blog is not all about vids, but check this one out!

super evil demon emerges from cell phone whence microwaved...

spelling bees were never this fun...

http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=4969186

how my day today was...

(clip courtesy of buddy)

quick post from work

just had to share...