Am I really as neurotic as I feel?

Weekend travels

Dad, the nephew, and I went to KC this weekend...the original plan was for me to go down to visit Ry, but he got roped into "baby"sitting a friend's mom's "babies" (she has never called them dogs....they are her babies).  We did get to have breakfast with him on Saturday, so it was good to see him again.

We took Kiddo to his first Royals game (first baseball game ever, really) and he was a hoot.  He ate one of everything (no joke) and wanted more.  He managed to pee in a port-a-potty after the game (he forgot to go to the bathroom while we were still in the stadium) while I held my cell phone inside and kept pushing buttons so he would have some sort of light inside.  What a trooper.

We went to a BBQ festival thingy...it was okay.  Lots of good smells...more samples would have made it a more enjoyable event, though.

It was raining off and on throughout the day, which led to the excitement for the weekend....

We were driving along the interstate when we came across a total downpour, so Dad slowed down a bit.  Just north of one exit, though, it was still coming down really hard, and we hit a slick spot or a puddle or something, and we started hydroplaning (which, if I knew I wouldn't be in any danger, I would love to do again because it's a totally cool sensation).  The back end tried to get ahead of the front end, we slid diagonally into the median, then started spinning.  We think we spun around once, but it felt like 3 or 4.  All I could see was a bunch of water, mud, and grass flying over the car and headlights from some direction...all in slow motion.

If this was going to happen, that was the place to have it happen, because the median was really wide, not too shallow that we would have slid across the southbound lanes (and into the flooded ditch/field on the other side), but not too steep that we would have crashed into the hill or flipped.  Once we came to a stop, we asked Kiddo if he was okay (he wasn't hurt, but the poor kid was terrified, as were we, but of course we couldn't let him see that).  He couldn't say anything at first, but then he started crying.  I called 911, then Dad kept trying to get the car unstuck, but the water was at least a few inches deep, plus a bunch of mud below that, so I told him (a few times) to just stop and wait for the tow truck.  I climbed into the backseat to sit by Kiddo (I was amazed that I could still climb into the backseat of a car..."that's what she said").

While Dad was talking to the trooper (who Kiddo wanted to be a storm trooper, of course), Kiddo started saying "When you were little, and you were riding in the car when it was raining and slipped on the road and ended up in the ditch, you were okay, right?"  The coping mechanisms of children are really quite fascinating.  I explained to him that this didn't happen to me when I was little, but I know people who had been in accidents and they were fine.  Sometimes they happen because the driver was doing something he shouldn't have been doing, but other times (like now) they happen just because, but we're all okay and the car is okay and the tow truck would arrive soon and then we'd be on our way home.

Dad managed to call home (it took him a moment to compose himself and break the news to his wife of nearly 31 years that we were almost maimed or worse) and he kept getting out to look at the car and check for damage.  Amazingly enough, there wasn't any damage to the car.  The alignment wasn't even off.  Although when we stopped at the next exit to go to the bathroom (of course), there was a weird noise when we turned left.  Turns out a pop can that was in the median got stuck by one of the tires and the spring.  But that was it.  So all in all, it was very scary, but it definitely could have been a lot worse.  My agnostic brain can't help but think that someone was watching over us...or that the physics of the rain-soaked grass and slope of the median resulted in us not being maimed or killed.  It's a tough call.

We wondered how Kiddo would do...he sort of slept the rest of the way home, so he was exhausted and slept for about 10 hours after we got home.  But, in true Kiddo fashion, he was out riding his big wheel (best toy ever!) when he drove into the grass and "got stuck in the deck (ditch)."  So Papa had to play the part of the tow truck driver and pull him out with a rope.      He also took a toy tow truck (say that three times fast) to day care today.  I think he'll be fine.

Posted by: greeneyes at 19:05 | link | comments (1)

Who has two thumbs and gets to sit about 30 feet from Michael Buble as he performs in Chicago?

This girl!

I may have to take an extra pair of undies to throw on stage when he sings Me and Mrs. Jones...

Posted by: greeneyes at 12:54 | link | comments (1)

My hair is now long enough to pull back into clips.  For the most part.

The lead on my project (K) had to go to another project for a few months.  M took his place, but she hasn't been with us for a while, so there are a lot of things she doesn't remember.  So I'm sort of in charge...ish.  Things are going well so far, but there's a lot I don't know...little details.

Posted by: greeneyes at 09:03 | link | comments