Yesterday it snowed generously here in Austria, and I got a call from my wife at lunch telling me that Beta had wrecked her car between Vienna and Town X and I should go to her. There are several ways to get there and I asked where she was precisely and my wife was unable to tell me. So I called Beta and she was unable to tell me, too. So I went one way and drove back the other and didn’t see Beta anywhere because she’d gotten the car, which is said to look like an accordion now, started and driven back to her place.
So I went back to work, richer by one hairy snow driving experience, but worried about the kid, who was said to be fine although car totaled. Later that evening she went to the hospital to have pains looked into. They turned out to be various contusions. The one on her nose was not from the accident, it was from slipping on snow in front of the hospital and falling on her nose. That reminds me I still have to apologize to her for giving her the slapstick gene. Just this weekend she dropped her cell phone in the crapper, chip off the old block.
She told me she spun on the snow and hit a guardrail and wrecked the car. Turns out she came to a stop pointing the wrong way on a freeway. Yikes. She’s always been exceptional. She even has awesome snow mishaps.
I’m trying to get her to come home with me tonight but I think she has other plans.
Fucking snow, man.
Also, Julian Assange, what does one think about him? Crusading hero or Bond villain? Depends who you ask, I guess. I’d be growing a beard if I were him, getting some plastic surgery, putting on weight.
All that stuff. Actually, I’m putting on weight anyway, even though I’m not him, it’s winter.
I had a car accident just like that about 15 years ago, including the part about driving the wrecked car home, but not the part about taking a pratfall and dinging my nose. It is very disorienting, and I remember just sitting on my couch, wrapped in a warm blanket, sort of dazed and confused for a few hours. When we went outside the next morning to examine the car, it was smashed up so badly that we were amazed that I hadn’t been killed. It got fixed up good as new and I drove it for several more years afterward.
I’ll bet Julian Assange has a car accident like that pretty soon, and won’t be as lucky as Beta or me.
He could always just have a bad pratfall, too.
Glad to hear she’s relatively okay, Mig.
Oh my gosh, this brings back memories. Years ago, when my kids were young, I had to go to San Antonio in January for Officers’ Training in the US Army Reserve. I drove my daughters from Buffalo to Binghamton to my sister’s house to stay, and the next day I drove north on Route 81, a four lane highway, to the Syracuse airport. The road was slushy but seemed okay, but suddenly I rounded a curve and there was a plow or salter partially blocking my lane – I was afraid I’d lose control if I tried to swerve so I tried to brake, spun out, and ended up in a ditch facing the wrong way with my left rear quarter panel smashed against a guard rail. I was dazed, but my main concern was getting to the airport. I got the car turned around, but the sides of the ditch were too steep and slippery for me to get out. Then I decided to stay in the ditch and drive parallel to the road and work my way back up. That worked; I got back on the highway, and it was at that point that I noticed that all the cars coming in the other direction were going 15 mph with their flashers on. The road surface was sheer ice. I got to the airport, left my car in long term parking, made my flight, completed my two weeks of training, flew back to Syracuse, drove to Binghamton to get my kids, then back to Buffalo where I got my car fixed.
Oh, and I can’t see that anything good will come of this WikiLeaks thing. As I heard on National Public Radio during a discussion of this, “Is there no such thing as ‘off the record’ anymore?” Some things should remain private.
Sh*t, poor girl. :-( I hope she is alright and grandfather, the mechanic, can help.
@Wikileaks: I find the whole dynamics extremely interesting. This guy could make it into the history books. In general, I believe, that things that are private matters should stay private, but things that are kept secretely, although they matter to society, should be published. I have a hard time judging if the diplomatic cable gossip belongs to this category.
For the rest – I wouldn’t be suprised if Julian Assange gets assassinated pretty soon.
Scary!! I’m so glad she is OK. Relatively. Tonight I made Jamie drive home in the dark rain, because he seems to think he can just get his driver’s license without having to do much driving. Ok, I thought, from now on you are driving me everywhere.