I'm in a motel in the middle of Colorado, with my sweet little brother
snoring next to me.  Well, in another bed, that is.  I'm using his *ACK*
PC laptop because my new G-3 is history.  Maybe spare parts is a better
description.  Lucky for me, the last time I was in CaCa Land, I spent the
time to configure his system to talk to mine.  Well, it can log on to
showme, but *reading* mail is another thing.  I keep getting this message
that says "Your terminal is of the dumb variety..."  Well, once I found out
that the FML knows about the crunch (rumor travel fast, don't they?), I
thought I would suffer through my severe headache (the PC) aa well as my
aching head to let people know what is going on.
 
I offer my sincerest apologies to the Portland people and their ferret
show.  I am very sorry I didn't show up.  I tried, but, it didn't quite
work out.  I was only about 500 miles away, when on Friday morning, my
beautifully restored baby-blue TR was t-boned by a young lad crossing the
same intersection I was driving through.  I saw it coming and swerved to
the right, which probably saved me lots of nasties, because he hit the rear
of my door at an angle rather than head on.  I guess he was going about 40
and clearly didn't stop for his red-colored sign.
 
The car is totaled.  So is one of my cameras (and 300mm lens), my G-3
laptop, a bunch of CDs, and <sob> my brown-wool Padres baseball cap from
the 1984 world series.  I was planning to wear it to a game this week.
<double sob> The three little ferrets with me were slightly shaken up
(thank heavens the pickup truck hit *my* side of the car), which really
didn't amount to much of anything except Taz went ballistic in the cage,
thinking it was a new game.  BB got a small scrape on his upperback, and
no one else was hurt at all.  Well, not entirely true; Taz decided BB
caused the whole thang and latched on to his neck, causing a couple of
welts--worse than the accident scrape to be honest.  I got a few bites
(minor) to go along with the glass cuts on my hand when I reached in to
break it up.
 
As for me, a couple of broken ribs from the steering wheel and/or seat
belt, lots of cuts on my legs and hands from the flying glass, a cut lip, a
big bonk on the head with an even bigger lump, and a compression fracture
of my right calcaneum.  Not bad considering the damage to the car.  I took
some neat pictures after someone pried open my door and I was able to get
out.  I had to cut the seat belt because mt seat had smashed into the
passenger seat, trapping the release.
 
I did get a neat ride to the hospital with my ferrets in tow.  The nurses
and the doctor seemed to pay more attention to them than to me.  I wouldn't
let hold them for fear of biting, but told them why and they understood.
Still, it seemed everyone had to come and take a look at them, and the
ferrets hated it.  You could tell by the way they were digging at the cage
to get out.  Not.  They *loved* the attention.  The docs wanted me to spend
the night in the hospital because of the bump on my head, but I refused
until a sweet young thang (my doctor, actually) promised to take the
ferrets home with her and keep them safe until I left.
 
David arrived Sat. morning, I checked out of the hospital and retrieved my
ferrets, then we went to the junk yard to look at what remained of my blue
baby and to salvage whatever stuff I could.  I made my brother load the lot
into the back of his van, and we started back to Missouri.  I should get
home tomorrow and on Monday I'll see my doc.  I plan on taking a few days
to rest, then I'll load up the red car and start this trip all over.
Andrew was very upset when he heard of the crash; I want to think it was
because of worry for me, but in reality I think it was because he knew he
had to give me back my red car and he couldn't use it for the next 5-8
weeks.
 
BTW, for those of you who might think I have bad luck; not on your life.  I
walked away from this, and that *PROVES* how much good luck I have.  Sure I
am stiff and sore, my foot and head hurts, and I'm covered with cuts and
scrapes, but I got off easy.  heck, I've hurt myself worse rock climbing.
And I might have lost some stuff, but it is only material goods.  I'm ok,
as are my ferrets.  That is what counts.  Well, not entirely true.  I'm
still *very* unset about getting a shot in my tushie.  It's soooore.
 
Well, one good thing came out of the whole mess.  I'm hurting enough so I
don't worry about the chicken pox itching.
 
Bob C with three calling long distance
[Posted in FML issue 2431]