Accidents

By: Meradeth Houston on 9:26 AM

Or, why my legs hurt like crazy.

I've never been in a wreck before. I mean, you watch them all the time in the movies, on TV, and I've seen some doozies in real life, but I've always been the lucky one not actually in the damaged car. Not so Tuesday night. DH and I were headed home after checking on the ranch and animals to make sure they hadn't floated away (holy crap have we had a lot of rain lately), and after stopping at the sign about 1.5 miles from the ranch, pulled into the intersection. Then, WHAM.

I saw the lights coming up behind my husband, knew someone was coming fast, but before I could say anything, the speeding car blew right through the stop and into us. It was really strange to watch the car swing around in a blue-green haze. It was a strange twilight that lit the car while we spun in a blurry circle, and then ended up in a ditch. Smoke filled the car as the airbags deflated (when did they deploy? I must have blinked). And then was the screaming mess of injured people, my husband being unable to breathe, the cops, fire department, and then the paramedics. They had to remove my car door to get us out. It was really odd to watch people hack away at my poor car, after all the years I've tried so hand to be nice to it!

Anyhow, after being taken to two different hospitals, Cat-Scans, and x-rays galore, we are now at home, trying to recover. We're sore, to say the least, but got away pretty lucky, with just some broken ribs (for hubby) and a broken fibula (me). I'm seriously just grateful we weren't even a foot further into the intersection, where the side panels, and hubby, would have taken the blow, and not the front axle and engine block. Still, 8 weeks on crutches is not so fun (I can't run--what am I going to DO with myself?).

Okay, to tie this back into writing, there was one of those moments, when I was being strapped to a backboard and loaded onto the ambulance (just about the time they cut my jeans off...) that I thought "Well, I've never done something like this before. At least now, if I have to, I'll know how to describe it accurately in a story or something." Kind of funny, really, but other than us both surviving that crash, I reminded me how much I really love to write. It's a part of me, for better or worse, and as soon as I can figure out how to rig up my keyboard so I can keep my legs elevated and type, I'll be back at it. Until then, my mother-in-law is here to take care of us. And my house totally looks like a bomb exploded in there. Ahhhh, awesome!