The second thing I thought was, "I hope Mini-Geek Girl (daughter, visiting this week) is okay."
I was a bit scattered for the rest of the day and today. But to be honest, I've had a lifetime of incidents that gray the hair of people who care about me.
Among them:
- As a toddler, I ate a bunch of my mother's diet pills. That was back when they had the good stuff in them. They said it was too late to pump my stomach at the ER, so I was high (and awake, and hallucinating) for three days.
- When I was ten, I was walking home from school and a man grabbed me and started pulling me toward a garage. I kicked like hell until he dropped me. I didn't mention it to my mom until she asked me over dinner if anything interesting happened that day. Ever seen your mom have a major freak out? It's quite a sight.
- I've had a tumor removed from my inner ear (head). Twice. It was removed at age 15 and then again at 18.
- In my late teens, someone tried to strangle me. You know that saying,'your life flashing before your eyes?' It doesn't always happen. Sometimes, you just feel a sense of despair that you're going to die and there's some important stuff that needed to be done and people that will be left uncared for.
- I've lived in some horrid neighborhoods in Dallas, including one that my Dad called, "Rape Alley." I once stood in the middle of a boulevard in the dark playing tug of war with a guy trying to snatch my purse. It came apart, and he took off. At the time I was waiting at the bus stop, because my car windows were broken when someone broke into my car.
- Once when I was single my house caught on fire. The cabinets in the kitchen were burning. I wet a towel down and slapped the flames after I got the kids out of the house. Sparks flew, but the fire eventually went out. Then I drove us to the ER to take care of my burns and asthma attack.
- When all my children were small, I got really, really sick. I was single and alone, and I could barely crawl. Eventually my mother forced me into the car and to the ER, where I was given a chest X-ray, antibiotics, and a diagnosis of bacterial pneumonia.
- I once got out of my car and accosted a carload of teenagers who were harassing me and tailgating me in the middle of the night. My kids were asleep in the back seat, and I was a mother on the edge. I punched the lead boy in the face and knocked his hat off. Then I drove home and called the Sheriff because I figured I'd broken the law by hitting a minor. The Sheriff explained to me that no self-respecting teenage boy would ever press charges on this, as he'd suffer greatly by the kidding from his friends.
So it is that having a wall of blue with a grill attached to it come at me yesterday didn't really cause any life-changing things to happen in my head, heart, or psyche. I just felt deeply disappointed that I had just been involved in something that would affect us financially, distressed my daughter, and ruined our plans for the day. Usually, when things like that happen, I'm in problem solving mode, and very conrete. I'm busy apologizing to everyone around me for inconveniencing them. It's not a bravery thing. It's probably some protective psychological mechanism that stuffs the fear deep down until I can tell jokes about it later.
I was also immensely impressed with how well the little car took car of me. Seat belts locked and held firm. Outer shell crumpled like a tin can, absorbing the impact. And, I did promise Baboo that I would never again bug him for a tiny little car, given that the height of the average bumper these days seems to be above the roof of said tiny little cars. I like my face. Want to keep my face.
Now here's what really scares me: the Deuceman 70.3 I'm doing this weekend. Yikes. High altitude, hills, and a half iron. Triple H. Ugh.
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