What’s Been Occurring

I mentioned last week that we hadn’t left the house in a couple of weeks due to weather and a cold (which was very short, thankfully). This week I finally left the house on Friday and then wondered if I should have stayed home.

I went down into our little town to grab a couple subs for my kids. On the way back, I pulled into a parking space in front of the local newspaper, which my neighbor’s own. I didn’t even put the car in park, though, because I remembered I needed cash for the product I was hoping to pick up. I put the car in reverse and swung to the building next door, parking in front of the bank.

After pulling some money out of the ATM, I got back in my van. I broke a piece of chocolate I’d picked up at the store off and when I looked to my left, out of the driver’s side window, a car pulled into the space next to me and instead of stopping it kept driving into the curb and railing in front of the bank. I said to Little Miss who was in the backseat. “Uh-oh, I think that woman hit the accelerator instead of the break.” I thought her forward motion would cause her car to get caught on the curb, she’d get a clue, pull the car back a bit and then park it before getting it out and inspecting the clear damage to the front end of her car.

Instead, she yanked the car into reverse, never took her foot off the accelerator (or the accelerator stuck, I’m truly not sure which), and the car shot backward into the small side street behind us, somehow swung out and around the back end of my van and down into another small street. In the intersection of that side street, she did two doughnuts (for those who don’t know, this is when a car spins around twice while still on four wheels, not flips over, thankfully), kicking out moves I’ve only seen on TV.

I thought she was going to come flying back at me and I told Little Miss, in an alarmed voice. “I’ve got to get this van out of her way!” Before I could, though, her car shot around the other direction and she slide full force into the front of the newspaper office, coming to rest partially against the building and partially in the parking space my van had occupied five minutes before.

Little Miss told me later she’d heard glass shatter and she thought the woman had broken her front windshield and was dead. I don’t even remember hearing the glass. I think I was still in shock that she hadn’t hit our van. Someone walked over from the restaurant across the street and another person stepped out of the newspaper office and I stayed glued to my seat, unsure I really wanted to go see if she was okay, afraid she wasn’t. By the time I did walk across the street — since I first turned around and saw a woman I know at the bank standing outside the building with her hand on her heart, looking very shaken — the elderly woman was out of her car, standing and didn’t seem to have a clue what had happened. A member of the fire department arrived quickly, not sure where he came from, and asked her if she was hurt. She said, no. He asked her if she was on any medication. She didn’t know. He finally suggested she sit in the newspaper office while they waited for an ambulance. Inside he asked her if she remembered what had happened. She didn’t. She just sort of smiled at us all like she was trying to figure out what the fuss was about. She, of course, was evaluated by the ambulance personnel when they got there. I’m not sure if she was taken to the hospital or not.

The woman from the bank checked on me later that evening and told me “God was watching out for you today!” She probably had a better view of it all from her office and may have even seen how close the woman’s car came to my van.

God was watching out for me because if I had parked at the newspaper and walked to the bank (as my Mom suggested I could have done), that woman probably would have killed me while I tried to walk back to my van. She also would have hit my van for sure, not swirling around it, but slamming directly into the front of it, and possibly injuring Little Miss.

I told my mom that this was one time I was glad I was lazy and hadn’t walked the hundred or so feet to the bank. “See,” I told her. “Being lazy paid off this time.”

In reality, it wasn’t about being lazy. I simply hadn’t put the van in park yet when I remembered I needed, or at least wanted, the cash.

Little Miss was pretty shook up after that and wanted to go home, but the fire chief told me to stay so I could give a witness statement to the state trooper. Little Miss wasn’t crying but had wide eyes and kept saying, “I just want to go home now.” I finally told the chief I was going to take my daughter up to my house and come back, since the local state police barracks is about fifteen minutes away and the trooper wasn’t there yet. I did return and give a statement, which was a very boring one since it had all happened so fast.

After all this, by the way, the newspaper office didn’t have what I was looking for so I should have just gone home. Sigh.

Since was the first time I’d gone out in a couple of weeks, it also made me a bit hesitant about Tuesday when I have to drive back down the street to get some blood drawn for a thyroid panel. I hope that trip is a lot less exciting.

What I’ve Been Reading

This past week I continued on Moriarty by Anthony Horowitz and Every Star in the Sky by Sara Davison. I expect to finish Every Star in the Sky before the end of the week.

I will probably start Miss Julia Rocks the Cradle by Ann B. Ross after I finish Moriarty.

Little Miss and I are reading Emily’s Run Away Imagination by Beverly Cleary again.

The Boy is still reading Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson.

What I’ve Been Watching

The husband and I have continued to watch Brokenwood Mysteries and I really enjoy the show. I’ve fallen in love with the main character, but not in the way you think. He’s just a likeable guy and I’m interested to know more about him as the show goes on.

I feel like I need a break from murder and mayhem this week, however, and am going to look into a subscription of PBS Masterpiece so I can watch the new All Creatures Great And Small to take my mind off the craziness of the world.

What I’m Listening To

I’ve been listening to songs on YouTube that were used on Brokenwood episodes most of the week. Most of the artists are from New Zealand, I believe. My husband says they have a large country music scene there that he was unaware of until this show.

Some of the songs are going into my playlist for a book I am working on called Lily.

I also was introduced to Jordan St. Cyr’s songs Fires

And Weary traveler:

Elevation Worship has a new album which I hope to listen to more this week. So far, I like the song, Lion.

And also, What I See

And.. well, I think I might love the entire album. My husband says it is their best yet and I think he is right.

What I’m Writing

I finished sharing Beauty From Ashes on the blog this week (called A New Chapter for the blog) and am now moving on to working on a couple of other stories I’ve been wanting to tackle, before I start book four in the series, which I so far have named Mercy’s Shore. I don’t know if I’ll be sharing that one on the blog or not, yet. We will see.

Last week on the blog I shared a post about what we are reading for homeschooling as well as one about looking back at February and forward to March.

Your Turn

So, what are you reading, what have you been doing, listening to or watching? Let me know in the comments.