Windshield Nightmare

It started off a good day. I had gone to bed early. Got up to the sound of Wife taking a shower, around 5:15am. Went downstairs, made coffee, started planning my day. Kissed Wife good-bye at 5:45am.

Then the phone rings 10 minutes later. Sobbing. "I've been in an accident." My mind flashes white. Adrenaline pumping. Mind racing.

Are you OK?

Yes. I think so.

What happened?

Something flew into my windshield. I'm stopped on the side of the road. I don't know what to do.

Neither did I. Two kids, sound asleep upstairs. A wife on the side of the road at 6am.

She'd called 911. They told her to move from the left shoulder to the right. Fortunately, there was little traffic, or a little traffic as you get near downtown Chicago. This happened in the Southbound lanes of the Kennedy expressway between North and Division.

I'll cut to the chase. Another car had changed lanes in front of her. Not dangerously or anything. A moment later, something flew up and lodged into the dead center of her windshield. A metal grate about 5 feet long by 1 foot wide.

A state trooper helped guide her to the next exit and wrote up an accident report. I ordered a cab for her. She was home by 6:30 or 7. When Toodles woke up, I took her to see the car for myself and take some pictures.

That's when I got scared.








I was sick. All I could think about is what if . . . what if . . . one more inch; 5 MPH faster . . .

I called a glass place we used when I worked for my family business. Majestic Auto Glass went to the scene, changed out the windshield, and did an admirable job vacuuming the glass. It still needed to be detailed, but it was good. It was ready by 11am. The same day.

But a car wash and a new windshield do not erase memories.

I have, on occasion, thought about my Wife's and my mortality. The sadness. The utter sadness I would feel if she were gone. Frankly, I don't know what I would do.

We have safeguards in place, but I mean, what would I do without her?

At least I know that, for now, I can go upstairs and watch her sleep. I could go into JD and Toodle's room and watch them sleep. The night is wonderfully peaceful.

No Posts Lately

If anyone actually reads this blog, I haven't been blogging for two reasons.

First, my laptop died. Rather, the motherboard died. It would cost over $600 to replace that and the inverter on the screen. (The inverter is the cheap/easy part.) I could get a new laptop for that price, but mine has a 17" screen and I like that. So I'm being picky. Sue me. 17" monitors from Lenovo start around $1200 (apparently their hardware is the best quality as opposed to HP which is what failed me after 2.5 years.)

Second, I've become addicted to World Golf Tour or wgt.com. It's an online golf game that has an international community. So much fun. If you go on, I'm Grissomwoods.

Yes, I have a desktop in my basement. Blogging is not as easy down here. When I'm on this computer, it's either in the middle of the day when I am trying to check email & stocks in between loads of laundry and checking on whatever is on the stove or in the oven or tending to a kid who is not napping like they are supposed to. At night, I like to play golf.

Fortunately, this isn't a job, or I'd have been fired a long time ago.

Find A Friend

I just got off the phone with a friend. We were on for over an hour. Over that time, we were able to share some of our personal current events. Most of it was bad stuff, things that haven't been so great lately.

This blog entry is to tell you 1) how good it felt to talk to someone, to have them confide in me and to confide in her and 2) to be able to do so with a person I know I can trust.

I can trust and confide in Wife, but I can't talk about her with her! (I love you Honeys).

It's better than therapy because you get to hear about their good and bad as well as share your own. Not everyone has such a person. I believe that is because so many people are afraid of sharing themselves; sharing their bad as well as their good.

Being an at-home parent is very lonely. The best part of the job is the job security - there is no threat of being fired. Otherwise, it is as grueling a workday as any other job (if you're dedicated) and with very little peer contact.

Having a person with whom you can talk on a deep level every now and again is imperative.

And not a person with whom you gossip or be caddy. Those friends have their purpose. But think about it: if that person's nature is to gossip or to be caddy, do you really want to share seriously personal issues? Perhaps you do have a person that can be both, but . . .

So find a friend. Not a person on whom you can spill all of your problems. If you sense that something is wrong, you'll ask. For instance, you ask, "How are you?" and you are looking at them and they say, "Oh, fine," but you know they're not fine, you ask what's going on. And then you shut up. You only say oh or jeez or I see. And when you're the one with the bad day, they'll know when and how to ask you and how to listen.

Hopefully you can find one, because no matter how bad things are, you'll feel a little better after you're done.

Homemaker's Tip

Don't waste your junk mail and misprints.

When paper has a blank back side, cut it into quarters for scratch paper. Great for grocery lists, notes, etc.

I think it also helps with security, not allowing sensitive papers and information to go without being destroyed.

With the amount of junk we get, we'll never need to buy paper again!