I didn’t take any NyQuil last night, which was a bit of a mistake. I didn’t sleep too well last night. I got a call at 7:41 this morning, which, since Amanda sets the clock forward a few minutes, was actually about 7:35 or so. I had just been settling back in to snooze mode when it rang. I saw that it was Amanda, and usually when she calls in the morning when she knows I’m still in bed I’m vaguely annoyed, but not very much. So I answered the phone at 7:41 saying, as I usually do in these cases, “Yeeees?” Amanda told me she’d just been in an accident, so I immediately dropped that tone.
The first thing I asked, of course, was if she was okay, which thank God she was. She told me where she was and I was out of the house in probably less than two minutes. I threw on some jeans and the first shirt I could find, grabbed the small digital camera, threw on a hat and swigged some mouthwash.
So here’s what happened. Amanda had been going to Dunkin Donuts, as she often does on Fridays, to get a coffee. To do this, since she was coming from New Centre she cut through the Red Roof Inn parking lot, which connects to the Dunkin Donuts parking lot. A guy in a big Dodge truck was doing the same thing, but seeing the line (as I heard it) he changed his mind about going there and put his truck in reverse, without seeing Amanda. His truck rolled right over Amanda’s hood. The damage could have been a lot worse, but it’s definitely ugly and noticeable. It mainly scraped up and dented the front driver-side of the car. It messed up the hood, the side panel, a little of the front panel and the part with the light in it.
Amanda told me right off that the guy who ran into her had been really nice. I saw that he was a volunteer firefighter from his license plate, that he liked film from his bumper sticker, and that he was a Panther’s fan from his hat. Add all that up to the fact that he was really polite and apologetic and I hated it for him. Not as bad as I hated it for us, of course, but still. He and I got to talking and I found out that he works in the film industry. He even asked if I was interested in a job, but I really like mine. He’s involved in transportation.
Long story short, Amanda and I (mostly Amanda) made about a hundred phone calls to see what we could get done, but we were told it would be Monday before any real progress could be made. Volkswagen told us the body shop they use and told us to get in touch with them. I was pretty busy at work for most of the day so I wasn’t able to take it by there, which I didn’t think mattered too much until Amanda called around 4:00 to say that the insurance adjuster for insurance company of the guy who ran into Amanda had already called. She needed pictures (which I sent her) and a repair estimate. I’ll have to go get that first thing on Monday.
Scott told me there was a plane crash in Clayton today, not too far from him. He didn’t hear or feel the crash, but the plane smashed into a BBQ restaurant. Last I read all the employees were fine but the pilot appears to have died. The restaurant wasn’t open yet, which is probably a very good thing.
I e-mailed Kristen Barriner a little bit and after I told her about Amanda’s accident she said she’d been in a bit of one yesterday. She had been sideswiped by a seventeen-year-old. She said she felt bad for him because he was pretty freaked out by it too.
I felt pretty good for most of the day, well, better anyway, but towards the end of the day I started feeling not as good. Amanda picked up a Chick-Fil-A sandwich for me, which was nice. I also had a breakfast wrap from there this morning, as the accident happened very close to there. We didn’t really do much of anything tonight. We did watch Bill Cosby: Himself, which is a standup act we’ve seen about a hundred times. We’d never seen the beginning though, and his impressions of drunk people really hit home. I’ve either seen or experienced most of what he talked about for that.
I talked to my dad for a little bit tonight. He said that my grandfather, his dad, Pap, was back home from the nursing home/rehab place he’d been for a while. I said “Oh good!” but my dad said, “Well….” Apparently his mobility still isn’t great. At least Aunt Terry and Gypsy are there now to help out some.
Amanda was really tired tonight and was in bed by around 9:30. I stayed up just a bit longer to play some Medieval 2: Total War. I’ve been playing it on easy as the Scottish just for the heck of it, and by the time I turned it off a little bit ago I had all of Europe but the Iberian Peninsula and the Italian boot. I’ve left the Spanish alone so far because they’re one of the few factions that hasn’t antagonized me yet. I think I’ll overthrow the Papacy soon, because they keep threatening to excommunicate my faction (which will upset my people and probably cause riots) if I attack any other Christian factions. The problem is that they keep picking fights with me, so I just need to wipe them out. If I take out the Papacy then I won’t have to worry about who I attack.
The NyQuil’s kicking in hard now.
Zach Dotsey