Life at a Lively Pace

About a month ago, my sister announced that she was pregnant with her first child.  We were all excited - the first grandchild for my parents and the first niece/nephew for me that I didn’t “inherit” when I married my husband.

I got a phone call from my mother yesterday just after I had left my office.  My sister had gone for a routine checkup and was told by the doctor that she had been carrying twins.  However,  there was no heartbeat from either one - she lost both of them.

My sister was too distraught to make a bunch of phone calls herself, so she asked Mom to do it for her.  Due to my schedule yesterday, I couldn’t call her until later in the evening.  For whatever reason, there was no answer at the house and the answering machine was not picking up the call.  I’ll have to try again tonight.

This hurts.  This really, really hurts.  And the worst part of it is that she & her husband live outside of Chicago, a half-country away from us.  There are no words to say in a situation like this.

I just want to hug and hold her but I can’t.

We have become addicted to a game. A game called “Killer Bunnies”. Not to be confused with the Rabbit of Caerbannog, pictured to the left. That rabbit is not to be trifled with and most certainly should not be a participant of any game outside of Russian Roulette. Unless, of course, you happen to possess an extra Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch and can count only to three.

My husband’s family loves to get together and play games, so we’re always on the lookout for something new that a large group can play. We picked this game up at a specialty gaming store at the suggestion of the proprietor. The first game we played left me scratching my head, wondering if we made a mistake in purchasing the game. After the second game, I was hooked. And so was the rest of the family.

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Two major happenings in the family:

1. Bob's brother-in-law was completely fed up with the way his company was treating him and the other sales guys. He decided to go for a career change at age 40-something. Brave man. After much discussion with various folks, he chose to pursue a real estate license. (He could sell ice to an eskimo.) He took the prerequisite classes, took the test and passed with flying colors. Way to go!

2. Last Sunday, we got a surprising announcement. Bob's brother gave one month's notice at his job in VA. They (brother, wife & kids) will be packing up the house, selling it and moving up to our neck of the woods. Since their daughter is in her last months as a senior in high school, they won't move until after graduation. Still, it's becoming a family invasion into this area of PA - first, Bob's sister & her family about 8 years ago, followed by Bob's parents about 4 years ago. Then it was us a year ago and now Bob's brother. Let the conquest begin!

Last Tuesday night, Bob’s grandmother (father’s mother) passed away. After some research, it was determined that there was no way that we could afford two last-minute plane tickets. We opted to drive. Fortunately, Bob’s brother Rick, in VA, was in the same boat and offered to rent a minivan to make the family pilgrimage. The plan was for me, Bob and Carolyn (Bob & Rick’s sister) to leave from here, drive to VA, spend the night with Rick & family and leave VA early Friday morning for FL. We all had to be back to our respective homes by Monday evening because we all had to be at work Tuesday (today).

Thursday: did not leave until 9 PM, due to Bob having to work until 8:30PM. We didn’t get to VA until 1:30 AM because we were driving through the remnants of hurricane Cindy. Pouring rain and darkness did not make for ideal driving conditions.

Friday: Had to be up at 5:30 AM to pack minivan (4 hours sleep). The plan was to leave by 7, but were delayed until 8 because of some minor things. Most of the day was uneventful. Then, 4 PM came. Thankfully, I was reading at the time the “incident” occurred and not know anything until it happened. Otherwise, I would still be having nightmares …

We were traveling in the leftmost lane on I-95 in South Carolina. A vehicle two cars ahead of us swerved suddenly. Rick was driving and tried to move over into the next lane, but could not because there were two other cars in the way. Apparently, there was a “road gator” (we learned that this is what the police in SC call the re-treads from tractor trailers) - not the flattened type, but the full round. As the vehicle swerved, they clipped the gator, pulling it from the left shoulder near the median and into the roadway. The car in front of ours had no choice but to drive right over it. As the car passed over it, the gator flipped up, became airborne, hit our front hood, bounced up onto our windshield, bounced off and flew over our car. The windshield was smashed, completely destroying visibility.

We had several folks praying for our safety on this trip. I can honestly say that their prayers made the difference between an inconvenience and a deadly disaster. Had the gator not bounced off of the hood, it would most likely have gone straight through the windshield instead of bouncing off of it. Fortunately, Rick had incredible reflexes and managed to slow the car and get us off of the road and onto the shoulder without involving us in an accident with any other vehicles. (car photos taken after 10PM)

Due to the force of the impact, the top center of the windshield detached from the frame and hung inwards. Glass went everywhere. Rick (driver) and Bob (co-pilot) were covered in glass. I was on the bench behind them along with Jaymie, Rick’s 17-year-old daughter. While Rick and Bob received more nicks and cuts than we did, none of the injuries were serious.

After we managed to get to the right shoulder (yes, all the way across I-95), Bob & Rick got out and removed their shirts. We have to wash them down with many bottles of water to get the glass shards off of them. We also called 911 and started to empty the contents of the van onto the grass along the highway. Bob ran back up the road, waited for traffic to pass, and proceeded to pull the gator off of the road, which had been knocked towards the rightmost lane by this point in time.

The police showed up in two vehicles. Bob and his sister went with one to town to see if a deal could be worked out with the local rental place (long story short: no). In the meantime, those of us remaining on the side of the road decided, since we were going to be sitting around in the grass for an extended period of time, that we should move our stuff another 50 yards up the road into the shade. After schlepping stuff to the new location, we began to open up some sleeping bags to sit on. However, on her last trip back to the new location, Jaymie inadvertently stepped on a red ant hill, thereby angering its occupants. We had to pick up our stuff and move it again a few more yards, but not before we sustained bites from the ants. (photo:Jaymie removing sock and inspecting foot; Rick on cell phone with rental agency)

Ultimately, we were able to procure another rental vehicle, but it was another hour away. The police arranged for a trip to a local agency not affiliated with the company we were doing business with. The company we were working with (local division) sent a 12-passenger van to pick us (and our stuff) up. We traveled to their office, filled out paperwork, loaded the new minivan and went on our way. It wasn’t until we were most of the way back to I-95 that Bob realized he had left his glasses in the dashboard of the damaged vehicle. We had to track down the lot that it had been towed to and went there. That’s when the car photos were taken. We lost a total of 6 hours and didn’t get to our hotel in FL until 5:30 AM Saturday morning.

Saturday: unloaded new minivan and headed to bed at 6AM. The viewing was at 2PM, followed by the funeral at 4PM, so we only had 4 hours or so to sleep until we had to get moving again. By 5 PM, the funeral was over and the church had graciously provided a dinner meal for those of us attending the service. Just as dinner was starting, the outer bands of hurricane Dennis hit. The tin roof on the gymnasium we were in made a racket and all you could see out the windows was sheets of rain. Fortunately, the worst of it was over by the time dinner was wrapped up and we were ready to head out. We spent a couple of hours at Bob’s aunt’s house with the rest of the family, but called it quits around 10PM. We went back to the hotel and got the only 8-hour night of sleep the whole trip.

Sunday:We couldn’t leave as early as we had wanted to. When we rented the new minivan from the local division in Charleston, SC, they made it clear that they expected the vehicle to be returned to them in SC. So, we had to rent a second vehicle from the national division, the closest branch being in Orlando, but it wouldn’t be ready until 11 AM. Hence, we left a little after 9AM. After losing time leaving the main highway to get to the rental agency (almost 2 hours), filling out paperwork, transferring luggage (again!!), and working our way back to the highway, we were finally on our way to SC with 2 minivans. We lost another 2 hours leaving I-95 to return the one minivan. We made one more stop, for sanity’s sake, and ate at a sit-down restaurant (as opposed to the fast food junk we had been eating the entire trip for time’s sake). That was another hour out of our time. After leaving our hotel at 9 AM that morning, we did not get to Rick’s house in VA until 5 AM Monday morning.

Monday:slept from 5:30 AM until 10:30 AM. Bob, Carolyn and I got up, pulled ourselves together, and were back in our car by noon. We were home in PA by 4:30 PM. After a quick dinner at Carolyn’s, we came home and were in bed by 8:30 PM.

The accident and the ensuing dilemmas were a hassle. Thankfully, it was not the deadly disaster it could have been. I have to admit, though, that I would do the trip again. Bob’s family is crazy (a “good” crazy) and we did nothing but laugh, both before and after the accident. We never lost our sense of humor, despite circumstances that would have made even some of the bravest souls into lunatics. As a side note, we did some tallying and found that we had packed and unpacked our stuff a total of 11 times during the course of this trip. We are now experts in the art of packing a minivan.

We are thankful to God for His protection and deeply grateful to family and friends who upheld us in prayer before, during and after the accident.