The Accident

It has been an interesting few days. Thursday morning while getting ready for work, Chucky goes out to his truck to leave but comes back inside to tell me I have a rear tire very low on air. I’m supposed to take Emma to Urbanna, then go to work in Kilmarnock, then come back to Urbanna to get her, and return to Hardyville that evening. I don’t know if it has a leak or what so we decide I should take it to Chucky’s uncle, Tuna, who has a service shop. I drive it down there with Emma in tow (it’s early in the morning so she’s in a great mood) and Tuna declares there is a leak. He patches it up and we are ready to go! Thanks Tuna for fitting us in without an appointment and not taking our money. So we head to Urbanna – we are almost to Ghee and PopPop’s house when we slow down in front of the Exxon station because someone in front of us is turning left. The BAM – we get hit in the rear. I am momentarily in shock and surprise. I look around to see what happened and can see the lady that hit me in her minivan clearly upset. Emma is screaming so I jump out of the car and head around the back side to get to her door on the other side. The other woman is out of her car and asks me if I am okay. I am on the verge of tears now (Emma is still screaming) and without slowing down my run, I say to her “MY DAUGHTER!” – I get to Emma’s door and after making sure she’s not clearly injured I pull her from the car seat and hold her tight. She stops crying quickly and I just know she is okay. I apologize to the other lady for my crying and she apologizes for hitting us. We are all okay and she calls 911. I tried to move the van out of the road but the tire (yes, the tire that Tuna just fixed) goes flat because the rear bumper is all mushed up on it. I call Ghee and PopPop and they say they are on the way. After calming down some more (Emma is now playing in some rocks in front of the thrift store) I call Chucky and tell him we are okay and he doesn’t need to come. He sounds like he is in shock and also like “Geez, what else is going to happen today?” He also sounds like this is typical Kate which I guess I do always have a lot going on. Anyway, the ambulance shows up and we don’t need them but they stay until the state trooper gets there. We call a tow truck and line up a body shop and move all my stuff from my car to Ghee’s car. We go back to Ghee’s house (after stopping for juice and milk for Emma) and then I decide I need a rental car. So I try to track down the woman that hit us and get her insurance claim number and try to find a rental car (scarce in this area). I will say that the woman that hit us was very nice and very upset and it totally could have been me in her situation. I work a while at Ghee’s house and we all go to lunch, then I ride with PopPop to work in Kilmarnock – where I pick up my Jeep Liberty rental. Great. We are moving this weekend and instead of my roomy van I have a mini-Jeep. That day I was happy – we were both okay and I got my work done. The next day I was irritated about the van being messed up. The appraiser is coming Monday to check out the damage to the van. I hope it’s totaled so I can get a new one!Saturday we moved stuff and more stuff. PopPop, Joe and Ghee came to help and Nannie came to play with Emma. Sunday we moved more stuff but only in the mini-Jeep. Nannie came over again! Emma says “pocket-book, outside, no, blueberries, snack, lunch, cereal, tractor!” She gives high-fives, hugs, kisses. She says trash and mess and likes to clean up messes with napkins. She does not like to pick up toys!