EVEN WHEN THE CORONA VIRUS IS ABOUT - THERE ARE CRAZY DRIVERS WHO SHOULD BE ARRESTED

I digress from corona virus posts this week.  We live on a 4 lane mainly main road, which is residential at this point along the road at least two or three miles – the speed limit is 40mph.  Unfortunately drivers tend to treat the speed limit as a suggestion they don't like.  Across the street from the house next door to us (to the south) is a small local residential street which comes into our road – it does not continue across to side. In the 30 or so years we have lived here I can easily recall 6 accidents which have happened at this intersection – when speaking with my “new” neighbor (only here about 6 years) she remembers 3 accidents just since she has been here, so 6 in 30 years is a low estimate. 

Husband and I were involved in one of the accidents.  We were stopped in the left hand lane waiting to turn left into the small street at in early evening, with car lights and turn blinker on.  Our side of the road had no traffic at all, while the other side had a flow of traffic.  Before he could turn a car came speeding up our side of the road and hit us full speed in the rear of the car.  Luckily no one was hurt – our car, however, was totaled  - the rear of the car was in the back seat – good thing no one was sitting there.  Another accident propelled a car coming from the street across from us onto our lawn – husband was out just in front of the house taking down our Christmas wreath (due to which I will always remember this happened on Good Friday, hence why I need to be better organized).  Luckily the driver braked before hitting him and our house.  So we really know about accidents here.

Last Friday night we heard 3 horrible sounds, even before opening the door we knew there had been an accident.  Due to the virus we did not want to walk outside, but when we saw the rear of a car in front of the house to our south and heard the horn blaring, we knew and called the police.  Since the only thing around here that brings neighbors out and together is a car accident, a crowd quickly assembled (most without masks if I may add same).  We decided it best to remain in the house due to the crowd and watched through our open front door.  Now, as far as we knew the 2 cars collided in front of the house to our south.  Police  (several cars) came -  volunteer fire department ambulance and volunteer EMS ambulances came.  Since after some time the ambulances left unused we presume no one was seriously injured.  It took several hours before the cars were towed away and all was quiet. 

We noticed that there were large pieces of debris in the cut of our driveway and we were concerned that our van parked on the driveway parallel to the street was not hit.  We looked through its windows from our door and the windows all seemed intact.  I figured if we found out the next day that there was damage, we could call the police and get the info about the accident – safer to stay in and not risk getting corona virus.  The tow trucks finally came – the front car was put on a flatbed truck.  The rear car was to be towed on the tow bar of the tow truck.  The driver had trouble getting the car positioned – he ended up dragging it by the rear end to in front of our house and then grabbing the front.  The law here is the tow company which picks up the car(s) must clean the debris.  When we had our accident the debris was shoveled up from the road – this fellow barely swept it to the curb.  When the tow trucks left it was after midnight and we decided to wait until the next day to check the van.

The next day being Saturday I went out to bring to in the mail.  I was to check the van for damage and see if we had “anything” to clean up from the accident.  OH MY!!!!!!!  The entire front of our property was covered in pieces of car ranging from most of a license plate holder to under 1” big as well as most of the two windshields!!  Our driveway (which is a semi-circle), the sidewalk, the “right of way” grass at the street and the street itself were all covered.  I went back and told husband and we went out to work on the mess.

We started by picking up the larger pieces and putting them in a garbage bag.  We moved onto using a broom and snow shovel (use broom to push onto the shovel) to clear the smaller pieces  and glass bits – starting in the street and then the sidewalk .  We got to a point where all the pieces we noticed and the sections of glass that had stayed on the middle layer of plastic  that was attached to it were picked up and thrown out.   When all we had left (we thought) were the tiny pieces of glass all over, husband thought to get his shop vacuum for us to use.  He did most of the vacuuming. 

It was in the high 80Fs that day and sunny.  Husband was bending over as we worked – when he bends over he gets dizzy.  We reached a point after a few hours that he was rather unwell.  I got him settled in the house with air conditioning and a cold drink and went out to clean up our cleaning up. 

Our van is parked on the dirt in the semi circle of our driveway (this allows our car to be driven in and out of the driveway easily and the van can be also be driven in and out of our property through using the ends  of the driveway and the dirt semi-circle). Under the van in the dirt was a lot of glass.  We had decided that if we got all the grass except that under the middle of the cars – clear of glass in line with the tires we would pull the van straight forward and then be able to vacuum the rest of the glass.  That was where we left off.  I put away the vacuum, broom, snow shovel and put the second started garbage bag next to the mostly full one at the curb – almost all of which were from the accident. 

As I walked with the various tools to the house I found other pieces and had added them to the garbage bag before I closed it.  In front of our garage – which is the opposite corner of our property from where we thought the accident had occurred – I found yet another small piece of debris – I was concerned as our neighbor on this side has two young daughters- one of them only 3 – and was worried that debris might be in their yard and one of the girls touch it or step on it and get hurt or the 3 year old might even put it in her mouth.  I knew they were not home and figured I would call the next day.  Husband had to go up to sleep before dinner due to how sick he felt.

Next day was still in the 80Fs so I told husband to move the car and then go into the house.  I found much glass and small pieces of debris where I would swear there was no more the day before.  I vacuumed the dirt and then had him come out to check a spot he told me had glass to make sure I had gotten it all – ha ha ha!  We were still finding pieces of glass today (Wednesday) that we somehow missed and yesterday saw a glint of something shiny and found another piece of car less than 1” big while we were outside putting the vehicles back in place from having our air conditioner installed yesterday.  On Sunday when I vacuumed as I went back into the house I found a two good sized chunks on the neighbor's lawn (to the north with the 2 girls) and picked them up and added them to our bags. 

I was unable to reach her by telephone and when I went out Monday to get the tarps we use as covers on our RV bed during the day while traveling to cover our bed in the house while the ac work was being done, the neighbor was out with the girls and her husband.    I explained about the pieces I had found and picked up and suggested she check her side of the fence for debris.  We have not really seen each other during the pandemic and standing 6 ft apart we talked about the accident. 

It did not occur where the cars ended up – I sort figured this based on the debris field.  She had the accident on video.  A friend had been parked in the street in front of her house and a car came roaring along – in the parking lane – doing what had to be 60 mph at least and hit the parked car, pushing it front of our house and hitting it again and continuing to push it to the front of the neighbor on the south's house hitting it once again on the way!  Neighbor was surprised that the driver was not tested for alcohol or drugs and was allowed to leave.  I also found out that I had wrong phone number for the neighbor and we also traded email addresses.

The neighbor to the south emailed us the morning after the accident as she had not seen us standing in our door as she was standing in her door, to tell us we probably had a mess to clean up as they had at their house. 

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK – One cannot control what happens by the acts of others.  Be careful driving and parking to try to avoid crazy drivers.  One should be prepared to clean up the major mess left behind on one's property.  Luckily this time no one was hurt badly (though the driver should have been tested at the very least and probably arrested) – who knows what will happen next time. 

Stay safe and stay well.

THE CRAZINESS CONTINUES ON

Another week already? For those of you who have been/will be in Dorian's path - I hope that you and yours come through safely.  To say that it is a horrible storm is to greatly understate the situation.

Things are still hinky here - I called the insurance company for our reenactment unit again to try to resolve the problem of the paperwork not being right.  What the employee and I did manage to figure out is that it is not a paperwork problem - the changes to the policy do not seem to be right when we discussed them.  She was to check with their underwriters and the files to see what happened and then call me back.  I waited a week and then called her again - last Friday.  The agency was closed for a four day Labor Day weekend.  I called her again today, Wednesday.  She was not in - working from home (I got the impression she was not well).  She called back while we were out - which is why I said I would call back instead of her calling me, and left a message to talk to someone else at the agency - I will call them tomorrow.  I have been trying to resolve this since June - policy renewed in late May.  At this point we only have 3 events left before the insurance will renew again next year. I have now requested a printout of our payments to our medical insurance company in 2018 three times - hope this time they send the correct papers and not a summary of what we owed - what we owed and what we paid could be totally different amounts (although not in this case) and the county will not accept what we owed - they want a list from the insurance company of what we actually paid.  That and one other set of papers is the last of what we need to file for our senior real estate tax exemption.  Then I can assemble the "tome" of papers that have to go to them for this exemption.  We learned our lesson last year.  This year we will not mail the paperwork to them (and we had mailed it by certified mail and had a record of when they received it).  We will drive to the real estate tax assessor's office and I will walk it in and get a receipt from them that they have everything.  Husband will sit in the car as parking is just about non-existent.  Newspaper article recently said that our new County Executive is going to make this department actually answer their phones and help people.  When one calls the message on their end is basically - "We don't have time to take calls."  and sometimes also "And we don't have any parking for you to come here."  Public servants.

I have managed to do a bit of house cleaning this past week - I admit it, I am sooo off schedule as I just have not had a chance to get to anything.

I have been tasked by my sister to find sources to sell items from our family home - a library of books, a collection of records (LPs, 45s and CDs), china and glass - useful and decorative, dad had a number of clients who were artists and they have pieces from some of the clients and other pieces that purchased - only a maybe ten to twenty, but some of them may be valuable.  We need to get as much as we can for items which can be sold as we need it to keep mom in the assisted living program she is in and likes.  Time is also of the essence as mom has a reverse mortgage on her house and every month more interes accrues. The sooner we get rid of the stuff in the house the sooner we can sell it - the less money that goes to interest and the more that goes to mom. I emailed a client that I have still have whose husband is one of the artists and asked if either of them knows of a gallery or auction house to contact.  I know the husband's work still sells from time to time and figured that they must still know who to contact.  Problem, of course, is that we need to not just find someone to buy (or take on consignment) the stuff we need to get rid of, but need someone honest who will not buy stuff for considerably less than it is worth.  I just found a site that was recommended by a seniors organization for pricing items.  I will have to look at it.  Quite frankly it was this part of clearing out the house that intimidated me.  My sister had talked as if she had an idea of who to call about all this and I had felt better about it, now I am overwhelmed again - and quite honestly, my sister is handling most of everything. Anyone with ideas about getting rid of all this stuff without getting "taken" - please let me know, it will be gratefully appreciated.

I had the first meeting of my embroidery chapter today.  I was not sure that I would that I would get to the meeting as husband is desperate to go away for a few days - both for sanity and because we have spent a lot on the RV to keep it in good shape, we do not use it, and it needs to be used - especially driven - to keep in it in good condition.  Due to rain storms today where we were to go, we dropped the plans - bad for husband as he is upset, but good for me as I had my first non-work day without him since June.  I did come home after running a couple of quick errands after the meeting and did not take the entire afternoon for myself as I normally do, as husband is sure that the Dorian will turn and hit Long Island and we will lose our electricity, so I did not want to leave him moping and in a panic all day by himself.  We are learning a new stitch that I had wanted to learn and it was such a pleasant time at the meeting.  I really need to find another group to join also - I have tried to get husband to join a group without me, but he is not interested and finds an excuse not to join any group that is related to his interests when I find them.

I normally write my post using a word processing program that I like and then copy it to the site.  Tonight for some reason it would not work - it opens, but does not work, so I used good, old Notepad to write - any spelling errors or oddities in appearance of the post are due to that.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
Well, one has to go on and do what one can.  Having my embroidery chapter keeps me sane - what keeps you sane when it is all piling up?