Worst few hour segment yet
Jan. 22nd, 2012 01:25 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
soc_puppetI'm not going to say that today was a terrible day, one of the worst ever, because it wasn't; in fact, most of today was pretty okay! Just, for a few hours this afternoon/early evening, it was definitely pretty terrible. I might be willing to call those the worst few hours of the year so far (on my end), for all I kept a smile on through most of it.
On the plus side, if I pretend it didn't actually happen to me, it's almost kinda funny? There's definitely a thick layer of irony, at any rate.
The fun part of the afternoon was the AnimeIowa meeting. I got there early, because I like to sit in on my friends' D&D/Exalted sessions on Saturday evenings and one of the people who lives at the gaming location (and is also a gamer) is also one of the convention execs and needs to be there that early herself. I'm cool with that; I usually have something to do with me, and I used to go in early when the other person who lives at Gaming Location was an exec.
Anyway, convention meeting. Lots of discussion, things were worked out, more things will be worked out in the near future, and things are actually looking pretty good for as little as is in actual writing at the moment. At the end of the meeting we had our first AnimeIowa Staff White Elephant Gift Exchange, which was definitely some sort of blast, even if that Deathscythe Hell model did get passed around way too much. (Things turned out that it's now going to be the prize at the next meeting for whoever can bring in the most potential new staffers.) Current Exec left early, since a really bad snowstorm yesterday meant she'd left her vehicle at the meeting location (she works there) and she needed to drive it home anyway. I stuck around a bit longer, but not more than half an hour.
I'm leaving out most of the details of the accident, in case it's something I need to do, but here's the short version:
1) I am safe and unharmed and as whole as I was before the collision (thank you, seatbelts!)
2) The roads were sloppy from the aforementioned storm
3) The front right corner of Mom's car was crunched up like something tried to take a bite out of it
I pulled over into a side street so I could swap insurance details with the other driver and make necessary phone calls, like informing the police and also my parents. Turns out my parents were out photographing some of the startling number of bald eagles that congregate by Iowa rivers in the winter and were at my location sooner even than the police. Mom took over the call to the insurance company on my end, for which I am quite grateful because I hate phone calls and also not knowing the script for a given situation.
Things took about an hour and twenty minutes to wrap up there, part of which I spent with my parents in their van listening to Prairie Home Companion, more because my parents enjoy it and I didn't feel like making conversation than because I'm actually fond of the program. (I think it relies rather heavily on nostalgia to which I have little personal access, which leaves me little room to appreciate it.) Anyway, the tow truck finally arrived to take away the damaged vehicle, since the damage to Mom's car was decided to be too close to damaging the tire to risk driving any longer, and we were ready to go in the family van. Except the van wouldn't start. We thought the battery might just be out (and I thought dry thoughts about the space milkshake adventure episode of Phineas and Ferb and how Candace really should have had the engine running while she was on the video phone, and did playing the radio without the engine running have the same effect), but while the tow truck driver was nice enough to attempt to give us a jump, there was nothin' doin'.
So there we were, on a road farther from home than I'd care to walk in the midst of Iowa that finally remembered it's supposed to be winter, with both family vehicles out of service. The car, while operating properly, was deemed too damaged to drive safely; the van, while safe enough to drive, was inoperable. How lucky we were that the van stopped working when there was already both a police officer (who I'm sure couldn't have done much else for us, but I'm sure I would have appreciated anyway if it were just the one vehicle with problems) and a tow truck in the immediate area!
Anyway, Dad decided to wait around for the next tow truck, which hopefully didn't take too long, and the police officer got permission to drop my mom and me off at our preferred locations - home for her, gaming for me. Luckily, gaming wasn't more than spitting distance out of the way home anyway, though he might've dropped me off anyhow if it had been farther out of the way. I might not have wanted to impose, though.
And then there was gaming, with delicious crock pot food, and I got a ride home from my former roommate, C, who currently lives rather close to where I do. I have no idea when either of our family vehicles will be working again, let alone if it will be on time for anything we have planned tomorrow (a local puppet group of which we're fond is performing not too far away, and also a Quire rehearsal), though I've got my fingers crossed for Monday afternoon (3:30 blood donation appointment).
So, how has your weekend been so far? 8)
On the plus side, if I pretend it didn't actually happen to me, it's almost kinda funny? There's definitely a thick layer of irony, at any rate.
The fun part of the afternoon was the AnimeIowa meeting. I got there early, because I like to sit in on my friends' D&D/Exalted sessions on Saturday evenings and one of the people who lives at the gaming location (and is also a gamer) is also one of the convention execs and needs to be there that early herself. I'm cool with that; I usually have something to do with me, and I used to go in early when the other person who lives at Gaming Location was an exec.
Anyway, convention meeting. Lots of discussion, things were worked out, more things will be worked out in the near future, and things are actually looking pretty good for as little as is in actual writing at the moment. At the end of the meeting we had our first AnimeIowa Staff White Elephant Gift Exchange, which was definitely some sort of blast, even if that Deathscythe Hell model did get passed around way too much. (Things turned out that it's now going to be the prize at the next meeting for whoever can bring in the most potential new staffers.) Current Exec left early, since a really bad snowstorm yesterday meant she'd left her vehicle at the meeting location (she works there) and she needed to drive it home anyway. I stuck around a bit longer, but not more than half an hour.
I'm leaving out most of the details of the accident, in case it's something I need to do, but here's the short version:
1) I am safe and unharmed and as whole as I was before the collision (thank you, seatbelts!)
2) The roads were sloppy from the aforementioned storm
3) The front right corner of Mom's car was crunched up like something tried to take a bite out of it
I pulled over into a side street so I could swap insurance details with the other driver and make necessary phone calls, like informing the police and also my parents. Turns out my parents were out photographing some of the startling number of bald eagles that congregate by Iowa rivers in the winter and were at my location sooner even than the police. Mom took over the call to the insurance company on my end, for which I am quite grateful because I hate phone calls and also not knowing the script for a given situation.
Things took about an hour and twenty minutes to wrap up there, part of which I spent with my parents in their van listening to Prairie Home Companion, more because my parents enjoy it and I didn't feel like making conversation than because I'm actually fond of the program. (I think it relies rather heavily on nostalgia to which I have little personal access, which leaves me little room to appreciate it.) Anyway, the tow truck finally arrived to take away the damaged vehicle, since the damage to Mom's car was decided to be too close to damaging the tire to risk driving any longer, and we were ready to go in the family van. Except the van wouldn't start. We thought the battery might just be out (and I thought dry thoughts about the space milkshake adventure episode of Phineas and Ferb and how Candace really should have had the engine running while she was on the video phone, and did playing the radio without the engine running have the same effect), but while the tow truck driver was nice enough to attempt to give us a jump, there was nothin' doin'.
So there we were, on a road farther from home than I'd care to walk in the midst of Iowa that finally remembered it's supposed to be winter, with both family vehicles out of service. The car, while operating properly, was deemed too damaged to drive safely; the van, while safe enough to drive, was inoperable. How lucky we were that the van stopped working when there was already both a police officer (who I'm sure couldn't have done much else for us, but I'm sure I would have appreciated anyway if it were just the one vehicle with problems) and a tow truck in the immediate area!
Anyway, Dad decided to wait around for the next tow truck, which hopefully didn't take too long, and the police officer got permission to drop my mom and me off at our preferred locations - home for her, gaming for me. Luckily, gaming wasn't more than spitting distance out of the way home anyway, though he might've dropped me off anyhow if it had been farther out of the way. I might not have wanted to impose, though.
And then there was gaming, with delicious crock pot food, and I got a ride home from my former roommate, C, who currently lives rather close to where I do. I have no idea when either of our family vehicles will be working again, let alone if it will be on time for anything we have planned tomorrow (a local puppet group of which we're fond is performing not too far away, and also a Quire rehearsal), though I've got my fingers crossed for Monday afternoon (3:30 blood donation appointment).
So, how has your weekend been so far? 8)
