Sunday, March 13, 2016

Genius Hits the Road and the Road Hits Back

No, Genius is not performing "Rock 'N Roll Star" like REO. He's not on tour with a band, though two of his housemates are in a band, and have the front living room set up for jammin'. Nope. Genius literally hit the road. Almost.

I hesitated to share this tale, not because it's a deep dark secret, but because every time I thought about it, I started shaking.

Tuesday night, Hick came home and tromped straight down to my dark basement lair. That's unusual. He most often tromps in the kitchen, says he's going to feed the animals and fiddle about in the BARn, and then tromps out the front door. So I was leery. Something was amiss.

"Genius texted me. HE'S ALL RIGHT. He had a wreck on the way home from work."

Of course the bottom dropped out of my stomach, and my heart fell through, though it landed safely on top of a slice of leftover meatloaf.

Let the record show that Genius is doing his co-op semester, which means he works 40 hours a week at a job that he is schooling to do. His job is in the city, and he drives from his college house, which takes him between 1:40 to 2:00 one-way, depending on traffic. So he's spending at least 3+ hours a day commuting.

"He's with the police now. He hit a semi on I-44. He thinks he fell asleep. He hit the wheels right under the cab, and ended up in the medium--"

"It's MEDIAN. Not medium."

"Anyway...he says he okay, but he's shaken up. He's going to text me back later."

Genius sent pictures:



He was in the fast lane, and when the road curved left, he didn't. He woke up when he hit the semi, and jammed on the brakes, made a little trip into the median, and was able to get his car stopped on the left shoulder. Fortunately, there was no one following closely behind him. As soon as traffic cleared, he pulled over to the right shoulder and waited for the highway patrol. The semi and another one pulled off up ahead. The driver of the truck he hit didn't even know that a pesky compact car slammed into him, but the other semi driver saw it happen, and told him on the radio.

GENIUS WAS VERY LUCKY! Or somewhere in his youth or childhood, he must have done something good.

His car is driveable. The patrolman followed him down the highway for three miles to make sure, then told him he could go ahead and continue driving. The passenger mirror is destroyed. He has body damage to the front and back fenders. And tire marks all down the side.

BUT GENIUS IS UNDAMAGED!

He will have to appear in court or get a lawyer from Franklin County to handle his case. He has a C & I, which I call Careless and Impudent Driving. He could get points off his license, or even do jail time, according to my estranged BFF Google. There will be a fine, and if the truck driver files damages, he (meaning our ever-increasing auto insurance) will have to pay for repairs. But the good news is

GENIUS IS FINE!

Nobody was hurt. He was wearing his seatbelt. He had his insurance card. His car is functioning.

Our attorney (who could have built a wing on his mansion from all the business we've given him over the past 25 years) says that there's probably nothing we can do about the ticket, but that Genius must use a lawyer from the county where the accident occurred, and that a traffic lawyer can tell us if they can get the charges reduced so that there are no points off his license. Nobody knows right now, because we can't get the police report for 10 days.

Tomorrow...a word (yeah, right--a plethora of words) about the repairs.


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UPDATE:

Not to be overly dramatic, but now Hick changed his story after sending me a picture of the "victim" which was the semi truck. Now he says that Genius didn't go all the way in the "medium," only two wheels, which was good. And that Genius hit the wheels BEHIND the cab. Shown here. So now I am retroactively worrying that Genius could have GONE UNDER THE FLATBED TRAILER! Not that I'm overly dramatic or anything...

14 comments:

  1. Val--When you described what happened, my stomach dropped, too. He WAS very lucky. (I once fell asleep and woke up as my car was scraping along on the concrete median. Or medium. Maybe it was a man or woman standing in the middle of the highway who could fortell the future...

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    1. Steer away from the mediums, Madam! Or in a small amount of time, you will have a large problem.

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  2. That is scary. Glad that he is unhurt. Hard to believe he is away at school and has a 3+ hour a day commute.

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    1. Genius could have moved to the city to do his co-op. It's with the same engineering firm he worked for two summers ago, and the people he rented a basement apartment from would have taken him back.

      However, once Genius had a taste of freedom living in a house with three other dudes, he did not want to sit alone in his room every weeknight for six months. And he didn't want to pay two rents.

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  3. Thank God he's okay. This is scary stuff. Still, I don't see how there could possibly be jail time over this. It was an accident, not a crime.

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    1. Yeah. It's not like Genius was practicing stuntman moves and barreling along on two wheels.

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  4. I'm SO glad he's OK. Cars can be replaced; not children!!

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    1. I'm glad Genius didn't hurt anybody else during his nap.

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  5. My goodness what a fright. Thank God he's okay.

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    1. He was either in the right place at the right time, or the right place at the wrong time. A few feet difference in any direction and he could have been...um...NOT okay.

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  6. It's very scary when your kid has an accident like this. Later, when you're sure he's okay, you can tell him what a little **** he was. I'm glad he's okay and the damage to his car is really minor. So calm down, take a deep breath and prepare your speech, Val.

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    1. I don't think I have a speech for working 40 hours a week and commuting 15 hours and falling asleep on the way home.

      Or maybe it was that advice I gave him Tuesday night, that returned to bite me in the butt on Wednesday...

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  7. I once was falling asleep driving home from the shore...there may have been too many beers involved. I pulled into a rest stop and fell asleep with my car safely parked, but facing the oncoming traffic on the Garden State Parkway. When I woke up and opened my eyes I saw I was perpendicular to the racing traffic. My last thought before I parked was I was falling asleep. When I saw the cars I was never so scared in my life until I remembered I had pulled into the rest stop.

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    1. I think that's a good argument for jumping back ON THE WAGON for the ride home.

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