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grateful for seatbelts & sheer luck

bellbird

bellbird

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Oct 10, 2010
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so i'm hesitant to post a lot of stuff about myself b/cos i know my problems, big as they may be in our household and lives, pale in comparison to others here and beyond, and especially with much of our digi community reeling from events earlier this week; but after getting rearended yesterday driving home after picking the kids up from school (and going to the medical centre for DS with neck pain etc), i guess this plus everything else is reminding me to not take for granted how lucky we can be, amid more than a million possibilities and outcomes in every second of our days that are outside our control; it's hard to see that sometimes with longterm issues or completely random things that occur that inconvenience or loom over us for a while. For me, having driven home basically the same way since 2011, i'm trying to remember we are lucky b/cos it hasn't happened before and was more shock than serious and no pedestrians were hurt or other cars involved and that without seatbelts that we put on without a second thought because of laws here since before i can remember, we would have all been through the windshield before we realised what the noise was or what was going on.
anyway, i'm going to retreat for a bit into my normal mum stuff and with my digisupplies and pics of my lucky kids- i don't need replies, i guess i'm just venting or something and it's all just too long to type in the status bar
 
I'm sorry that happened to you and so glad it wasn't worse. My DH may have a lot of faults lol, but he is so good when it comes to that kind of thing and reminding me that as long as everyone is ok, it's all good. I'm pretty good at being chill and remembering that things could always be worse, but a lot of times he is better at it than I am.
 
@bellbird I'm so glad everything was okay!! It does rattle you when things like that happen!

I've been hesitant to post about this in light of the recent tragedy... but Saturday morning, we were at our place in Michigan and at about 2:15am I woke up and thought I smelled smoke. I woke up my husband and he smelled it too. I was the first to go downstairs and descended the stairs into a hazy, smoke filled family room. We woke up the kids, grabbed the dog and called 911. Our place is in a rural area with a volunteer fire department. It was about half an hour before anyone got there. But they got there and were amazing. There was no fire... thank goodness! The fan in our HVAC unit had overheated and burned up, shooting smoke through all of the vents in the house. They brought in big fans, blew the smoke out and used thermal sensors to check for any hidden hot spots. They cleared the house and we were able to go back to bed around 5am.

It was so easy to get caught up in the negatives... the smoke smell in the house, the lack of sleep, no AC for a weekend of 90 degree temps and the expense of getting the fan replaced and the unit repaired. But now I'm focused on the positives... we're all safe, our house is safe. Things could have been much worse.
 
I'm glad everyone is okay. That must have been scary--and even though you understand that "it could have been worse," I bet your kids were scared and it's stressful as a mom to calm their fears. And frankly, whatever the cause, being reminded of the fragility of life is emotionally draining, so taking a moment to re-group with your digi supplies makes perfect sense.

On a seat belt-related note: my grandpa, who was normally a very practical, level-headed man, cut out the seat belts in the first car he bought that had them. He didn't care that there was a law requiring them. He said that the government "can't tell me what keeps me safe." Can you imagine?!
 
Yikes! Glad all are safe! It is good to take a step back sometimes & be thankful! Great reminder to WEAR your seatbelts too!!
 
Wow! Glad everybody is safe! @bellbird Justine - how scary - thank goodness it wasn't any worse! @IntenseMagic Jan, my hubby is the same way. He always says "it ain't arms and lets". His way of saying nothing else matters if we're all okay. @tkradtke Tracie, how frightening!! Glad it wasn't a fire, just a burned out fan. @Tree City Sara, I remember long before seatbelts were mandatory and people actually buckled them and sat on them or before the alarms went off - just let them dangle.
 
Being in a car accident is so scary, no matter how much damage or injury is done! Glad everyone is okay!

@tkradtke YIKES!! That would be so scary! Hubby rewired our thermostat wrong and it fried something up in the attic that smelled like burning plastic and that was scary enough!
 
@tkradtke I'm glad everything turned out okay! I bet it was even scarier in light of earlier this week!

@bellbird I'm so glad you are safe Justine! Car accidents are unnerving when they are minor! I'm glad it wasn't worse. I hope you still feel okay today! I know often the day after is when bodies really start to hurt.

My dad sucks at wearing his seatbelt. He always has. We always get after him for it. He's been ticketed too. But still, it's not important to him. :shakehead
 
@bellbird Oh wow! I'm so sorry to hear this! I agree with Timmi. It is so scary and rattles the nerves badly. Especially when it is the route you always drive on (and when you have your kids in the car!). So thankful you all are OK. I hope your son's neck pain isn't anything too serious? Hoping you all are able to have a relaxing weekend after that experience.

@tkradtke So glad you guys all are Ok as well! Glad it was something small - but very scary.

I definitely think the older generations have seatbelt issues. My grandmother is 94 and hates wearing hers too. I can't even talk about it with her because it blows my mind when people decide not to wear them because they like the feel of it or how it constrains them. :duh That's the point!
 
So glad you are all ok. I absolutely agree, try not to take life and loved ones for granted b/c things can happen in an instant and your world can change (as ours has). I can still remember what a PITA it was when seat belts became a law so many years ago and how inconvenient it seemed. Boy, I sure am glad that law passed b/c now as an adult I realize what a huge safety measure that is and how many lives it saves.
 
@bellbird - Fortunate you are!! You made me think of this song:
@tkradtke - glad too that it was a simple malfunction and that your home was not damaged, not to mention your family!
 
thanks all - not looking fwd to getting back behind the wheel today but at least we go via swimming after school so the way home is slightly different
@tkradtke glad you are all ok too (i can only imagine what you guys were going thru during that long wait for the fire dept!) and i guess especially with Amber's tragedy, the way i feel about smoke alarms is similar to how i feel about seatbelts (even if we joke about someone burning the toast again when we hear firetruck sirens heading towards the aged care village at the back of our suburb pretty much once a week)

i guess what has thrown me is how you can plan as much as you like for events (like the stockpiling for winter coming in The Great Alone i started reading from the TLP Bookclub list and economic collapse and doomsday disasters (like we started watching about on Doomsday Planners on Netflix recently)) but then something i'd thought of as fairly normal like being on the road is obviously as risky, if not more so, when you think about it - i know you can't live life thinking like this and assessing risk of everything and all the factors beyond our control but that's where my head has been - that and scrapping and cleaning as distractions...
 
(And i am amazed at how many people have mentioned knowing someone that complains about/disregards etc seat belts! we have these wrap around padded seat belt things (they velcro on and cushion it a bit so maybe that would help some? they're like the standard wraps around seatbelts in little kids car seats here & were like $2 - 3 at kmart
 
Hugs Justine! Growing up in a small country town, serious accidents were a common occurrence and I lost neighbors who didn't wear seat belts (and who were probably drink driving before it was illegal) and many more that have been saved because of seat belts - including my big brother who broke ribs in an accident but certainly would have died if not for those seat belts! Now he is the boss of all traffic policemen in NSW so fair turnaround...

My eldest was t boned a month ago by someone running a stop sign, luckily at very low speeds so no one was hurt - dealing with the insurance company was far more painful in the end...

And, oh man Justine, cleaning as a distraction seems very extreme to me :giggle
 
Hugs Justine! Accidents are scary. I had one a few months ago, and as rear ended too. It was the whole slow motion, I can't believe this is happening, oh my goodness, oh my goodness, ow, what was that noise, what happened, omg, I'm ok. I'm so glad that you guys are ok!!!!

When I was younger, we didn't have to wear seatbelts. I fell out of a car once, too, as it was moving in a parking lot as a child... and I was worried about my lollipop! It became a law, and I forcefuly made it my New Years Resolution, and kept it. Second nature now! I know people who don't wear it, and I can't imagine. That's scary to me. Just yesterday, a 20 year old you woman in my sorority/college I went to, passed in a car accident - partly because she wasn't wearing her seatbelt. It's just so sad.
 
::SUPER hugs:: I'm SUPER glad you're okay, ALL of us.

Sometimes we all take for granted that "Justine" or someone else will log in and everything will be as it is.. I'm just grateful that it does tend to work out that way.

I hope your son feels better and that there's no long term damage done.
 
So glad @bellbird Justine that you are all ok. Scary for sure and yup agree with afraid to get back in the car...

@tkradtke So glad you and your family are ok as well Tracie.
 
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