Blog? What blog?

Three weeks. I haven't posted in three weeks. That's gotta be a record! I can't help it, people. I've been busy!

I was on vacation, then I got back and had to get caught up on life, and then there were a couple of pressing projects that had to be completed, and next thing you know, it's been three weeks and Amazing Race is over and Christmas is around the corner. Whaaaaat?!

I won't bore you with a travelogue of my vacation, and all I can say about Amazing Race is thank heaven the stupid brothers didn't win! Oy. But I do have a comment about something interesting that happened yesterday.

I was at my desk at work, and I heard the BANG! of car accident outside our building. Our building is on the corner at a busy intersection, so it's not a common thing to have accidents out there, but it's not unheard of. My first thought was not to be terribly concerned, but I'll get up in a second and look. But then there was this other bang and this loud, low, metallic scraping sound. Huh?

I looked out the window (I'm on the 6th floor), and on the street below me is an SUV on its roof! I'm staring at the undercarriage of this truck! "Oh my God!" was about what I could manage. I saw a bystander run up to the car and get on her hands and knees to check on whoever was inside. That was the first of the things I saw that bolstered my faith in the goodness of people.

My co-workers and I crowded around the windows and watched things unfold as a crowd gathered outside. People respectfully stayed back as just a couple of folks (including the original good samaritan than ran up to the car) managed the scene until the emergency personnel got there, which only took a few minutes.

Cops showed up and blocked off the street and talked to witnesses, while firefighters stabilized the car then got the occupants out, and EMTs assessed their condition. Turns out there were two people in the car - an older couple. They both could get out and stand, but they eventually put the woman on a backboard and took them both to the hospital (which is right around the corner) in an ambulance. All of the emergency personnel seemed very professional, quick and concerned - more bolstering.

Eventually, a wrecker came out to remove the car from the street. Even the wrecker driver bolstered my opinion of humanity as I watched him carefully position his truck and place chains on the overturned SUV. He seemed to treat the car with respect, understanding that just an hour before, people had been in there - he didn't bang things around or toss things. Then he carefully pulled it upright, and I saw that it wasn't an SUV - it was an extended cab truck. Somehow that affected me - that I couldn't tell what it was until it was turned upright.

In any case, as it was righted, the doors (which no longer closed) flew open, tossing papers and some possessions of the couple into the street. The firefighters ran over and quickly returned most items to the car, cleaning up others with brooms and throwing them away. I wondered if anything important was getting thrown away, and thought about my own car - what's in there and what would get tossed into the street if my car were thrown on its head like that. What would I never get back, and what would other people see, and what would the items tell anyone about me?

My thought whenever I see an accident like that is always, "Someone was just going down the street, running an errand, living their normal life like every other day, and now, suddenly, everything has just been thrown in disarray. Who knows how far-reaching the consequences will be." I try to be thoughtful of what a big event that is to someone - not just rubberneck with curiosity. I wonder today how that couple is doing.

One interesting note is that none of us ever could find the car that hit them. Possibly it was able to the pull through the intersection and park where we couldn't see it. But honestly, none of us knows exactly what happened - what collision occurred that resulted in the scene I saw out my window. That'll drive me a little crazy, won't it?