Carmella's Hang Out

You know the old game, right? Two cars face and drive towards the other to see which one is chicken and turn away? Yeah, well, yesterday Mum and I played that, sort of….only we ourselves were not in a car.

I had to work most of the day yesterday, but I got off an hour early {the roads were very icy and had therefore not been good for driving on and my morning had been very slow. I was suppose to stay there with my boss till 4 but it was not busy enough at the time to keep two ppl on, so she sent me home since there would be someone else in at 4. I was told by Chris though, that after I left, there was a huge line up!} Mum came in the van to pick me up, but did not make it all the way there before running into some trouble. About two blocks away from the mall, just out at the drive entrance, she hit one of the pot holes Michigan is famous for. The tire was ALL the way off the wheel with the rim rolling on the pavement. Not fun.

I walked down from the mall, to join her there and wait for Dad to get there in my car. {She still runs, just not well, so I have not been driving her at all. We did not know where Chris was so could not get a ride from her….though it turned out she was at the mall herself, and even drove past me on my walk down to the van} We found out that we have many nice people that live here in my town, since many cars stopped by to see if we needed help with the tire, or to offer a cell phone so that we could get a hold of help. A local policemen was driving past checked in on Mum before I got there, but left when he found out that Mum was getting help.

Once Dad got there, and started changing the tire, we saw how much he was out in the road. It is a two lane drive there at the entrance, but slowly narrows to a one lane road on that side. The blown tire was on the side pointed out to the road. People were driving by so fast, and not watching at all, and we were afraid they were going to kill Dad, so Mum and I stood about five feet away from each other, in an attempt to push traffic over faster. Many cars did not want to go until they were almost hitting me….and I actually had to back away a few times to avoid a collision. {Hence the ‘chicken’ playing} The cop soon came back when he saw the trouble we were having, and parked his cruiser with the nose out to the side and the light flashing, and the cars got the picture faster.

Twice the van fell off the jack. The second time….my foot was under it. I had seen it slipping and had visions of it crushing my dad, so I grabbed the back trailer hitch and began to pull, while screaming to Dad that it was falling. Mum was not able to get to the brake in time, and Dad and I were unable to pull it back up on the jack. The van, now missing its rear driver side tire, crashed down to the ground, and the trailer hitch smashed my ankle and threw me backwards. I must say that is one of the scariest things that has happened in a long time. I had not been able to see where Dad was at the time the van fell, so I was SURE it had killed him, and was very very relieved when he got up and came around to see if I was ok. The cop also came out of his car to ask if we needed him to call an EMT to take a look at any of us….but we decided to wait and see if I even needed a doctor, and would then just go to the ER I was sure that most of my crying was just from shock and fright.

The Lord was so good to us then. I spent the rest of the night with ice on my foot, waiting to see if we needed to go to the ER. {we haven’t} There is a nice size rolled-burn-scrape type of thing on the top of my ankle, and a large lump where the trailer made contact, but it does not hurt terribly if I do not put much weight on it and keep it straight. Dad is really sore from trying to lift the van, but was not hurt too badly when the jack slipped. Praise the Lord for his protection! A wrecker truck was called and we got a spare put on for the time being. Turns out, the pot hole tore a hold in the tire!

Not the way we had planned our Saturday to go, I can tell ya that! It took us two hours to get me home from work….when the mall is only six miles away! lol.

That is the LONGEST time it has ever taken us to get back home from Great Lakes!