Flashback to February/March 2025 - An Accident and the Arrival of Uncle Carl

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Note: 2025 was an interesting year. It was a hard one with a lot of challenges, but also a lot of blessings. I neglected my blog last year, but I do want to record some of the major events that happened so I have a public record of them. (And blogs are more searchable than my journals at the moment...)



Friday, February 7, 2025, 8:25am. Incoming call/Mobile/1 min 2 secs. from Peter 

Friday, February 7, 2025, 8:58am. Video recorded:


Saturday February 8, 2025 Journal entry:

Yesterday morning Peter left for work in the morning but shortly after he called me to say he had gotten in a car accident. Driving east on 97th there had been a glare on the windshield and he couldn't see and ended up hitting a car parked on the right side of the road and then the van fell on its side. I walked over to where a fire truck and police car were blocking traffic while they took pictures and measured and waited for tow trucks to come get the vehicles. Peter was okay physically. he had been wearing a seatbelt and was able to climb out the passenger side window. He received a ticket for careless driving and will have to appear in traffic court. The van was declared totaled. I filed a claim with State Farm and we have access to a rental car and they should send us funds to purchases a new car shortly. Peter spent the rest of the day on the couch sleeping or being a "depressed meatloaf". I took Tucsan [Hannah's car] to my doctor's appointment in the afternoon (just a routine physical) and then went to the temple with Steven last night.

Recollections:
The accident happened within sight of our house. The morning sun was at just the wrong angle and the front windshield was just dirty enough that he couldn't see where he was going. He was going less than 25 mph when he bumped the car parked on the side of the road just hard enough to push that car a few feet and throw the van off balance so it tipped over - slowly. Peter said a kind lady helped him climb out. He called 911 and his work (to tell them he wouldn't be coming in) before he called me. It was a huge blessing that he wasn't injured at all physically. He was shaken quite a bit emotionally, and it was several weeks before he was willing to drive again. 

The car Peter hit had expired registration and the owner wasn't home at the time of the accident. The police had that car towed and we never heard anything more about it. 

Peter's experience in traffic court wasn't bad. He was in and out in about half an hour, and ended up paying a $200 fine. 

There was a long while after the accident that every time I saw a Toyota Sienna I would have a pang of sadness. I missed my van. I had been driving Toyota vans (First a Previa and then Siennas) since shortly after we moved to our house, over 20 years ago! I missed having a car that was primarily mine, even though the boys frequently drove it.

A related blessing was that a neighbor of ours happened to have an old car that he was willing to sell to us for cheap. It took him a while to get it running; he hadn't driven it in a while and the battery was dead and I think there were some other things he fixed before he let us take it. It took him even longer to get a copy of the title from out of state, but on March 26, 2025 we were able to welcome Uncle Carl to the family. Carl is a tan 2014 Toyota Corolla. It isn't a fancy car, and it has been in the shop a couple times since we bought it, but I'm grateful for it.

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