Healing / Crash!

I felt really good right out of bed. It was within a few minutes of my usual rise time of 530am. I wasted no time at all getting my exercise routine underway. By 5:45am I had completed my 55 sit-ups & 53 push-ups. As has often been the case, I could feel a little resistance in my right knee during push-ups. Other than that, it felt pretty good. Perhaps more telling, was how it felt as Ykraps and I began our walk down our relatively steep driveway. For whatever reason, walking or running down hill is when the pain has been most prevalent. But today it felt almost normal. No pinching whatsoever, and no auto-limp either. Healed??? We were back home by 6am. I went ahead and prepped and delivered Mindy’s coffee before enjoying any for myself. During my coffee time I read the Daily OM and some of brother Glenn’s blog. He’s back at the pumpkin theme again this October. I spent a few too many minutes at the PC. It was almost 630am when I broke away for meditation and stretching. But even though I was running behind, I didn’t let that impact the quality of either. I dressed and left for my run at 6:45am. I wore two wicking shirts, gloves, and loose running pants. I could tell right away that my run would be much more comfortable. I was able to establish a normal running gate after no more than ten paces. That’s a huge improvement. The icing is doing the trick, although I was admittedly tentative – half expecting to feel a twinge here or there. The best gauge of all, however, was how quickly and how easily my mind switched to ‘float’ mode. I was able to ponder all sorts of issues, concerns, problems other than my knee. Somebody’s healing!!! My knee felt so good that I briefly considered pushing it to four miles at the 3 mile turn. I wisely kept it at three, and will likely do so for the rest of this week. I’ll reevaluate come Sunday. I was excited to share the news with Mindy when I returned home. For the first time in two weeks I could see light at the end of the tunnel. Mindy asked for my assistance with the scrambled eggs. I simply had to dish them out of the pan. I could handle that. Bella squawked about not feeling too well, and she looked a little tired. She readied for school like a trooper, however. Mindy left for school at her usual time. She put a frozen beef roast in the crock pot just before leaving. She asked that I peel off the cardboard and season it before leaving for work. That’s how we always do it. And for some unknown reason, putting the roast in frozen leaves it more pleasingly tender than placing it in thawed. Try it! I was off to the shower at 735am. Like most days, the kids were hurrying me along come 7:55am. Once again, Chrissy had bus duty too. We chatted briefly before and after the bus swept our kids away. I did a little research into iPods before leaving for work. I’m becoming more and more convinced that I should switch to an iPod. Before doing so, I want to verify that it will play music in the MP3 format, and then if iTunes has a converter for WMA files. I know for certain that iPods won’t play WMA files. Most of my collection is in MP3 format. I arrived at the office by 835am. I spent the first hour of my day in the center talking with my team. The day went fairly well. Mid-day I received a call from Courtney, who I assumed called to make arrangements to drop off some cash she owes me. Nope. Instead, she wanted to discuss another option. What? To say the least, I wasn’t pleased. I also called Straders to ask about getting a replacement key for my Toro mower. Yep. They’ve got them, and for a whopping $2.88. I thought that I might stop in after work. Lastly, J.P. from my ophthalmologist’s office called me back. He expects my new sunglasses in by Thursday. Delay after delay. I wasn’t too hard on him, however. His wife just had a baby. Instead of bitching, I congratulated him and asked how the two of them were doing. Mindy called around 3pm. She was on her way to pick-up Bella from school. She was sick. We saw that coming. I agreed to leave work at 5pm to be home in time to pick-up and take Jacob to soccer practice. I could hear him cry like a baby as Mindy and I made those arrangements. Geesh! He didn’t want to go citing feeling ill and being on a bad team with a bad coach. My thought was that he signed up and that he’ll attend and finish. Otherwise, what are we teaching him? Mindy agreed. I prepared and left the office at 5pm sharp still believing I’d be delivering Jacob to soccer practice. I was unsettled about whether or not to make a quick stop at Strader’s or rush straight home. And as you’ll soon read, I should’ve detoured to Strader’s. Out of the office I turned south for home instead of north towards Strader’s. I called Mindy to let her know that I was on my way home. She quickly mentioned that Jimaken was going to take Jacob to soccer then pick-up Bella afterwards and stay home from work with her on Wednesday. As I approached the new roundabout I selected the inside lane believing that left me the option to continue on Britton or take Davidson east. I chose to take Britton Rd straight through towards home, but as I made my way around and south towards Britton Rd I spotted a car approaching quickly on my right almost in my blind spot attempting to go around me. Panicked, I did my level best to steer back into the inside lane but couldn’t quite do it. We collided, although ever so slightly. It all happened in the matter of a couple seconds. Even still, I was shaken from the sudden jolt and immediately pulled over just east of the roundabout. Without thinking I quickly assumed blame, thinking I must’ve been my fault, not 100% certain of the roundabout rules. The other car and I agreed to pull further up the road to get out of the way of the quickly building rush hour traffic. I called Mindy back to alert her of the mishap. I then called 911 to report our minor accident. After confirming no injuries, they referred me to the Hilliard police department. I called them next. Good grief. This was the first traffic accident I’ve ever been involved in where I was driving. I was totally bummed, but at the same time calm. The more I thought about it, I was convinced that I was in the correct lane to go south. I quickly advised the other driver that I wasn’t really certain that it was my fault after all. I felt foolish, but she agreed and said that neither of us were roundabout experts. We briefly discussed how many accidents we’ve seen there in the year or so since they’ve been in place. And by the way, there are now about six of these roundabouts in Hilliard. What I found frustrating, she wasn’t willing to tell which direction she was coming from. All I knew was that she showed up in my blindspot and started passing me. It took a while for the cop to arrive. His first order of business was to ask if we were OK. We were. At the time, I hadn’t even checked my own car’s damage. However, I did look at the other car, a Honda Accord. It was minor/minimal. Looked like some minor trim damage around the right rear wheel well. I finally got out and looked at my own. I had a few scrapes on my right front bumper, but that’s it. The officer questioned the Honda driver first. He came to me next. I was honest to a fault advising him that my intentions were to cut across to go straight. That apparently did me in. He smiled and said it was my fault. And the truth is, I really wasn’t sure of the roundabout rules and was relying on instinct. Either way, I felt better for taking the heat. It took about 30 minutes for him to complete the process. Of course he let the other car go first. Surprisingly, he was one heck of a friendly officer. We chatted for some time afterwards. I’ve heard so many stories about how ‘grizzly’ these Hilliard cops can be, but this guy was certainly the exception. After asking, he explained the rules for two-lane roundabouts, which honestly, still seemed counter to what I believed made sense, but he seemed to make sense out of it too and assured me he knew them well, having lived in London for a spell. Before departing, he gave me a phone number in case I had questions later. I know this sounds funny, but I was impressed with his customer service skills. Not something you find common amongst police officers. Homeward with a scuffed up bumper, a traffic ticket, and bruised ego. As you one might expect, I relived the entire experience a thousand times during my drive home and again throughout the night. That’s my nature. To counter the torture, numerous times I reminded myself that in the grand scheme of things, this wasn’t that big of a deal. It’s funny, though, I didn’t care so much about my car. Instead, I worried about my insurance rates, the cost of the ticket, and the prospect of an imperfect driving record. On the other hand, Mindy was simply happy that no one was injured. By the way, she walked Ykraps before I got home. The roast beef was ready as soon as I was in the door. I didn’t have much of an appetite but didn’t let that stop me from partaking in the roast. It looked and smelt terrific. I had two helpings of roast, but only one helping if mashed potatoes. We had garden salads too. Bella ate very little and was somewhat lethargic playing her sick-self quite well. J Jimaken and Jacob arrived just before 7:30pm. Again, the plan called for Jimaken to take Bella to his place and stay home with her on Wednesday. Mindy made Jacob a plate of roast beef. I got out my ice pack and snuggled up in the big familyroom chair. I tuned the TV to the TLC where I watched a cool program about the universe/big bang theory. I just can’t get enough of that stuff. After that, I watched program outlining the CERN giant collider project in Sweden/France. That was equally entertaining – though provoking.