Vaca Day One

It felt wonderful to wake up yesterday morning to a clean house and no schedule! We had planned to visit family during this week "off," so we set our ducks in a row, packed up, made sure the house was in shape for the people looking after it, and set out almost exactly according to our itinerary. It felt great!

Honestly, I had a major attitude problem by the time we got to Oxford. I was on edge, as if something about the day just wasn't right. On the other hand, everything was going perfectly, so there were no complaints in my books. Still, my attitude was just waiting to be set off.

The stage was set for my Tim's encounter with several women whose old age would have nothing to do with the story, unless one chooses to think they were age-impaired instead of downright rude. Sorry, let me fill you in.

Natasha needed a snack and I needed a "potty break," so we stopped in Oxford. I got cash at the Irving, walked over to the Tim's, and lined up behind about five people after my break. After several minutes I was next in line. I felt nervous because these two women who appeared to have been retired for at least fifteen years were slowly edging my direction, as if they had been in line the whole time. The gentleman in front of me ordered and stood to the side. Woman #1 stepped in front of me, approached the counter, and began to order. Of course her order was long and complicated, but I reminded myself that I had been the long, complicated order before. I took a breath, told myself it was fine for Natasha and the baby to sit in the car, that our vacation would not be hindered just because I had already been in line 20 minutes.

About that time Woman #2 stepped in front of me hastily, adding her order to Woman #1's order. The girl at the cash added the new order, adjusting the total, and obtaining the people's food. Honestly, I wasn't the most mature person in the world because I said, "I promise you that I'm standing here, even if you can't see me." The guy behind me laughed, but I knew it should have stayed in. Fortunately, these women were as deaf as they were blind, so the comment dropped to the ground unheard.

Woman #1 came back to the girl with a change to her order, which got a "You've got to be kidding me!" from me. At least this was under my breath. Again, our vacation is fine. Just fine.

As the two women stepped aside, allowing me to approach the counter, a woman two people behind me said, "Oh, can you add to your order? I'll pay you back!" Then another, "Oh, me too. Add this." The two women stepped back, added things to their order again, and I began to see that there was no hope for me ever to reach the counter. I was caught in a rude, deaf, blind old lady club that was determined never to allow me to order a yogurt and bagel. Or at least that's what I told myself as I muttered, "Frig this!" and stormed out.

We chose to go through the drive-thru, which was, thankfully, efficient. I learned a moral, though. Confucius say, "Man who drink Just Us! Guatemala blend with wife at home should not make Tim's coffee the next thing to cross man's lips." Whoa.

Anyway, let me just say at this point that EVERYTHING IS FINE. As far as we can tell, EVERYONE IS FINE. Repeat it with me: "Everything is fine. Everyone is fine." Great.

Now, the rain picked up once we left Oxford. Going through the Tantramar Marsh was insane! We were going between 70 and 80 (km/hr, for my American friends) with traffic the entire way. The rain let up, so we sped up. Then it picked up again, so we slowed back down. It was dangerous driving, but we felt like we were in a protective bubble or something strange. That's a good thing because near Memramcook we hydroplaned, lost control, struck a 5-ton truck, and lost the front end of our car.

Oddly enough, we did not feel much an impact at all. Everything in the car felt slow, calm, and okay. In fact, we had no idea what happened to the outside because there was no damage to the inside of the car that we could see. The baby woke up, but she didn't cry, she showed no signs of pain, but she stared at us with sleepy eyes, as if to say, "Did something happen?" Natasha felt no jarring, no pain (other than what she already felt from being five months pregnant with fibro symptoms), no anything. By a miracle, I'm sure, we got control of the car, pointed it straight, and parked it on the left shoulder of the Trans-Canada. We just sat there, 1000 things going through my mind. I double-checked that we were all fine, and I got out in the pouring rain to go meet the driver of the truck who was on the other side of the road, far ahead.

A Sears repair man happened to be going by and happened to let me use his cell, so I called my in-laws so they could come get us. An ambulance happened to be three vehicles back and saw everything unfold, so he pulled over with the Sears repair man and asked about our conditions. The truck driver was walking around, saying he felt little more than a sore leg that he told the paramedic did not need immediate care. I felt nothing at all, and the paramedic seemed unconcerned when he asked Natasha questions about her, Roya, and the baby. The RCMP happened to come quickly, took our information, and waited with us for the tow truck they called. Another tow truck happened to drive by, asking if we wanted a tow. Since this wasn't whom the RCMP called, we sent him along. Apparently he was just concerned because he saw all the parts everywhere on the road.

Natasha hadn't seen the outside of the vehicle yet. She apparently thought it was strange that so much fuss was made because, again, everything seemed fine inside the car. The tow truck came, told us to clean out the car because he doesn't think we'll see our Corolla again ( I LOVE MY COROLLA!!!!), and sent us on our way with my in-laws. The whole thing was very surreal.

Props to Wawanesa because we had a rental in less than four hours from our hydroplaning incident. The woman working on our claim has been wonderful so far, and we are grateful for the individuals and company we're working with.

Props, too, to a triage nurse in the emergency room at Moncton Hospital. We didn't feel anything, and Natasha showed no signs of injury, but we thought it was best to have her checked out, mostly because of the baby. We saw the triage nurse, registered, and waited - for FOUR HOURS!!!!!! And...WE NEVER GOT IN!!!!!!!!!!!! We spoke with the triage nurse again after four hours, and she told us it was no better for the baby for Natasha to pull an all-nighter waiting to see a doctor than for her to see if there was any latent pain this morning and come back if necessary. It was a terribly long four hours, but I finished another book, and the nurse reassured us that Natasha is most likely fine, that the baby is almost definitely fine, especially because she keeps feeling it kick and move around.

So, day one is down. Natasha's major comment of the day: Why are we Erskines? Why can't anything normal ever happen to us? Good question. Let's just hope that if I write about day two it will be boring and short.