Ripple Effect

This weekend is Immaculate Conceptions Fun Fest.  It's usually the second weekend in August and it is always hot, hot, hot.  When I was younger I would volunteer to work some booths with my mom.  I remember one year mom let me go in the Moon Walk Jumper after my ity bity shift.  It was so humid and I was so hot that I got dizzy and sick on the way to the car.  Mom thought I had heat exhaustion.  I never attended another Fun Fest since.

So you can imagine my face when my sister said that she wanted to go today.  I was less than enthusiastic.  We had plans to be out on the town so we just made a detour to Heights.  I wanted to see the Silent Auction items.  I placed two bids.  One on a pair of tickets to see a Wild game on Black Friday.  I've always wanted to see a professional hockey game but they are so expensive.  The other was on a basket of bakeware and cake mixes/ pie fillers.

After that we headed over to the BINGO tent.  Found a place in the shade and shared a couple of cards.  We played about 10 rounds and as luck would have it, Jean won.  She always wins.  I don't get it.  But I asked if she wanted to get a ice cream cone on the way home.  She said yes.  I said "good 'cause it's on her".

I suppose the only part I'm leaving out is the drama that occurred when we first arrived.  We tried to park in the church parking lot but it was full.  So we circled around the block so we could park in front library.  We got out and had to back track to the crosswalk near the Greater Life Tabernacle.  A car was coming eastbound but yielded to us so that we could cross over into the school parking lot/ playground.  We were probably 10 feet into the parking lot talking about what we wanted to see first when BAM!  We turned around and I'm still confused about what happened.  The car that had yielded to us was now facing south on the lawn/sidewalk of the Greater Life Tabernacle.  The driver must have been wanting to turn left (north bound onto Quincy) but happened to do in in front of an oncoming SUV.

I was the first to call 911 because none of the driver's seemed too concerned about getting help.  The car that yieled to us was driven by a younger gal....in her early twenties.  The two people in the SUV were middle aged ladies.  The younger girl was dazed, slow on getting out of her car.  I was relieved when I saw that her only injury was a little stream of blood coming from the bridge of her nose.  And the two other women bounded out of their SUV, yelling at her.  Obviously they were okay.

It kind of made me angry.  Yelling at someone and deciding blame right after an accident isn't gonna do anybody any good.  They didn't ask if she was okay...is everything all right?        Hello!!!!  She's bleeding!!!!
There was glass everywhere....as the windshield of the car was totally smashed, her bumper and side mirror were laying in the intersection.

Did I really want to get in the middle of this? Um...no.  I did my civil duty.  Got help on the way.  Made sure everyone was okay without life threatening injuries.  We did stick around until the first squad got there and then went on our way.

I can't help but think.  If we had walked in the other direction, towards the crosswalk near the Washburn-McReavy Funeral Chapel....could everything been avoided?