Where Have I Been?

I want to thank everyone who has been stopping by even though I have not been here lately.

Most already know what "Spring Break" can be like; so the kids have definitely kept me busy with the "Mom, take me here, take me there" requests. The kids keeping me busy is not an excuse; just a fact.

What has really kept me from writing is ME.

My hubby was in a car accident last Thursday that totally through us for a loop. If every there was an accident to learn from, this one is it. He was drinking a smoothie, it fell and instead of just waiting until he was able to stop, he looked down for a brief second to pick it up off his leg. In that split second, all traffic suddenly stopped in front of him.

He wasn't even aware and he had no time to react; he didn't even get the chance to hit his brakes. Thankfully the couple he hit were okay and their vehicle only had some minor bumper damage. They even called us that evening to make sure my hubby was doing well. I thought that was very sweet.

While his injuries are minor, the repairs will not be minor. If we had full coverage insurance on this vehicle I am pretty sure they would have totaled the poor car. Not because the damage is so extensive, just the age and mileage of the vehicle.

The initial estimate to repair my husband's 1996 Cobra SVT; $5600. We have now found that this estimate was very high and not accurate. While quite a few items need repairing, thankfully it isn't going to be as much as initially thought. Here are a few pictures, taken with my brother in-law's camera phone:

I am constantly having to remember I cannot plan anything because hubby has to have the car for work, school and his Brazilian Jiu Jitsu classes. His work is over 30 minutes away, so driving him back and forth to work is just not feasible; especially with a work schedule of 7pm to 7:30am. The gas alone would kill our budget.

Let me tell you; while air bags are wonderful at saving lives, don't ever think they are safe. He was in a relatively slow crash (he had not even put the car in third gear), yet when those air bags came out, the driver's one caused a nasty 2nd degree burn (really close to third degree). The skin came completely off one spot on his forearm and was bleeding. As I stated though, minor in comparison to what could have happened. His eye glasses were knocked off his face. Hubby's face was pretty bruised too.

After seeing what these air bags can do, I am even more adamant about not allowing my children to sit in the front passenger seat.

All in all, I am very thankful no one was seriously hurt. I don't think hubby will be driving with a smoothie any time soon.

Technorati Tags: car accident,postings

Drivers, Pay ******* Attention!

I have written and vented about idiot drivers before; so I know this is nothing new, except what happened to me this afternoon.

Everything was going well, I stopped at a light, the light turned green; but guess what? The drivers turning left across us where still going, yes, blatantly running the red light. This wasn't an instance of "oops I didn't see the light", this was a whole line of freaking (not the word I really want to say) idiots running the red light. Where are the dang blasted cops when you need them. Our light was green for a good 30-45 seconds, then just as I thought we were going to be able to move, the driver in front of me just sits there.

Nothing! No movement! No, the vehicle wasn't broken down; not yet at least. If they had waited any longer I may have tried to cause their vehicle to break down to give them something to sit there for. Kind of like when you tell your kids 'you will give them something to cry about'.

Now, don't get me wrong; I know we all miss a green light sometime in our lives, but I have never experienced anyone sitting there for as long as this person did. They had the whole line of cars honking at them; so it wasn't just me..hehe.

Well, I was still behind this 'lazy' vehicle, no biggy. When I needed to make a left turn (there are two left turn lanes, I was on the outside one), this same vehicle proceeded to try and take off my front end. They literally started coming into my lane then put their signal on. I tried moving to the other lane and they followed, then, as we rounded the turn; they moved back over to the first left hand turn lane. At this point I was the epitome of a driver with road rage. It is not my finest moment, but hey, a lot of us have been there and done that. I gunned the accelerator, got in front ( I had plenty of room, they were way behind) of 'that' vehicle and drove myself home.

I am just sick of idiots. If you are going to drive, don't talk on the phone, don't try and read, don't (whatever this driver was doing). I saw a man the other day swerving all over the road almost hitting several people because he kept looking back at one of his passengers (looked like a child). He could have easily gotten in an accident and either severely injured someone or his passenger. All I ask is for people to think and pay attention; why is that so difficult.

A driver's license is not a right, the government doesn't owe it to you to give you a driver's license. Be courteous, pay attention and there will be less accidents.

End of Vent.... for now!

Technorati Tags: idiot drivers,driving,road rage

Not Another Idiot.....Driver!

It has been a while since I complained about one our 'lovely', local drivers. You do realize that when I emphasize 'lovely' I am being facetious, right?

My children and I went out this evening to grab a quick bite to eat before we headed to Lo's Holiday Program to battle all the crazies in the parking lot of her school.

We head over to our local WaWa (gas station/convenience store) so I can utilize their ATM machine. Well, honestly, make Chels (13) run in with my card and grab me some moola out of that wonderful machine -- I wish would give me money just because I want it and not because I happen to have it in my account. After which we pull out of our parking spot and turn a slight corner and.....

WAAAAHHHMMM!

I had to slam on my f***ing brakes so hard I gave Chels minor whiplash (not an exaggeration--she complained about her neck hurting later tonight) and scared the living SHIT out of me. I was only doing about 5 -10 mph, I was in a parking lot and I don't speed through parking lots. This guy, in a twin cab 4 x 4; you know the kind right? Industrial strength; just slightly smaller than a dump truck, I mean dually . Well, he starts to back up; now, I have already come around the corner and he hasn't pulled out all the way...yet. Shoot, not even a foot yet.

I am thinking in my head, ok, he will stop; but at the same time I am aware that he may not and I have to keep this in the back of my mind, right? That is good driving, correct? Ha! He KEEPS COMING! That is when I hit my brakes, hurt my daughter, laid on my horn...blah, blah, blah. I get over this fairly quickly! He may not have seen me, I can understand.

I leave, I notice he is behind me but I don't think too much of it. I come up to the next stop light to make my turn into Wendy's and he honks at me. WTF? Why is he honking? I think, hmmm, maybe he wants to apologize; awe what a nice guy!

Wrong, yet again Laura! The F'ing, white piece of redneck trash (I only say because I was pissed) flips me the mother f'ing bird! He got the last freaking word in, or should I say gesture? I think that is what I am most made about!

But why give 'me' the bird? I didn't do anything wrong! It wasn't like I had a choice on whether or not to lay on my horn. He would have hit me. I was stopped and he would have hit me! It wasn't like I could let him out; there was no room! Oh well....look below.....you will know why I was really pissed!

Me, myself and I.....wanted the last F'ing word!

*If you are offended by my moment of pissedoffness (yes I made that up.) and the use of "white piece of redneck trash", get over it. Unless you are screwing me or paying my bills, I don't care!

Woe is me.....

I am awake; I think. I really shouldn't be awake, even though it is 9:15 in the AM. I normally get up around 7ish, but hey, I had a rough day of driving and didn't get home until after 9 PM last night. Of course, then I had to get on the good 'ole pc, like it is my lover and surf, comment, surf, play games. You know the drill! By the time it was all said and done my clock was screaming at me...."Woman it is after midnight, get your ass off of that chair sitting in front of me and go get that much needed beauty sleep"! Wow, what a pissy computer I have!

So, as I was saying; I had a lot of driving yesterday. Well, to my legs and feet and brain it was a lot of driving. I can only handle so much of that type of activity. I mean really; as I have stated before, my 5 children have wiped out most of the important brain cells.

Me and 2 of my children left around 2pm to drive to Northern VA; we live in the Richmond Metro area, for those that are familiar...more specifically, Southside. We maybe got 10 miles and realized we needed to eat, so off to Mickey D's. Not bad, I told the kids as I am poor we needed to get food off the dollar menu. Hey, that really works. I spent only $9.99 on what would normally cost $20. Not too bad of a savings eh? Ok, getting off topic here.

We get our food and we are on our way; again. The ride was pretty uneventful. Traffic was tolerable until we hit the other side of Fredericksburg. Well, I know that area is normally really backed up, so I wasn't surprised. What I was surprised with was the accident in the southbound I95 lanes that was backing up the northbound lanes. WTF gives people? We are doing 70 plus mph and you are going to decide to brake because a tractor trailer has jackknifed off the side and down into a gully (a deep one at that) on the other side of a 6 lane highway? You are going to make me brake when I have places to go and people too see. I mean, I am trying to make it to my daughters Color Guard competition....get the "Freak out of my way". Yes, that is pretty much how it goes in my car. I'm talking to myself and screaming and yelling and my kids are like: oh my gosh, mom needs a straight jacket.

Thankfully that little traffic snafu did not last long and before we knew it we were getting off the wrong exit. Yes, I said it, the wrong exit. Okay, let me explain. Even though I know were this high School is located, I still manage to go the wrong direction. I took the "first" exit ramp instead of the "second" ramp. Can we say major "brain fart" moment. Since there was not good place to turn around, I had to go out of my way about 5 minutes which mainly is because of traffic lights. Then by the time I got us turned around, made it through traffic we were 10 minutes late. Guess what....we missed the &*^*&ing competition. All the work for nothing and I was a bit upset. To be honest, it was my fault in not leaving early enough, but hey, I have an excuse.....CHILDREN.

We did get to see my daughter, who is graduating High School this year. Damn I feel old! I did get a picture of her in her Color Guard uniform and we had nice conversation for about an hour, so all was not lost. Wait, my adventures in traffic are not over!

My 15 year old daughter was at her home and wanted us to stop by; even though it was 30 minutes out of our way; I was the good mommy and went by to say hello. Well, on the way.....you guessed it....there was another accident. This time it looks as though some station wagon was coming off an exit and some how managed to hit someone or someone hit it; demolished the front end and caused it to face on coming traffic from the on ramp. If that doesn't make sense I can always draw you a picture.....



How's that? Does that depict it accurately; not really? There was a ton more cars than I am showing, but you get the gist of the day. I95 is not only a parking lot on most days, especially during rush hour, but people cannot seem to even give us some peace on the weekends and make it accident free. Is that too much too ask for? An accident free weekend; where I can drive freely without traffic woes? Na, I didn't think so. Oh well, at least I got to wine. That is all that is really important; wining that is. My hubby just loves it when I wine....*snickers*!

All in all, it was a great day with my great kids, once I got rid of the idiots on the road! Oh and don't forget to comment on my artistic abilities. In my defense, this was a quick rendition that took all of 5 minutes. Go easy on me!

Road Rage....

No one likes to admit it, but we all have a bit of road rage in us some times. I am no exception. I was thinking today as I was driving back home from working; how much I really dislike some drivers.

What are you thinking when you get behind the wheel of a car and cannot even manage the simplest of driving tasks? Driving even remotely close to the speed limit seems to be a horrid task for some. How about the person who is driving the speed limit and then suddenly brakes to make a turn; but no turn signal. Can we say…WTF are you thinking? Are you trying to make it so I hit you in the ass-end? I mean come on.

I don't follow closely, I don't like it done too me, so I make an assertive effort not to do it to other drivers. So when someone does suddenly brake, I normally can "suddenly" stop without much fanfare, but you know, it is freaking scary.

I had an instance last evening. I am driving down one of our back roads (only 2 lanes-one coming and one going) and this jerk (he/she) pulls out in front of me. I guess this person figured since they are driving an SUV they have right of way? Who knows, I just like making ridiculous accusations like that. So, any way, I will say "he" just for the sake of the story; pulls out in front of me. Ok, I deal with it. Then in a 45 mile zone, they are doing 30 mph. Yes FREKING 30. Ok, so you can't run some one over to get them out of the way; but sometimes I do wish I could.  They finally start speeding up and low and behold, they cannot decide which side of the road is theirs. Oh, come on people. Didn't you ever take a driving class or learn via pictures. Double yellow lines mean don't pass/cross over; dooh. This person is weaving and bobbing all over creation; of course while talking on their cell phone. Well, anyone with a grain of sense would realize, hey, I am in a large SUV, it isn't stable, and I could really get in an accident, maybe I should put the cell phone down and be careful. You don't even have to drive an SUV to realize that.  I like SUVs, but not when an idiot is driving one. Okay, so now, this slow ass, pulling out in front of me moron (which I basically had gotten over) starts all this swerving. It scared the crap out of me. I backed off even more; still managing to keep a decent speed (I hate going slow, can you tell?) when they just BRAKE. Yes, BRAKE HARD. They turned onto a side street, no signal, nothing. Wow, where is a police officer when you need one. Oh, as my friend says; "pulling over the moms just trying to get to their new job and not knowing where the hell they are."

Don't get me wrong, I love our Law Enforcement. For the most part, they are a great bunch of men and women who risk their lives everyday too protect us; but why can't they be where I want them, when I want them to help protect me from strangling the idiot driving in front of me. My 2 cents!!!