Too close to home...

Last night about 8:30ish we had a little too much excitement for Snowflake! All of the big kids were jumping on the tramp, the 2 little kids were inside the house. Curtis was on his way home from the store, I was in my room turning lights on. All of a sudden I heard the strangest loudest noise I think I've ever heard (all of my bedroom windows were open). I quickly pulled my blinds apart to see if I could see what it was~I saw a truck in my across the street neighbor's yard, pretty much buried in the rocks! I FREAKED OUT, all of a sudden because my mind went blank and I could not remember where all of my kids were!~ After seeing the little kids at the table eating, my memory started to come back, I just had to account for the big kids. Having heard the noise too, they were all (including neighbor kids) running around the side of the house to see what made that horrible noise. I was screaming for a phone~knowing the guy would surely need medical help. I called 911, and got off of the phone just as I saw the man trying to frantically back out and get away. He couldn't move his truck at all, so then he got out of the truck and collapsed to the ground! Just then Curtis was rounding the corner coming from the opposite way. He got to the guy a little bit before I did and was trying to help him get up, as the guy fell he wrenched his arm backward and hurt it pretty badly, that was mainly what he was complaining about the whole time. I figured when I saw the truck in the yard, he either fell asleep, had a seizure or heart attack or is drunk! Well, as we both reached him it was unmistakable the latter! He stunk so badly and was sooooo wasted he couldn't stand up and pretty much didn't even know he had just had an accident!! The first police car got there sooooo fast~he said he was just at Mobil getting gas~for you that aren't familiar with our area, Mobil is right down the street from us. Now a little side note here, there is a restaurant/bar at the corner right across from Mobil on Highway 277. I haven't ever worried about that bar, really~now I'm worried! Apparently after about 5-6 police cars arrived and a few firetrucks (due to the fire hydrant he mowed over), a sheriff, EMTs etc. the story goes like this~this guy, from Texas, was working at the Paper Mill on contract work (he was in his 60's or so) had been sitting at that bar from the early afternoon until he pulled out of there about 8:30 ish and had the wreck just a 1/2 mile or so from the bar. They hand cuffed him and loaded him in the police car and there he sat while they were finishing up the investigation, and he proceeded to pass out in the police car!

I was explaining to the cops that there was no way he braked at all until he hit the fire hydrant, we just heard a car going by FAST and then the loud noise!!

Tess, Jaxon and I had JUST come inside the house before this happened and had been right out in the front yard watering and the kids were kind of running back and forth across the street! A few seconds earlier and our family, in a blink of an eye, would have been changed FOREVER! Curtis BARELY missed having a head on collision with him or getting hit right in the drivers side door, he would have been hurt badly! Timing is a strange thing I think, it freaks me out if I think about that sort of thing for too long! We were just soooo thankful that no one was hurt for such a senseless act. This accident could have been so much worse, we feel incredibly blessed & that we were definitely being watched over!! Now I'm trying to figure out what lesson I need to learn here~Don't let my kids play in the front yard???? I really don't like living on this corner, I think we will be getting some really BIG boulders to put around. (if a drunk were to be coming from the other way and didn't make the turn (just like he didn't the opposite way) that car would end up right in our bedroom)!~SCARY!! I told the police that the person that was serving this guy his alcohol, HAD TO have known that he was "gone" way before he cut him off, if he even ever did! I asked them to make sure they went and talked to the bartender. We as a neighbor hood (since we were all out on the street at the time), are going to do something about this~especially the bar being in the wrong for serving him continually! Also I think I will try and petition for some big speed bumps so at least it will slow someone down!~At one point while the police were doing their investigation~I walked back to my kids (including neighbor kids) and said "listen to me~ and man did I have their full attention!~that is what happens to you when you drink alcohol! DON'T EVER drink, and DON'T EVER drink and drive and DON'T EVER get into a car when the driver has been drinking!!! That man just caused a HUGE mess in his life, financially, probably will loose his job after this, wrecked truck, fines, jail time, a record etc. LUCKILY he didn't kill anyone or himself or that would have been a whole other set of HUGE problems for him~It's NOT worth it!" Apparently Greg Brimhall down the street was giving the same "lesson" to some other neighbor kids that were standing around him!! Never pass up a chance to teach your kids! Anyway long story short we are still shook up and I am VERY nervous just standing in my front yard!!~not to mention Tess being up ALL Night with bad dreams from all of this!~it freaked her out pretty badly! This morning I got a hold of my neighbors who had JUST left for Tucson that day to relay the bad news, they could believe it!

This gives you an idea about how many emergency vehicles were here, there were also more down the side of our house

My kids being MADE to sit on the planter, I was so scared at this point!

He was so buried in the rocks, his left front tire was flat and off of the rim. His tie rod was broken in half. His front bumper was torn off and hanging~This was a BRAND NEW TRUCK!

Here is a closer shot, poor Don & Rose's flowers were demolished in this mess! I salvaged what I could and re-planted them in other pots until they can get home!

You can see he broke a big boulder right in 1/2 and the sad pot less flowers laying on the ground.

These are some pictures I took this morning~all the pictures are for the purpose of their insurance company (I NEVER had ANY intention of using these for a good blog post, wink, wink!) This WAS the fire hydrant.

You can see how he just kept coming straight and didn't turn with the curve of the road, and you can see how close our house/yard was to where he entered their yard! SO SCARY!