Holiday Gratitude

Last Friday my dear friends Annie and Wizard (Jack Doyle) went on a trip driving to Pennsicola Florida from Tucson, in anticipation of a new grandchild on it's way...They were driving a rental car at night and had gotten as far as Deming NM when the car blewout and rolled. 

This is a pic I took of them during out Thanksgiving celebration this year- just a few weeks ago- (I saw a picture of Annie in the hospital today and it's just too heartbreaking to post)

Luckily, they were both wearing their seatbelts- Wizard escaped with some bumps and scratches,
but little Annie ended up in a much more serious state- with lacerations on her head
and trauma to her neck.

By chance the first person who stopped to help was an EMT and he was able to get
assistance to the crash immediately- He then stayed with them as the ambulence drove up.

to Quote Wizard "Perhaps we got our luckiest with the arrival of the ambulance about 10 minutes after the accident carrying a young Hispanic EMT known only to me by his radio call sign of "Hidalgo 24".  With no knowledge of actual severity of Annie's injuries, he felt increasingly uncomfortable during the 70-mile transport to the hospital in Deming, NM. 

He just did not want to drop her at a "level 3" hospital;  he worked his radio the entire trip and got the life flight helo inbound from Las Cruces to meet us on our arrival and immediately lift Annie to the regional trauma center in El Paso.  Then, he refused to abandon me in the middle of nowhere and somehow found me the only rental car in 2500 square miles (from a "mom & pop" operation) and got me on my way to El Paso.  

The EMT's gut feeling got Annie to the right place for the proper care hours, perhaps a full day ahead of what might have been. 

What a great call sign, "Hidalgo 24" sounds like the Jolly Green who comes and pulls you away from the bad guys behind enemy lines.  He was all that and more on Friday afternoon.  Annie and I will track him down sometime in the near future.  We've been blessed by wonderful care from wonderful professional and caring people."

As I write, she is in El Paso, with a Halo scaffolding holding her head in place, to help stabilize her neck, where she has fractures. She is  in a huge amount of pain, but is putting on a brave face, even trying to crack a joke here and there- I just got a call saying that  the doctors to gave her the OK for medical transport back to Tucson tomorrow, where she will be in the rehabilitation hospital for many weeks of therapy and healing.

Our Annie is the axis of many wonderful friends-
she is the one person besides myself that has been at Both of my weddings and I was able to be present at one (of many...lol) of hers- the one a few years ago to her devoted and wonderful Jack aka Wizard.
The one thing I will take from this is gratitude - Grateful to have such wonderful people in our lives, and grateful that they will be with us this Christmas.

Hold your loved ones close and let them know how much they mean to you-
because life does those dances that are sometimes terribly unexpected.
Wishing you all
Peace + Health- Maureen

scam a lam a ding dong

so- it was a dark and stormy night....no, not really, it actually was yesterday
afternoon...

what has happened is that we discovered that we have a leak under our house  and
I called a plumber (from a big company). we live midtown and have an old home
with old pipes- we know that-

the plumber tells us that we need a complete re-pipe- which we have been
anticipating- and then he proceeds to tell us that they are now connected with a
restoration company that they would call for a free estimate- ok- we said, sure-
we need to make sure our home is not riddled with mold-

so they called the restoration co- (who showed up within 15 minutes!) and then
the restoration guy starts telling us that that we absolutely should not call
our insurance company until they got rid of any mold that may be there (like
they are going to doctor the site so that the insurance pays more or something
like that)-

At this point my husband and I are completely freaked- they have
dropped comments about spores possibly damaging our son's health...) And my
husband (sigh) signs their agreement saying that they can start working on
drying out the crawl space tomorrow....

they leave, then are back within 5 minutes with another crew of guys who come in
with this huge de-humidifier, stick it in our kitchen, and tell us they will be
back tomorrow at 8 am.

ok- so Guido and I are left thinking, HUH? this doesn't seem right....it sounds
like they are wanting us to lie to our insurance - isn't that FRAUD??? so, what
happens if we did (which we won't- we are really not that kind of people) what
happens is that the insurance adjuster comes out, sees that things have been
done- refuses the claim , then cancels our policy for fraud-
(and we go to jail for comitting fraud)

Yeah, NOT going to
happen. no way.

the restoration company is coming to our home this morning at 8 am and we
are going to tell them that we don't want their services- My fear is that they
will wave their contract and claim that we cannot get out of the agreement
without some major $ being put out-

But they don't know that I am blogger girl- and ready to open a can of
bloggers whup ass on them if things get ugly.
yup, I tweet, I blog, so don't mess with me!
excuse me , now I have to go and put on my blog girl superhero costume...

1 hour later...and we have dispatched the scum successfully ( or so it seems)
I wouldn't be surprised if they tried to do something else-
I'll keep you posted!