…something comes along to give you a kick in the solar plexus (or somewhere more painful).
The Other Half works swing shift, 16:00-01:00. Sometimes later, if his last customer has a difficult issue. Tuesday morning he was at work until 03:00. He’s been there as late as 03:30. The drive home is anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour, a bit longer if stops for gas or late-night coffee or a snack.
I’m enough of a “day” person that I’m usually in bed or asleep by the time he gets home. As a result, he does not call when he leaves the office, but does try to let me know when he comes in (just in case I’m still awake).
This morning about 01:30 I get The Call from him. “I’m not going to be home any time soon: I’ve been in an accident.” Punch one
Apparently a car was running slowly and without lights in a position where it was invisible to traffic until a collision would be unavoidable. Our airbags deployed, and The Other Half reported only being bruised and having a knot developing somewhere.
At this point he sounds uninjured, but he believes the van, which we got less than four months ago (when the previous vehicle was wrecked in a three-car front-rear collision), will be totalled. Punch two
As we are on the phone, I hear “oh, s***” and then only background sounds. The call drops about a minute later. Sounded like he was trying to investigate something.
When I didn’t hear anything back by 02:00 I tried calling him and got voicemail.
I tried again just after 03:00 and he reported being in the hospital local to his job, “tied to a backboard as a precaution”. Punch three
Fatigue finally overtook me just after 04:00, and the sun (and worry) woke me just after 07:30. According to the hospital, he is still in Emergency.
I am still waiting to hear what is happening there.
And we’ll still need to figure out how to get him home, how to get his stuff home, and whence to get a replacement vehicle.