Saturday Night

This sky from earlier in the evening may have been a preview to a strange night.

I worked outside all day, sweated a lot and took some pics at sunset. I thought there might be an open mic at the Pub in the next town over so I took a shower, got dressed and jumped in my truck. On my way I had a deer cross the road in front me, then a rabbit and then a family of skunks. The skunks were slow so I had to stop for them. I counted a momma and four babies.

When I got the pub there wasn't any open mic, only a very good selection of single malt scotches. I had the Talisker (one) and it was very good but the pub was very dead and I didn't know any body there. After enjoying my single malt I left.

Driving out of town I passed a pick up truck that was going very fast. When I first saw it, I thought it was a motorcycle because there was only one headlight and no parking lights at all. I didn't think much of it. About a mile later I came to a place where the speed limit drops and saw a car pulled off on the shoulder, facing me on my side of the road. I slowed down.

As I pulled up, I got the sense that something was wrong so I hit the button to drop the window on the passenger side. I could see there was an elderly gentleman in the car with his wife.

I asked, "Are you guys alright?"

The woman answered. "No we're not!"

I realized that there had been in an accident and, as I pulled over, I could hear my tires crunching the parts of a car.

The man was out of the car when I walked up and he was bleeding from ear his ear. He reminded me a little of my dad. A woman came running up the road from one of the houses. All the while, the elderly woman in the passenger seat was talking to the "on-star" operator in the car. It sounded just like the commercial.

The old guy explained to me that a pick up truck had just pulled out of the side road and hit them then taken off. I figured it was the one that had just passed me.

The fire whistle started to blast. We were about 50 feet from the firehouse and it was pretty loud. The couple stayed amazingly calm and she told the on-star operator that people had stopped to help. I asked the old guy how she was. He said she was bleeding but I couldn't see. I saw that he had blood all over his shirt and there was a steady dribble coming from his ear.

It took all of 90 seconds for the first volunteer fireman to show up. It took another minute for the fire truck to pull up and another 30 seconds for a paramedic to arrive. It was amazing. We were in the middle of nowhere, right next door to a firehouse.

I could see the guy was worried about his wife. I got really pissed off...quietly.

Even though the ambulance was on its way, I called the 911 and asked if they could put me through to the county sheriffs department. I really wanted them to catch the assholes who slammed into these folks. They were some body's parents, some little kids' grandparents and they didn't deserve this.

Get this.... The 911 operator couldn't put me through to the county sheriffs office because "my cell phone number didn't come up on his screen yet the On-star operator in "go-knows where" had the been able to get the call out to the volunteer fire department and the whistle blowing in less than minute." WTF!!

The 911 operator had to give me the number to the county 911 dispatch over the phone. Then, I had to hang up and then call the number he gave me. I am horrible at remembering numbers but I got this one thankfully. When I got the county dispatcher on the phone, I was able to have the old guy give her a pretty good description of the truck. It was a ford and the after he told me, one of the firemen and I found the grill emblem on the road.

I think they were OK. God I hope they got those drunk assholes who hit them. As the rest of the emergency vehicles arrived, I left.

It was just a weird night