No longer accident free...

Yesterday was one of those weird random snow days in Oregon where it quickly covers the ground but it slushy and slick, and then melts at like 2 PM. Unfortunately, I left for work at 9:30 AM. I've never had trouble in the snow before, and there was only a couple of inches, so I figured I would be fine. My road is all downhill for about 2 miles until you get to the highway, and the last few hundred feet are the steepest and curviest. It is at this point, that my car started to slide, and I could not regain control of it. It picked up a lot of speed before spinning around at least twice and crashing into the well manicured lawn and cute little tree of my high school choir teacher's in-law's house. Their lawn is pretty sloped, and my car was facing uphill jammed against the tree.

Dazed, but I did not feel hurt, and was not able to open my door from the tree, so I crawled across to the passenger side and walked over to the house. When she came to the door, she was super nice to me and invited me in. I told her I had a phone and that I could wait in my car, and she said that she was so sorry I had crashed. (What a sweet lady). I told her that I felt bad about her lawn, and she assured me it was fine. She then asked if I lived nearby, and when I told her who I was, she excited said that she had heard all about me from my choir teacher and felt like she already knew me. "Great, and then I killed your cute little tree," I thought. I went back to my car and called my dad, but he was not available, so I called my husband, who suggested that his dad could come and pull me out. While he called his dad, my dad called back, and I told him that all was ok.

After I got off the phone, a car with two Mexican guys pulled up. They walked over to me, so I got out. They began to speak to me in Spanish about my car, but I didn't know the verbs they were using (probably things like crash and spin and tree killer), so I couldn't really understand them. I told them that I was fine and that my dad was coming, but they didn't leave. They began to examine my car, the tree, walk around in the yard, and look at my chains. One guy suggested that I back my car a couple hundred feet through the yard and out onto a side road. I told him that I didn't think I could drive it that well and would wait to see what my dad thought. Then the other guy got a jack out of his car and started to jack up my car to put the chains on. The guys told me that they had just gotten sent home from trimming the trees in the orchard due to the snow. Just then, another couple of guys in a car slid off the road into the orchard up the hill, and a truck with a couple of other guys stopped behind them. Another carload of guys and another truck drove around them down to where I was. The first truck pulled the car out of the orchard, and then they came down to where I was as well. Now there were about 15 guys. They decided to take the chains off, then they hooked my car up to the biggest truck, discussed which way to pull it would be best, and then motioned to me of which way to turn my tires when I got in. I got in the car, and the truck driver walked over to my window and said to me, "You, SPEED, help me." He got in the truck and then motioned to me to go. The rest of the guys helped direct and push my car. A couple guys held back the little tree so that it wasn't jammed into the side. Then, they even helped push back the dirt around the tree and trimmed the broken limbs so it would have a chance at not dying. The truck pulled me up to a patch of road that was dry from tree cover, and then stopped. They unhooked me and then put my chains of for me, and then Jake's dad showed up. I thanked all the guys, but they wanted to watch me to make sure I made it up the hill. After I got up the hill, most of them left, but the truck followed me back to my driveway and then waved cheerily and left. Nice guys. I see them almost every day on my way to town, and now the sight makes me feel happy and safe instead of, "There sure are a bunch of strange guys working within a couple miles of my house." Hopefully I'll never need their assistance again, but it's nice to know that they're nearby.