If you have never watched The Unit Tuesday nights on CBS, you are missing some great action/drama television. The past 2 weeks have been absolutely outstanding. You can still watch the full episodes(commercial free) on CBS.com

I noticed that one of my favorite people in the game review industry, Bill Abner, is stepping away from his Sportsgamer blog. The blog will continue on with Dan’s and Glen’s contributions, but I will personally miss Bill’s posts and his insight. He’s an “old-school” gamer… something that I feel a kinship to.

The stress-filled drama that has been my last few weeks is slowly coming to an end:

• Victoria has a new car (’05 Saturn Ion)
• With the help of my car insurance company and the new dealer, we now have the old loan paid off.
• We received a pre-approval notice for our mortgage.
• Most of my life insurance stuff is done except for the exam.

So, anyway… lunch is over, and I’m stuffed and back in my training class ready to nap.

[tags]Thanksgiving, mortgage, Victoria, car, life-insurance, Bill-Abner, sportsgamer, The-Unit, CBS, television[/tags]

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“Daddy?”
“Yeah Hon, what is it?”
“I need you – NOW.”

My heart begins to race. I know something is wrong…

“What happened?”
“I got in a wreck…”
“Are you alright?”
“Yeah…”

That makes me calm down a bit. I have her explain to me what happened. Apparently, while making a left turn she and a friend got hit by a pick-up going in the opposite direction, striking the passenger-side of the car. The force of the impact pushed them over the curb and into an electric pole. It must have just happened because her voice is shaky and she seemed more than a little lost. But I’m just relieved she’s ok. I finally ask her how the car is…

“Oh, Daddy,” she says anxiously, “the front is all messed up!”
“It’s ok hon… as long as you are ok…”
“But the car…”
“Don’t worry about the car, I’m just glad you’re safe. You need to call your mom and tell her what happened.”
“But she’ll be mad at me!” She says excitedly.
“No, she won’t. I’m going to leave here and get her, and we’ll be there in a bit.”

I make arrangements for my mom to go to my house and watch the kids while I go ahead to get Amy so we can get to the scene.
I get to my house and she is sleeping…

“Amy, AMY, you need to get up!”
“What? What?” She exclaims with a start… this is her normal reaction when getting woken up.
“You need to get some clothes and some shoes on.”
“Why?” You can hear the fear beginning to take hold.
“Victoria’s been in an accident…”
Her eyes begin to tear up.
I immediately try to calm her down. “Honey, she’s ok – she’s fine, we just need to get there.”

The minute my mom arrives, we are out the door. The accident was in Whiteville, NC – about 30 minutes away. It was the longest 30 minutes I have ever driven. I can’t begin to describe what was going through my head at the time. But I knew Victoria was safe, I had spoken to her.

Thus marks the beginning of one of the longest nights of my life. We get to the site of the accident and she had already been transported to the hospital to get checked out. I take a look at the car and I wonder how she made it out with only seatbelt and airbag burns. The policeman warns me not to get too close to the car. When the car hit the utility pole, it tore off a chunk of conduit and exposed some live electrical wire. He told me that they were lucky that they didn’t get electrocuted. Amy goes to the hospital to be with Victoria and I wait for the tow truck to arrive and to shoo off any vultures that have intentions of pillaging the car. After making sure the car is towed off, I finally meet Victoria and Amy at the hospital. They are finished examining her. She has a couple of minor cuts and abrasions. Her friend has a small chip in his forearm. We load up the car for the trip home.

We reach the house around 1 AM, and Victoria is beginning to feel the pain… Headaches and pain in her leg that she hadn’t noticed before. I think she had been running on pure adrenaline for most of the time. We have her sleep downstairs just so we could check on her every once in a while.

Her soreness has become more prevalent today than the previous days. She has some back pain and her left leg and chest are sore…. all acceptable to me. I’m just happy she’s here.
Amy was able to snap a few pictures of the car yesterday from the body shop. They look much less severe there than at the scene of the accident… but then again, the car isn’t up against a light pole….
You should be able to click on the picture below to see the rest of the pics that Amy took.

Victoria’sAccident

[tags]Halloween, victoria, accident, pictures, car[/tags]