Perhaps I’ve mentioned a few times, that I live in the city. Specifically in an older, only kind-of run down neighborhood called Belmont. And, I live on one of two “main drags” in Belmont. It’s a very busy street. It’s really busy around 4 p.m. on weekdays because the entrance to our local high school is on the street that is directly across from my driveway. So, getting out of my driveway around 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. every day is murder. And so is turning left off of the street the high school entrance is on. (And may I just say, yes, 9 a.m to 4 p.m.? What kind of crazy school hours are those? Oh, the “urban” kind. Where you can’t get anyone to get up and be at school before 9. But whatevs.)
So there’s your background, now imagine me yesterday afternoon standing in my dining room, joyfully parenting my three beautiful children, when I hear a loud BOOM and my house shakes. I ran to the back window to see if someone had hit my neighbor’s car (they park behind their house), because I could tell the boom came from that side of the house. But there was nothing to see. So I ran to my front window and saw this:
That right there is the front of a Toyota Tacoma pickup truck in my hedges and the bumper in my front yard. The blue you see peeking out from behind the tree is the fire hydrant that is usually under where the truck is sitting. Thank goodness it didn’t spray everywhere!
So, I called 911, which made me feel pretty bad@$$, and reported the accident. From what I could see, it didn’t look like anyone was hurt, and there were plenty of people out there checking on the driver, so I decided to stay inside until the cops got there. Which took FOREVER. After they got there, I went outside with Jonah and talked to the policeman. I had him put the damages to our hedges in his report, because, there is now a huge hole in our hedges and who knows how much that costs to replace? Beats me. I talked to the driver and she was fine but her airbag did deploy (thanks to the fire hydrant I’m sure!) I didn’t get the story of what happened, because I just wanted to get inside with Jonah, it was a pretty yucky day out. Which leads me to what I am thankful for…the weather has been really nice this week, and we’ve been outside playing a lot. I am so thankful that yesterday was yucky and we were safe inside!
I am also thankful that they built a big new high school with a nice traffic light entrance around the corner and that it opens in January. It will make it much safer at my house! Also, it will cut down on teenagers walking down the sidewalk yelling the F word in the afternoon. SCORE!
Was Sam driving?
UP
nice one, UP. BAZINGA!
Hey! We only let him drive if we’ve had too much to drink. I KID, I KID.
In high school, I had a friend whose driveway was directly across from the high school’s entrance like that. One day a student spun out too quickly and went carreening into her yard. But the yard was about 3 feet lower than the street so the kid’s truck bed was stuck on the street and the cab of her car stuck in my friends yard. It was not a pretty sight!
This happened to our neighbors last year. We live on a very busy road too, but no school entrance. There are accidents near our house all the time. However, the worst was a year ago when a woman lost control of her car and drove almost completely through our neighbor’s a block over) house. My firefighter friend went to the call and told me to come check it out because my boys LOVE fire trucks, police cars, news helicopters, etc.. You couldn’t even see the lady’s minivan when you walked up. The back bumper was several feet inside and the front of the vehicle was almost in the backyard! Thankfully, no one was in that part of the house and the driver survived with minor injuries (I think).
I have always feared this would happen. Thankfully we have tall hedges in our front yard just like you. Somehow the lady dodged multiple trees in my neighbors yard though. Their house is just now rebuilt and livable.
We also had a car hit a fire hydrant a few blocks away and it flooded the intersections and several blocks on our busy street. This was just a few weeks ago. Ahhh, the joys of living on a busy road. Needless to say, we play in the backyard.
I was wondering what was going on yesterday down the street. I saw the flashing lights. So grateful the hedges stopped them from hitting your house!
I live on Revere and hate dealing with the high school traffic, too. I’ll be so grateful when they move into the new building after Thanksgiving.
Love your blog, by the way!
And you all wonder why I live in the middle of NO WHERE. I don’t like the craziness of the city. When we bought our 1st house we lived about 3 blocks from the Dayton mall I was borderline SUICIDAL. It was crazy. WAY to much traffic. I can’t imagine living that close to the school.
I am so glad that your kids weren’t outside play that day.
We have had a car go thru our yard out here. My dad had a drunk drive FLIP about 10 times thru his country yard so NOBODY is safe.
My remedy for HS drivers is make them park in a different parking lot and WALK to school I think it sounds like a good idea. Maybe a cornfield. As long as it isn’t MY cornfield or NEAR my cornfield.