I’ve been home bound more than usual the last few months of 2017 because of chondromalacia patella, a knee injury commonly known as runner’s knee. Earlier in the year I had injured my other knee, but that was quickly fixed after it was drained by an orthopedic surgeon. The left knee was a lot more painful and the recovery has been a lot longer with crutches and all. I’ve started physical therapy and I’m out of a lot of pain, but I will continue to heal and do my exercises so I can once again engage in the hiking and more extensive travel that I love to do so much. Despite the car accident that happened two days after this knee injury, I actually was not injured in the car accident so far as I can tell, but the timing was strange indeed.
Soon after we returned from our trip to Palm Springs, my beloved son-in-law, Jesus, and his long-time vegan Italian speaking performer friend, Claudia, came to stay with us for a few days. We had a great several days hanging out with the dogs and watching videos, one of which reminded me so much of my other Italian-speaking performer friend Carol Henning. Well, wouldn’t you know it, of the millions of people in New York City, Carol and Claudia knew each other!! ….so we just HAD to message Carol with these surprising photos. What a small freaking world!
This trip we got a lot of the sun that I really needed after being in the house for a few months with my injured knee. It was good exercise for my knee to be in the pool a lot and I actually was able to do some walking without a cane or crutches. We also happened to run into one of our neighbors here in Hayward who was down in palm Springs for the same weekend, so it was nice to run into him and see a bunch of other friends, together with making some great new ones.
Dashcam proves that i was NOT stopped on the freeway (not that that matters) as other driver originally claimed. Indeed, the driver of the grey 2011 Hyundai sedan that folded up when it rear-ended me told the police officer that he was distracted by “spitting” out the window, while he was was changing lanes between the car behind me and my car and probably going at an excessive speed. I ended up several HUNDRED feet in front of his car as I was pushed forward and my car came to an automatic stop. Below is a picture of the car that hit me. The police officers assured me I was completely faultless. Below are pictures of my car which hopefully will not be totaled. I feel like having my seatbelt on and being in a big safe car definitely helped me to be no worse for wear after being rammed at high velocity. I do recall seeing the Hyundai almost vertical in my rear view mirror as it slammed into the back of my car. Supposedly the other driver had bought his car a week ago.
The crash happens at about 4:30 into the clip.
As per the video the crash happened in lane 2 (one over from the speed lane). My car becoming immediately inoperable (as I’m sure theirs was) had to be pushed while in park (I could not start it or change gears) by the police vehicle once the entire freeway in my direction was forced to come to a complete stop. The officer had me steer the car, which was a weird sensation.
I was alone in my vehicle when I was smashed into, but as you can see in one of these pictures below, both the front head rests were forced out from the impact. I’m very lucky that there were no cars immediately in front of me and somehow the car behind the jerk who struck my car was able to make a complete stop before impacting his car — probably because he wasn’t distracted by a mobile phone or spitting out the window or showing off for his friend or what have you.
One of our favorite dog parks is Oyster Bay in San Leandro, where these pussy willows got our attention, especially the ones with the purple hue. Tucker has become inseparable from me and pretty much has claimed his place flanking me, particularly in our couch spot. Some great pictures of handsome Shando and one of Monte finding it cooler (September is our warmest month) on the ground under the other dogs is also included.
