1949 buick supra
here’s an old one from the vaults. back in 2017 at the bob’s big boy on firestone in downey. a fundraiser for oscar.
people blurred through my exposures, back when i’d find a car show or two every single day. really put that camera and tripod through a workout.
shiny forty-eight buick supra. i wonder if it’s still around.
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raining today. pomona swap meet is tomorrow. probably won’t go, though the overcast would be a perfect lightbox.
been busy at work. working a lot from my mom’s house.
(tl;dr - mom fell on her ass, and got a ride to the hospital)
my daughter was in town last month, with her dogs. she had gone off to visit a friend before a lunch date with her dad. i was out to lunch myself, about twenty minutes left, when i get a panicked call from my mom saying the big doberman had managed to escape from the backyard, via a side door.
she had been expecting my younger brother to be dropped off for a visit from san diego—he can’t drive anymore—long story for another day. she was in the garage with the door open, hanging out by her car. the side door hadn’t been pushed completely shut, and out the dog went, down the street.
dog doesn’t listen, and she’s almost ninety, so no way is going to catch it.
fortunately, i wasn’t far away, and vaguely knew where that doggo was most likely to go, to the nearby park. still, i drove along another street, that i used to walk him on before going there.
i found him harassing a man and two little yappy dogs, out for a walk, near the street. i pulled up alongside, and called him (the dog, not the man) an asshole, get in the car. he wasn’t doing anything more than sniffing the ankle biters, but i’m sure the guy was afraid for his dogs.
lucky for me, dog ran around my car, and back around to the driver’s side and hopped in. unlucky for me, i didn’t have any covers on my seats, so now i have some random scratches in the finish.
he didn’t have any collar on, and i really expected to have to chase him around the park, so i was very happy he got right in. adrenaline was really going, and now was in my veins, making me shaky.
got him home, my mom, brother, and his caretaker in the driveway, having just got there. asked mom to bring me a leash, and managed to get him back in the backyard with the other beast. was only a little bit late getting back to work, and only spouted off a few expletives as i passed by the other two.
out the front window, i saw the caretaker leave. then i saw a gray truck pull up to the curb and park. didn’t think anything of it. logged into my work computer.
a minute later i hear my ex husband’s voice down the hall, calling from the laundry room door to the garage. it sounded squeaky. just called my name. weird. then again, adding, “your mom fell down!”
ran out there. brother trying to stand up, mom is on the driveway, flat on her back. told my ex, who had come to pick up our daughter, who isn’t back yet, to hold my mom’s head, don’t let her move her neck or try to get up. my brother is getting upset.
fuck, left my phone in the house.
she has one of those systems for if she falls and no one is around, so went inside and slapped the big red button on the main box. they took a minute to finally get on the intercom. explained the situation, and please send an ambulance. they still took another few minutes and called me back on my cell phone to let me know help was coming. i guess they also sent out calls to my sister and other brother.
i think it would have been faster to just call 9-1-1. but it worked.
back out on the driveway, mom is crying and understandably scared, but also more worried that the neighbors were going to see her in such a state. strangely, no one on the street seems to be home, not that it mattered. she didn’t want the attention, didn’t want all the fuss. she seemed to be ok, but at her age, falling on cement, we’re getting her checked over.
ambulance and big fire trucks arrive and fill the street in front of the house.
i guess the story was that my brother had gone to the refrigerator for a bottle of snapple or can of coke, and had tripped over a bag of dog food that i’d placed at the front of the garage, to go back home with my daughter and her beasts.
as my brother tripped, and realized he was falling toward the car, and my mom, he screamed, as he knocked my mom down, like a domino. he landed on top of her, and she on her back, feet in the garage, head down the incline of the driveway.
he’s upset, thinking he’s killed her. she somehow, has only whacked her head, and is only bleeding from a cut on the back. she’s crying and upset.
daughter shows up, with a wtf happened on her face.
mom got a ride to the hospital, with all the hot emergency guys. (i got a pain in my chesh too…) we all got left behind to organize next steps. i am to gather her info, and it was going to take half an hour before i needed to be there.
i call my sister, who is a quarter of the way down ortega highway toward elsinore, she’s turning around. called my better half, then the caretaker, and texted my sister-in-law to quickly tell them what happened. better half was going to head to the hospital, but i told him they wouldn’t let him in, so maybe pick up some food for my brother and daughter.
caretaker hadn’t gotten very far away and came back quickly, in case my brother needed to go back home.
daughter didn’t get her lunch date. her dad left, after being the hero. couldn’t deal with what happened. i guess he’d dealt with similar issues with his parents, and it was too much. doesn’t like the sight of blood.
i sent the caretaker off to her weekend. put daughter in charge of my brother, to distract him with tv shows.
i tried calling one coworker, then another, to tell them i had to go to the hospital, etc.
i gathered mom’s purse and other info doctors would need, and drove over to the hospital.
after all that hullaballoo on the driveway, turns out she had one of the emergency buttons in her pocket the whole time. i guess not the type that feels a fall and sends help, but one you would have to push. would have saved a minute of me running back in the house, but oh well.
fortunately, my sister arrived about half an hour later, since she deals with more of the medical appointments, and could better answer questions regarding meds.
overall, she got x-rays and a ct scan. she was super lucky, as she had no broken bones, maybe a slight concussion, and a cut on the back of her head. they used her hair and glue to close it. i mean, they braided hair from either side of the cut to hold it closed, and put glue over the cut and the hair, which should dissolve in a couple of weeks. her neck is sore, and has other random aches, but that’s to be expected.
i got a text from my better half that he’d rang the bell at the house and knocked, and no answer, so had left the food on the porch and gone back home. called my daughter to let her know…the tv was set to my mom’s preferred level of volume—100%, and they hadn’t heard the door. the dogs were still outside, barking crazily, but she thought nothing of it.
about five hours later, i had to go back to get my mom’s car, which would be easier for her to get in. thanked my kid for watching my brother. they’d been watching some reptile documentaries or something. she packed up her stuff and dogs and left, while i took my brother back to the hospital to pick up mom.
sister got back in her car, and headed back to ortega highway and her weekend.
my brother has only complained about his knees and back, but otherwise seems to gotten back to normal. he had an interesting first night, walking in his sleep, but with his eyes open. mom found him getting dressed about midnight, and was afraid he would walk out the door to who knows where and get lost.
her voice woke me up, and finding the situation, i told him to go back to sleep, and he actually did.
i ended up being at mom’s all weekend, and have been over there more frequently since. she’s going to be all right, will be happier when the glue falls out and she can do her hair again.
my brother notes that we have each fallen this past year, and now we are the three wobbly musketeers. how did we get so old, so fast?
so tempted to ask the neighbor across the street if his security cameras picked up everything, just to see what happened, and how they fell, what hit first, etc., but too shy to actually knock on the door. have yet to catch them outside to ask.
i think that’s enough story time for tonight.