Tuesday, the 12th of April was a very difficult day, as you might surmise from the photo above.
It started like any other Tuesday. Tim and I got up, we got ready for work. I headed out first, like normal, my job has a lot more morning prep than Tim's. And soon after arriving, I got the notification form Life 360 that Tim had also left the house.
I got to work, relived night shift, got logged into my computer and phone systems, and then got a call from Tim.
I thought he'd forgotten something at home, or that he needed me to do something on the way home.
An accident, he says.
A really bad accident on the freeway, stuck on the left side and not able to get back over.
My mind starts racing and I'm rapid firing off questions.
"What happened?"
"Are you hurt?"
"What can I do?"
He needed help. He was stuck and UHP was on the way. But he would need a ride. Tim insisted he wasn't hurt and that he just needed some help. With Tim still on the phone I used the work line to call my boss and told her what happened. As soon as my partner for the day arrived I logged out of my phone system and left.
I raced to the Pickle and started for Tim as fast as could with the ice on the road like it was.
On the way I tried to call Tim's mom. As I was leaving I saw the notification from Life 360. It said that Tim had come to an abrupt stop and that we should call to check on him. The whole Klink family is on Life 360 so it was only a matter of time before they woke up to see the notification about the crash. But it was early for Utah and earlier still for California. She didn't answer.
As I approached the freeway signs overhead warned about an accident near Redwood Ave.
Tim's accident.
A million things raced through my mind as I drove faster than was strictly legal to get to him. How many episodes of Grey's Anatomy had I seen where a person was fine after an accident and then suddenly takes a turn for the worst as soon as the adrenalin wore off?
Too many was the answer.
Tim was standing on the side of road, his truck having been hauled over to the shoulder sometime between the end of our phone call and my arrival. There was an UHP officer there, as well as three other vehicles. They all looked damaged. But Tim's truck seemed to have the worst of it.
His whole wheel was just off. Things were disconnected and broken off in ways that I couldn't understand.
And there was Tim.
Standing on the side of the road, totally fine, or so it seemed.
He had a phone in one hand and a paper in the other. I threw my arms around him, and held him tight for a moment. and then let him get back to what he was doing.
Paramedics arrived and I asked them to look Tim over. It wouldn't be as good as a hospital, but my hope was that it would be something.
Tim waved them away.
Before long UHP came over and handed Tim a citation. He had caused the accident, meaning to or no, it was on him for not staying in his lane.
The tow truck came and hauled the truck away, while I put Tim in the Pickle and drove him home.
No hospital, he had insisted.
"I'm fine," he said. "If that changes I'll let you know."
We went home, both of us exhausted from the adrenaline that had powered our last few hours. We consulted with Tim's mom, a long time nurse, and she told us that we were okay to let him rest. I sent a message to work to let them I would be out the rest of the day to keep an eye on Tim and then we slept.
After we woke, Tim and I spoke to some insurance people and headed out to gather our belongings from the Truck. While on the phone with them, she let us know that from what she had seen from the photos I uploaded and what the tow truck had shown her, it was most likely going to be a total loss.
Tim wondered briefly about fixing it, but he was hungry so I took him to 5 Guys. I thought that after everything that had happened, he deserved something good to eat. But his head was hurting him. And the longer he sat there, the worse he seemed to get.
He tried to eat and couldn't
His head hurt so bad.
I said enough was enough and told him we were going to the hospital. Since his condition had worsened, he agreed. I packed the food up and we left.
The Hospital was packed.
So packed.
We got into the ER and waited.
Five hours later they finally managed to get him in.
After the doctor came and asked Tim a bunch of questions and looked a few things over the declared that he had a mild concussion. They referred us to a follow up clinic and cut us loose.
The next day, after making sure that Tim was okay, I headed back to work. Since he was told by the doctor that he couldn't operate heavy machinery for at least the next four day, he was off work for the rest of the week.
While working the insurance agent contacted me and told me that the truck would be totaled. There was just too much damage to the underside, plus too many miles on the truck to make it worth the repairs. They were willing to pay us just over $7,500 dollars for the truck.
It was a decent amount of money to be sure, but nowhere near enough to purchase another F-150 Super Duty. But after speaking with the insurance company, Tim and I agreed to accept the settlement and let them total the truck.
He wanted to take it and fix it for a while, he though he might be able to have it parked at the house and work on it over time, but that just wasn't possible. We don't have a garage. I would be almost impossible to find the time with the weather what it is in Utah.
So we made sure we got everything out of the truck and said our final goodbye's to a truck we had just taken hiking the weekend before.
Because things are never easy, especially for this family, two days after Tim was in his accident, we heard from our Landlord.
The owners of the house had decided that they wanted to sell, and they would not be renewing our lease.
At this point we've already spent about $150 on stuff to prep the garden for this next season, including a small jiffy green house for each of our sons. We had grow lights set up and seeds germinating. There were lines drawn in the ground for my medicinal garden and the sunflowers and corn.
There was the bunnies we were breeding, the chickens that were getting back into laying almost every day, and we had our hearts set on expanding the enclosures for both.
We were ready to stay.
But now, breathing down the barrel of this loss of a vehicle, we also have to move.
Timing has never been our strong suit.