A Word of Caution

We've had more excitement in this small town in the past two months than in the five years we lived in a much bigger town. I think we moved to crazy town.

Wednesday afternoon I had (accidentally) dozed off on the couch with Ian. Eli was on overnights so he was catching a nap upstairs.

Around 4:00 Eli came piling down the stairs yelling my name. I jumped from the couch, thinking the house was on fire or some other horrible thing was going down.

"There was a motorcycle accident just out in the yard! Didn't you hear anything? I can smell gas from upstairs!" and he ran outside to help.

I looked outside and right away yelled at the boys to get back from the windows and don't look. I was afraid they were going to see some poor mangled soul wrapped around one of our trees. Motorcycle crashes rarely end well.

There were two bikes laying on their sides, twenty feet from our house in our front yard. A circle of people were kneeling around a man laying on his back in the grass. First responders had arrived already. Another guy dressed in riding chaps and leather jacket paced around, collecting things that had been thrown across the yard: a backrest and saddlebag that had been ripped from a bike, a pair of shoes, sunglasses.

After a while the ambulance arrived and they loaded the one guy into it on a stretcher. I could see his arms and legs moving; at least he was conscious.

Eli came in to report that the two guys were coworkers of his; one guy we've known for years, the other was a friend of my brothers. No one seemed to be able to say exactly how the crash happened, but from the damage to the bikes, they obviously collided and sent each other flying. The guy who didn't need medical attention was thrown over his handle bars and slid through our lawn.

Eli went back out and they pushed the two banged up bikes into our driveway until they could be picked up. One is still sitting here as I type.

The guy who was taken to the hospital walked out of there with staples and road rashes. They both are so very blessed it wasn't any worse!

The shoulder of the street and our lawn are still littered with gas, blood, and broken bits of bikes. It's an eerie reminder of how fragile life is, and how very careful people need to be...if not for their own life, for those around them.

Maybe winter will be quieter around here?