MemDay

It is warm! But I'm sitting outside in the shade and there's a good breeze. Earlier today I was out here cutting back the jasmine when I heard a very loud crashing sound. A small pickup truck had collided head on with a small Honda. Nobody was seriously injured but both vehicles were pretty smashed up and had to be towed away -- eventually, after almost two hours. It took a little while for several police (or the 5-0, as my neighbor John likes to call them) to arrive, in four or five SUVs. One person was taken to the hospital in the paramedic van, but not on a stretcher, so I'm guessing it was precautionary. 

The car and the pickup collided right in front of my house, where the hill crests. By the time I got down there somebody had already called 911 and all of the people involved were out of their vehicles and standing on the other side of the street, looking stunned and drinking water that they either had on them or that one of my neighbors had given them. Marlon and I agreed that the pickup truck driver was probably trying to pass another vehicle on the uphill (maybe double parked, or maybe just going too slowly) and couldn't see the oncoming car until it was too late. 

I commented on Marlon's facial hair and he said since he can't go to his barber he decided to grow full sideburns like his brother used to do, but he can't get there. He showed me a photo of his brother, maybe from the 80s, wearing killer sunglasses and a knit sweater, with his fist raised in what I hope it's not flippant of me to call a black power salute. And thick sideburns, of course. 

After standing around uselessly for a bit, I went back up to my yard. I heard some arguing at one point, and some yelling from John and Tanya. (They are both very loud talkers, and they like to get involved in things that happen on the street.) I glanced out my window once or twice and saw a man -- the driver of the pickup, maybe -- sitting in the middle of the street, between the two vehicles. He may have gotten a little too worked up. Two police were looking down at him and making notations on their pads. But I didn't see much point in watching it all play out, especially since the police were there. 

I did occur to me that this was probably a life-altering experience for the people in those vehicles, and yet here I was just going about my business.