"no no"

That's what Addi said when she saw this:



We were on our way to town for a 3:00 eye appt. at Ala Moana and a 5:00 bday party at Pearlridge. It was about 2:25; we were on Kam Hwy in Waikane (a town which i never knew the name of until this weekend). Case was driving. The car two cars in front of us stopped abruptly to make a left-hand turn, so the car in front of us stopped abruptly-er, and we stopped incredibly abruptly - possibly abruptliest. Whenever I have to stop fast I look behind me to see what kind of vehicle I might be being rear-ended by ...

it was two motorcyclists. Hence, the sickening twist in my stomach when I did in fact hear a crash and feel a forward jolt.

We pulled over and jumped out of the car. One of the cyclists had stopped in time - the other was laying on his back across the center stripe yelling profanities (as I'm sure most anyone would be in such a situation). He was in a t-shirt, jeans, and sneakers, with no helmet.

Evidentally by the time he noticed traffic had stopped, the only option he had was to slam on his brakes and try to lay down the bike. The bike and his right leg hit our car, he then flipped over the bike and landed on his back. His bike didn't suffer too badly - some dents in the exhaust, the clutch or brake broke off (i think clutch??), and there were small scrapes on the paint, kinda like it had been keyed. The miracle is that his only injuries are a broken right leg and a scraped up hand. I don't mean to diminish a broken leg, but all things considering (lack of protection, speed of collision, flying into oncoming traffic, on a motorocycle) I think it's amazing.

None of us Jorgensens were injured in the slightest. I have played the "what if" game a few times: what if it had been a car/van/SUV/truck instead of a motorcycle. We undoubtedly would have been sandwiched seeing as we were at most 2 ft away from the car in front of us. Air bags would have been deployed. More people would have been affected/injured. And again, I know "what if" games are silly, but if it had been a larger vehicle, I serioulsy cannot bear to think of the effect it could have had on Gwen. It makes me shiver.

Back to reality, one thing I found quite surprising was the damage done to our car, again relative to the lack of damage to the cyclist and bike. The driver's side panels are damaged, the tail-light gone, the bumper is being held on by a bungee cord, the tailgate has to be replaced, and the cherry topper: it appears the frame has been bent (seeing as the driver's side door doesn't shut quite right, among other things). So it just might be totalled ... we're waiting to hear back from our insurance.

What I take from this is that miracles have not ceased to exist and that God is aware of us. I don't mean to say we were meant to be in an accident, but rather, that given the circumstances of the situation, nearly the best possible outcome was experienced by all parties. Life isn't about frolicking through a field of butterflies and daisies, but rather having Benadryl on-hand when you get a bee sting. Bad analogy? Oh well, you get it.