Crazy 24 Hours

Here's our story of the craziest 24 hours we've had in quite a while...

It started off fairly mundane. Tuesday morning Anders required three diaper changes in order to get out of the house (thankfully, only a single outfit). We dropped him off with Debbie and spent a normal morning at work.

At around 1pm Corinne and I picked up Anders and started toward Portland. We had agreed to represent Insitu's software department at a special hiring event there on the condition that we could take our little guy with us. The company rented out a large meeting room at a hotel and set up tables staffed by each of the areas of the company that have openings (which is basically all of them). On our way there I-84 was starting to get messy from a combination rain and sleet, so the going was slow and we arrived just in time for the beginning of the event. Initially I had thought that the bad weather might deter people, but I had forgotten about the state of the economy...

HR estimated that over 1,000 people showed up at this Insitu-only job fair! During the first three hours of the four hour event, the Software/Avionics table alone had a line of between 30-50 people waiting to speak to one of us. As a result the event became less one-on-one interviewing and more speed dating. I wish I had taken some pictures, particularly of Corinne talking to potential candidates in the middle of a crowded room, with Anders on her shoulder.

When the event was over, we packed Anders back into the car and started the drive back to the Gorge. The weather had cleared by now, and the roads were relatively quiet. Corinne sat in the back seat with Anders, and for a while both were asleep. But it was when we arrived in Hood River that the real "excitement" of the evening occurred.

Since Anders had been asleep for some time, Corinne decided that she would move to the front passenger seat to keep me company. So when we stopped at the stop sign at the bottom of our exit, Corinne hopped out of the car to change seats. As soon as she closed the back door she heard skidding from behind us and saw another car coming down the exit ramp, and it clearly wasn't going to stop in time. She ran from our car and watched as Anders and I were rear-ended! The impact pushed us a car length or so into the intersection, which thankfully was empty. Once our car stopped moving, Corinne hopped back in the car and we pulled off to the side of the road.

Anders - who had been sleeping in the back seat - awoke and started crying. Our initial concerns, of course, were whether he was okay. After a minute or so, though, he stopped crying and then smiled at Corinne. After I had exchanged information with the other driver and contacted our insurance company, I had to keep my calm so that I could drive us all home.

It all happened so fast. It's only when we think back on it that we realize what could have happened and how much worse it could have been. I mean, Corinne wasn't even in the car! The other vehicle was actively trying to stop, so by the time he hit us he wasn't going terribly fast, and both our bumpers did what they are designed to do. The next day I wasn't even sore, and a quick call to our pediatrician allayed any remaining fears we had about Anders.

But Tuesday night wasn't done yet. Since we were leaving for a trip to Boston the following day, we stayed up late that night to finish packing. At around 1am, in the middle of doing laundry, the power went out. Dang wind storms! So we went to bed. Corinne woke up around 2:30am to lights on all over the house; the power had come back. So she got up, restarted the laundry and then headed back to bed, exhausted.

The car repairs would have to wait until we returned from our trip. The damage doesn't look that bad at first glance, but we suspect that the repairs will be fairly extensive; there is damage to at least one of the side panels, the back door will need to be replaced, and the hitch looks bent as well. The accident was clearly the other drivers' fault; unfortunately, he had let his insurance lapse just a few months earlier. Thank goodness for "uninsured motorist" insurance.

I hope it is a long time before we have another day like that!

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders Rocket