Life In A Split Second

After I completed EMT training and started answering emergency medical calls for our fire department, I worried about how I would do when we were called to our first car wreck.

I didn’t plan to be it.

Monday morning, I cruised the Net, checking activities in Portland, planning our vacation next month to the Oregon coast.

I made progress on my current script and liked what I read. Maybe this will be the “one.”

Ate lunch, collected my Dad and we ran errands in the afternoon.

On the way home, at an intersection I’ve passed countless times, a man driving a full-size Dodge pickup, was waving to a friend, and started across the intersection without noticing I was already there.

He hit us at the driver’s door, which sent the Chevy sliding sideways up a hill until it hit the soft dirt at the side of the road and commenced to roll.

Shaken witnesses at the scene said the car rolled three times.

Fortunately, I don't remember the roll.

I clearly remember the scene out the windshield, sliding sideways up the road. Then starting to roll.

Returned to full consciousness after coming to rest upright.

This ceiling center console which held interior lights and a place for the garage door opener, came loose and bashed into my head.

Every window, save the back one over the tailgate, broke out.

Six Good Samaritans ran to the car, all clutching their cell phones, all calling for help, all trying to assure us help was on the way.

One older lady held my hand while trying to call my family, and she was so upset, she couldn’t get her phone to work. The rollover must have been a horrific to watch. No fun to endure.

Neither air bag deployed.

Volunteer fireman, guys I’ve trained with, used the Jaws of Life, to remove the door so they could package me for the ambulance.

Package. That’s what we call it. An intricate set of procedures to insure the patient suffers no further injury before medical help can be reached. I’ve practiced this several times in training. Works slick, but trust me, it’s no fun being the package.

Another team removed my father.

After eight hours, the hospital sent us home. Dad has a broken collar bone. He’s out of commission for six weeks.

I have cuts, strained muscles and a heck of a bruise on my head. (And I later discovered, a torsion injury in my back from the seat belt that saved my life.) Even my hair hurts.

Today’s Wednesday. My aches are fading. I’m a little less stiff. What doesn’t seem to diminish is my memory.

I clearly remember the view through the windshield and having the presence of mind to think, this is my life. This moment. This second.

Not in three weeks on vacation. Or next fall when the Nicholls are announced. Or that fateful day I get it all together and something sells.

This second, I’m rolling a two ton car.

Make your life what you want it to be. Not next week or six months from now.

This second.

Tagged

Tagged by Candace from Chapterhouse.

1. We HAVe to post these RUles beFORE we give you the facts.
2. PlAYers start with eight RANdom facts/HAbits about thEMSElves.
3. PEople who are tagGED need to write on their own blog about their eight things and post these RUles.
4. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagGED and list their names.
Don’t forget to leave them a COmment telling them they’re tagGED, and to read your blog.

Eight Random Facts

1. Apparently, I am addicted to Starbucks Double Shot Espresso in a can. In a can. At least it's convenient.

2. I like my dogs more than a lot of people I know.

3. I see Candace confessed to a hopeless sense of direction. I have that too. On a recent ride in the mountains, I had three maps, a compass and God help me, a GPS and if you asked me where I was, all I could say was on my ATV. I sat there, looking at all that information, and realized NONE of it was in my head. Or likely to be there.

Now, I spawned a child who can stand in the WILDERNESS and point to magnetic North. How does she do this? I do not know. I suspect too much iron in her blood. I am confident that sequence of DNA was a gift from her father.

4. I am very organized. This does not mean I like to vacuum.

5. My watercolor paintings are getting better, though I doubt the Louvre will be calling any time soon. We recently posed for a press release photo for the EMT service and I painted a bandage to use on our pretend patient. It was a disgustingly, beautifully painted bandage. I forgot it at home when we went for the picture. Did I mention I was organized?

6. I like cats better in theory than in real life.

7. New socks, a stack of books and sun tea make me feel rich.

8. I'd like cooking more if there was no mess to clean up after.

I'm usually too chicken to tag anyone. If you're reading this and want to play, please do.

Memes are fun.

Die Hard in a Neverending Sequel

I saw this first day. I have a thing for Bruce. Leave me alone.

Perfect summer popcorn movie.

John McClane's facing the realities of aging as well as any of us. He can save America from terrorists, but can he keep his college daughter from making out with a dope in front of her dorm? Nope.

Justin Long, the Mac guy from TV ads, is the dragged-along buddy this time out. He supplies some amped energy to McClane's weary here we go again vibe.

Timothy Olyphant, hero from DEADWOOD, is nicely psycho as the villain.

Kevin Smith looks too good to be a basement dwelling, hacker slacker, but boy, his entrance got a big laugh.

And, here you go, 'cuz you're not going to hear it in this PG13 release -- DIE HARD.

On the Job Training

Now, you may have wondered why I'm suddenly so taken with memes. Or not.

Well, I always kinda liked them. I think they're the equivalent of taking down one's pants in Times Square without the risk of STDs.

Still, kinda like, is no reason to turn a blog into a neverending repost of other people's ideas, no matter how amusing I find them.

The actual reason is the Third Act of my current script is driving me crazy -- by, among other things, trying to start on page 62. This is really bad news.

So crazy, in fact, last week I considered giving up writing entirely and turning my hand to, oh say, housework and gardening. No shit.

I said to my self, "Self, with housework and gardening, there will be no unfulfilled expectations. No crushed hopes. Nary an impossible dream. We will reap, exactly what we sow, and still have time for afternoon tea and a nap."

Self said back, "I bet you don't remember where you left the vacuum cleaner."

This continued to seem like a good idea until I spent an actual day, houseworking and gardening.

But, I thought of this.

Test Your Screenwriting Acumen.

1. You read all the Structure Gurus and it's not turning out the way you planned. What do you do?

a. I don't need no stinking Guru.
b. You're mistaken. This was my plan.
c. Start over on Page 1. You poor, poor dear.
d. Continue to stare at the computer screen until the solution arrives or your retinas crisp.

2. It sounded like a MOVIE idea when it was still in your head, but after 62 pages, you doubt it would make a viable comic. You think ...

a. Comics are BIG in the movies now.
b. Page 62 always sucks.
c. Stop reading the Zoetrope Main Board.
d. Just quote Goldman to all you encounter.

3. Your local theater has 3 screens showing Pirates 3, 2 screens showing Shrek 3, and 1 each with Knocked Up, Fantastic Four 2 and Mr. Brooks. You ...

a. Stay home and watch TV. No wait. Deadwood's canceled and Sopranos are over.
b. Go to the library.
c. Throw a hissy fit at the snack bar.
d. Tell everyone Kevin Costner is still cute.

4. A friend emails you a review of the latest, greatest, best-ever, screenwriting book. You ...

a. Gotta have it. Hope springs eternal.
b. Join a convent. At least it will be quiet.
c. Sign that friend up to 27 porno email lists.
d. Stare at the 158 screenwriting books you already own until your eyeballs are as dry as British wit.

5. If you weren't a Screenwriter, you would be ...

a. An astronaut. NASA is always hiring.
b. A veterinarian. Puppies are cute.
c. A writer in another field with more respect, less frustration and fewer competitors.*
d. A gardener.

My answers ---

1. D
2. B
3. C and D
4. D
5. A


*Remember that great joke from Get Shorty?

What kind of writing pays the most?

Hold-up notes.

Survey Says . . .

Three things that scare me:

1 Dark
2 War
3 Fanatics

Three people who make me laugh:

1 Steve Carrell
2 My kiddo
3 Zeke and Lil - technically not people, also technically more than three. Don't be picky.

Three Things I love:

1 The Beach
2 Giant Sequoia Trees
3 Montana

Three Things I hate:

1 Traffic
2 Gas Stations
3 Waiting in line

Three things I don't understand:

1 War
2 Religious Fanatics
3 Why one pound of chocolate makes a person gain ten pounds of fat

Three things on my desk:

1 Water
2 Pencils
3 Lava Lamp

Three things I'm doing right now:

1 Blogging
2 Wasting time online See #1
3 Wishing I had a new laptop

Three things I want to do before I die:

1 Visit Ireland
2 Learn to draw
3 Make a million dollars with my writing

Three things I can do:

1 Write
2 Create photographic art
3 Keep an injured person alive until the ambulance arrives

Three ways to describe my personality:

1 Quirky
2 Compassionate
3 Humorous

Three things I can't do:

1 Draw
2 Sing on key
3 Understand HBO programming decisions

You can take this survey at Bzoink.com, a part of My Space which is a fetid dump of pop culture if you ask me, and you didn't but there it is.