not according to plan..

 My west coast brother informed me earlier today that today is "National Look at the Bright Side Day."  As it turned out that was very good advice.  My spouse and I set out this morning on a pre-Christmas series of errands, pick up the ham we had ordered, pick up the bakery rolls, buy a few groceries, etc.  All was going well, until about a mile from home, CRASH! BANG! POOF! we collided with another vehicle (a big old tow truck to be exact) who didn't stop as expected at the four way stop.  A policeman later informed us that there have been several accidents at that intersection.  Actually not very comforting to know.  That poof! that I mentioned was the airbags inflating very rapidly.  Did you know that it costs $5,000 to replace a deployed airbag and there are almost always two involved, making any accident where the airbags go off considered a total?  Did you also know that airbags smell funny and leave lots of white dust floating in the air?  I didn't either until today.  I sat there in the passenger seat, stunned and bemused, watching white stuff float around a sad deflated big old balloon, while trying to figure out if I was hurt. I was, my chest hurt like someone had walloped me with a ball bat.  You've obviously figured out that, since I'm able to write this blog, the whole episode could have been much worse.  My spouse was fine, able to get out of the car quickly, have civil conversation with the other driver, call 91I, take pictures of the damage (considerable), talk with the police, etc.  My son, who lives right around the corner from us, came as soon as I called him and helped us get everything out of the car, wave good bye to our faithful Subaru, and then drive us home.  The next stop was the ER where I spent a fun afternoon while the professionals checked for any possible damage to  my chest.  Did you know that, once they have determined, after a CT scan and other fun tests, that a person has a cracked sternum (which I do) they then need to check to make sure one doesn't have a bruised heart (I don't)? That's why we're looking on the bright side.  Especially now that I'm fairly high on pain pills.  In case you're wondering, my wonder spouse was able to buy everything on our list, and Christmas dinner will go on as planned.  Although I may not be hugging everyone as firmly as I would like to.  Cheers everybody.   Keep looking on the bright side.