"Flying Particle Boards - BATMAN!!!"

After two days of two-hour delays from a weird thick fog, the girls were back to their regular schedule. Just before Steph got on the bus Wednesday morning, one of her little buddies mentioned the phrase "picture day." This brought up the need for a band shirt, so I ran home and told Steph to hop on the bus if I didn't make it back in time. Well I didn't make it back in time. So I gathered up Mary and Cami and off to Battle Ground we drove. Heavy rains had flooded Hwy 9, our normal route, so it was back off to find an alternative. By this time, I just decided to drive Mary into school. After that drop off I figured that I would just drive to Battle Ground and drop off Cami to preschool late. So we found the alternative route on 600 N. and dropped off Steph's band shirt uneventfully. On the way back heading towards West Lafayette, an oncoming truck with large particle board panels started to lose it's cargo. One board had already fallen off hitting the underside of a mini-van in front of me and a second panel flew right into our car with a sickening thud. We pulled off the side of the road and the other gentleman stopped his car to pick up panels and assess what had happened to us. Super nice guy. I felt so bad. We laughed a little about "unlucky Wednesdays." His straps had rotted in the rain and broke, releasing the flying panels. I called Mark immediately and this other fellow called the police. It was drizzling cold rain. I was still a bit in shock trying to sort things out. As we waited for witnesses and both parties to have their stories taken down by the officer, I began to smile at the passing traffic. Call it boredom or insanity, but my little sociologist side began to conduct a mental experiment to see what reaction I would get if I smiled at the drivers as they passed by. Most seemed embarassed and quickly turned their head, others gave a half-smile of concern, and yet others just didn't look to avoid "getting involved." I do have to say, there were a couple of cars that stopped to see if I was O.K. It was VERY INTERESTING to note that they were both in the baby-boomer generation. The younger cohorts had a tendency to gawk and quickly turn away. The middle aged individuals tried not to look. But it was the baby-boomer and older that gave me looks of genuine concern and kindness. ANYHOW, I called a friend to pick up Cami for preschool, but everything was settled by the time she came. A BIG THANK YOU TO MY ANGEL FRIEND!!! We got Cami to preschool late and she got to tell her story to her class. I had to laugh the next day, one of the parents asked me to explain about the "logs" that destroyed our car. (A description from their child at breakfast that morning.) It looks like their insurance will be paying for the damage. This poor car. This is the second time since we've been here that it's been damaged by another driver. It's off to the shop once again.