The Marauder is hurt

The door creases are deep - the scratches on the front panel and the rear panel are just deep scratches. The drivers window has a gash across the glass - I think the window should have broken - didn't. The real damage is that someone was a bit jumpy for several hours. I think. Things are better today, but when she doesn't want chocolate - man that is major.
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My story: It was necessary to drive the motorhome to south Ft. Worth yesterday to go to the shop. I drove the thing and my wife followed in the black Marauder. We drive up I-45 and cut across to I-35W at one point. When we arrived at I-35, I pulled up to the light in the right turning lane - nobody was coming and I turned right on red and headed down the service road. I didn't see my wife after that - figured she got caught by traffic.
Then, my phone rings. She starts talking about being sideswiped. My radio was on as usual. I said something like, "Wait a minute (turn off radio) start over." She did.
She had been sideswiped. Now let's think about this. I know she has pulled into the right hand turning lane. How can she get side swiped unless she drove onto the service road and someone came whipping up on her left? Then she added, "I went ahead and pulled across the highway. I am sitting here and everyone is running down to the other car." I do paraphrase her explanations here.
See - still that didn't make any sense. She said she was fine but shaken. I told her to just sit there I was on my way. Think of John Wayne riding to save the maiden in distress. But this time, I was lumbering ahead in a 35 ft motorhome on I-35W with a mile to go before my exit.
Exit came - made the turn around - dodged a semi to get going around the other way. I trudged back to the offending intersection & finally saw her parked on top of the highway bridge over the highway - and down in the pasture between the service road and the north bound lane was a little smashed ugly car surrounded by folks. An ambulance was there (ALREADY) and so was a Sheriff (ALREADY) lights blaring. I found a concrete driveway off the north bound service road and got stopped.
I could see my wife standing by the ugly crashed car with a policeman. I crossed behind the ambulance and made it through the calf high grass. It was obvious that she was fine...looked fine at least. They had the door open to the guy's car and he was sitting there, air bag in hand. Old short gent with white hair - overweight and obviously much older than we....but then I have yet to be able to accept my present age or appearance.
The sheriff said that the Ft. Worth police would be handling this. Another ambulance came and went. Two cars were parked down the road on the side. We finally figured out they had been hit too. The EMT got the elderly gent out of his car and he WALKED through the grass with his walker - y'know one of those walkers with a little black seat attached. They put him in the truck and closed the back doors. They did not leave the scene while we were still there. The EMT guy said the guy had a real low heart beat - everything else checked Okay. I figure he passed out and his foot stomped on the gas pedal enough to beat up 3 cars and jump 2 major curbs.
Police came - EMT came - they talked to wifey - and we stood waiting. As I stood by the Marauder (my heart bent) I looked down to find a nice looking drill bit. Next to it was a dime. I kept looking. There was a penny. And lastly, I found a quarter. 36cents. When we eat later, I had found enough to leave for a tip.
My car has an enormous scratch down the right side. The window is scratched and the doors are gouged. I get 2 new doors. Lost the mirror too. My wife is fine other than being shook up. She said that her foot was on the brake....and the other car did not move the Marauder one inch. But he was thrown forward and across the road over a curb and down in a pasture. Big cars can be like gold. We will get the Marauder fixed and it will be prettier than ever.
One last little bit: As we started to leave, the policeman stopped all traffic and allowed my wife to back out across the service road so she could be going in the right direction. That was really nice.
Another day, another adventure. Motorhome in shop. Mirror taped back on the car door. Waiting for Monday. Send love. mtz

jury duty

I am not looking for Hallelujahs - or presents - or acknowledgements -- or whatever ... read on.

In the mail today, I received a summons (or whatever it is called) to appear for Jury Duty on November the 8th.

Naturally, I decided to stay home instead of giving my time to the justice system. I have always heard that juries are made up of people who were not smart enough to get out of jury duty.

I will be a bit out of touch on the 8th -- so I called the court today.

I called the lady on the form. She was quite pleasant.

I said, "I received my jury notice for the 8th but I have two problems."
She responded quite pleasantly.

I continued, "first of all, I won't be able to be there on the 8th; however, my second thing may make that of no importance. I turn 70 on the 4th."

She laughed and said that I had no problem and would send the official form to me to complete.

There are benefits to turning 70. As of this moment, I can only think of one benefit to turning 70.
Mtz