Had an Accident

I had a little accident this morning. Last night was, as I think I mentioned before, the last of eight worked in a row. Due to a combination of circumstances, I was not relieved at work until 1030 in the morning. Sometime over the course of my shift, I came down with gastroenteritis, one of those 24 to 48-hour stomach bugs. Three different times from 0400 to 0900, I spent time in the restroom making donations to the porcelain god. I went one more time before I left the job. I was feeling tired and drained, but I was okay to drive. Or so I thought.

It was very warm when I left the hotel this morning. So warm that I should have let the truck air out before taking off. Alas, I had been at the hotel for nearly twelve hours, and I was sick, and I just wanted to go home. I rolled the window down, blasted the fan, and cranked the radio. In an ironic turn of events, one of the songs that played on the way home was Lady Gaga's "Just Dance", with that line "I can't see straight anymore". I was a mere mile from home, exiting the Western Freeway onto London Boulevard, when I blacked out and hit a guardrail.

There's nothing like a sudden burst of adrenaline to startle one into wakefulness. I think I OD'd on adrenaline. I couldn't stop trembling. I managed to drive home, where I discovered that I smashed the left front parking light and the left rear turn signal/brake light.

I was uninjured, but the adrenaline on top of my stomach bug just made me queasy. My brother and a mechanic friend of ours are going to pick through a junkyard tomorrow to see if they can locate replacement parts. Unfortunately, this puts paid to my airshow trip, because they won't let you onto any military base in a vehicle with that sort of damage. My gastro thing seems to have run its course, but I'm not sure that wandering around the ramp at an Air Force base in the hot sun all day is such a good idea anyway. If I'm feeling up to it, I might wander down to the riverfront and play tourist for a bit, taking pictures of statuary and boats and whatnot.