The Never Normal

Happy 1-1-11 everyone!  (I love when dates line up in cool ways like that).

So yesterday Andy was giving Jonah his morning ride to the train and then Johan wanted more car ride, so they’re going down New Scotland Ave and right in front of him this big pickup truck veers off the road and smashes into a giant oak tree.  Just keep going, Andy thought, worried that if he stopped the car Jonah would freak out.  Just call 911…someone else will stop. But like the nice guy he is, he just couldn’t do it.  So he pulls a little past the truck and runs back to see what’s going on.  Turns out the guy driving must have had a heart attack or a seizure or something; he’s about 50 or so, Andy thinks, and all slumped over with his eyes rolled back in his head, only the whites showing.  Andy calls 911 and tells them where the accident is, and a teenager runs across the street to see what’s going on; Andy hears the driver breathing but his breaths are all raggedy and raspy.  “If he stops breathing we have to get him out of the truck,” Andy tells the kid, “and I’ll give him CPR.”

By this point another car has stopped and Andy asks one of the two people if they can go check on Jonah in the car.  But there’s some confusion as to which car is Andy’s, and now the driver’s all slumped over into Andy, moaning and trying to move.  “Just stay still,” Andy tells him, and the firetruck arrives.  Andy gives a quick description to the emergency personnel of what happened and how the driver is doing, and then he runs quickly back to the car.

Jonah’s gotten himself out of his car restraint completely and is wreaking havoc in the car – banging Andy’s coffee cup on the console, screaming and kicking.  He tore the knob off the radio and is going ape-shit.  So Andy opens the door and Jonah and he are struggling in the car and then out on the street, just 50 yards or so ahead of the car accident scene.   By this time Jonah’s got Andy’s hands all scratched and bleeding and he’s bitten one of Andy’s hands twice, pretty bad.  Now Andy’s worried that someone’s going to notice his scene and wonder what the hell he’s doing to his kid, so he wrestles Jonah back into the car restraint and hightails it outta there.

He decides next time he’ll just call 911, at least if Jonah’s in the car.  I think this makes the 5th or 6th time one of us has dialed 911 since the August day when Jonah put his leg through his bedroom window.  Too much 911 for us, man.  Let’s have a 911-free 2011.  Please.

All in all, though, Jonah’s been doing really well.  So well that we’re reconsidering placement and hoping he’ll get nicely back into the school routine come Monday.  Jonah probably just got all freaked out being left alone in the car for the 7 or 8 minutes Andy was gone, so Andy didn’t take any punitive action.  He called me and we ended up taking Jonah to Colonie Center, where he could go through his highly customized routine of visiting stores he likes and their escalators.  I tried to stop by LensCrafters to say hello to my peep Sue, but she was busy with a customer.  She saw me, though, and we waved to each other, and then Jonah pulled the three of us back into his preferred mall route.  He does not enjoy varying from this route and we sure as hell weren’t going to press the point.  Not this day.

Can the strange, unusual, stressful, crazy events please stop haunting us this year?

We’d really appreciate it!!!