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There goes the neighborhood
Jul. 16th, 2006 09:57 pmI'm really getting sick of waking up in a total panic trying to figure out if my family's lives or our property is in grave danger between 1-3 am.
This morning around 1:48 the sound of the crash woke me up. I didn't hear metal-on-metal so I knew two cars weren't involved, but definitely heard metal-on-wood-but-no-glass-shattering. At first I thought someone hit the utility pole in front of our house and wondered if it was about to fall onto our bedroom and crush us flat. Then I heard someone shift into reverse, tires sharply turning, then pealing out headed south like a bat out of hell.
It's amazing how quickly the brain can work to process information out of a sound sleep into instant adrenaline. All this took place in about 20 seconds, but somehow I deduced that it wasn't the pole but some unknown wooden something across the street that was hit & posed no immediate danger to anyone since no glass broke (i.e. nothing went through car or house windows). I was too freaked out to get up, turn off the alarm & go outside to see (I was thrown out a window half awake when I was 5, odd nighttime things tend to paralyze me in fear), and my husband & son slept right through everything. I listened intently but heard.... not a sound to call 911 about. This isn't an area known for pedestrians, especially not at that hour, so I could only hope there wasn't one lying dead or unconscious outside. In retrospect I should have either gotten over myself or woken up my husband, but logic is not my forte when woken up out of a sound sleep.
In the morning I saw that it was some jerk (my guess is drunk) who swung wide turning west and plowed straight into our NW neighbor's front fence, destroying an entire panel before taking off. Thankfully there was that to stop the car instead of their house & no one was parked there.
Still... someone with substantial front end damage is definitely an asshole & the what ifs are too horrible for words.
This morning around 1:48 the sound of the crash woke me up. I didn't hear metal-on-metal so I knew two cars weren't involved, but definitely heard metal-on-wood-but-no-glass-shattering. At first I thought someone hit the utility pole in front of our house and wondered if it was about to fall onto our bedroom and crush us flat. Then I heard someone shift into reverse, tires sharply turning, then pealing out headed south like a bat out of hell.
It's amazing how quickly the brain can work to process information out of a sound sleep into instant adrenaline. All this took place in about 20 seconds, but somehow I deduced that it wasn't the pole but some unknown wooden something across the street that was hit & posed no immediate danger to anyone since no glass broke (i.e. nothing went through car or house windows). I was too freaked out to get up, turn off the alarm & go outside to see (I was thrown out a window half awake when I was 5, odd nighttime things tend to paralyze me in fear), and my husband & son slept right through everything. I listened intently but heard.... not a sound to call 911 about. This isn't an area known for pedestrians, especially not at that hour, so I could only hope there wasn't one lying dead or unconscious outside. In retrospect I should have either gotten over myself or woken up my husband, but logic is not my forte when woken up out of a sound sleep.
In the morning I saw that it was some jerk (my guess is drunk) who swung wide turning west and plowed straight into our NW neighbor's front fence, destroying an entire panel before taking off. Thankfully there was that to stop the car instead of their house & no one was parked there.
Still... someone with substantial front end damage is definitely an asshole & the what ifs are too horrible for words.
