What a day

This entry is getting completed before the one I was working on here. I had been finishing the touches on the up north trip posting, but it needs to wait so I can talk about this day past.

Today was a planned day to ride motorcycles all over the place with my wife Kris and our firefighter buddy Tristan. The ride was pre-planned and it was to be cool. The weather today was excellent. For Kris and I it was chance to get out and ride together before the school year ended. My kids are in there last two days of school for the year.

My plan was to ride north from Yellow Springs, hit router 40 and head west until almost the Indiana boarder. From there we were going to head south to the Hueston State Park and eventually hit Oxford Ohio for a lunch stop. Once we finished lunch we could head back across on 73 or zig zag north and west back home. I figured a good 6 hours of riding, site seeing, and stopping.

The sun came, the alarm went off, and kids were up and breakfast was served. We sat and had coffee and ate together and discussed the second to last school day. Off went my son with backpack in tow, and shortly there after with a bit more of a push, followed my daughter. Kris and I got to work in earnest to meet our 9am meeting down at the firehouse with Tristan. The sun was up, and NOAA showed very little sign of rain to come for the day.

By 9 Kris and I were just about wrapped up with getting out, but not quite. As we finished it was now 9am and the phone rang. I knew it was Tristan. She is coming from 20 minutes away and she is on time, but we are 1 minute away and can't get there. I called her and let know we were on our way, and there we were.

Kris left about 1 minute or two before me. When I arrived I could see them looking at Tristan's rear wheel and chain. The night before she had tried to tighten the chain, but was missing the socket required. We looked it over and it seemed it would be fine when we compared it to my chain, or so we convinced ourselves to proceed. One more chance to pee before we go, and no one is going to pass that one up.

I decided to get gas before we leave, and Kris also wants to stop before rolling to check air in her tires. We hit the Speedway, get the gas, the air, and Tristan grabs a candy bar. We are now really ready to go. About 20 minutes behind, but primed to roll. I head out of town, and west on Dayton-Yellow Springs Rd. Next was 235 north to I 675 north. We are off to a good start. Nice and steady, with no delays. At the end of 675 we hit a detour, which goes east, but I decide to try it out and hope it gets us back toward 40, my intended goal. It gets me to Lower Valley road, which runs west back north side of the road we kicked off by the high water detour. Finally another mile or so up the road, route 40!

West bound now, and I hear my phone ringing. Damn, I can't get away from work for a few hours, I'm thinking. I'm going to let them go to voice mail and I'll check them when we get to our next stop. They can wait. We are moving along good. We pass a few cars and roll through a few towns. As we leave one of the lights and head up the road a bit I see Kris pull off into a factory parking lot. She and Tristan are behind me, so I slow and turn into a road to go back and tell Tristan what's up.

I get back to Kris and she still has her helmet on but is listening to a voice mail with her speaker phone. I can hear it. "Your son has a broken wrist, and is going to the hospital, so give us a call as soon as you can.". Kris lets me know she is going to head right for the hospital, and I should go home and get the car. She hits it. Tristan shows up and I let her know, and apologize for the end of the trip, and hit the road too. Sorry Tristan, but whatcha gonna do?

As I head back I see Kris ahead of me about 1/4 mile. She's stopped a light and it turns green just as one I come to turns red. I can see she is at the freeway about to get on, and I get stopped. I figure when I get on I might catch up to her, since I'm pretty quick on the freeway. The speed limit is reduced due to construction (I-70 east bound, just east of 75). Because of this I need to keep my speed more reasonable, even trying to hurry home. I still don't see her as I get to 675 and head south, and pour on the extra mph. Off at 235 and waste no time. Traffic is light and as I head over a hill about about 75 I pass a cop. He does not turn around or even hit his lights, but take this as a sign to cool my jets.

Once home I get my gear put away, call the school, and listen to a message from Denny, our assistant Chief at the fire department. He wanted me to know Carter was OK and the hospital and to call when we got the message. I called on that number, and it was Liz's phone, one of our EMT's who is training to be a firefighter. Liz said everything was OK and I let her know Kris would be there soon. Called Kris and she was actually there already, which was a relief. The big press was off. My kid had his Mom.

I got in the car and got to the hospital. Uneventful on the way there, accept on XM radio they were playing an interview with The Kids In the Hall cast. It was an odd joy at and odd moment to hear them. They were a favorite of mine back in the 90s.

At the hospital, which I've been to many times now as a driver, I was at a loss how to get into besides the ambulance bay. I noted the ambulance bay was crowded. I could see our rig was there waiting to leave. More trucks were arriving. I found the emergency entrance and near that was parking for that entrance. Inside I found the reception area and told them who I was looking for and they buzzed me in and told me to go to room 6.

Here is my son. Lying on the bed, IV in his arm, tilted back to help against shock, and looking very beat. His eyes are watering. Everyone I talked to said he was very tough, but nothing doing now that we were here. He let his guard down and sobbed lightly. He was sad he missed his field day. He was sad he got hurt. He was sorry he ruined out day. We let him know that was not important. We were here for him now, and nothing mattered but fixing him up.

Chris, a Paramedic from the station came in and said some nice things to my son, and wished us well. Everyone from my department is so cool. I really admire them and am grateful to have them as family. They took good care of him.

The following minutes the ER doc came in and unwrapped the field splint and showed us his arm. It was bent for sure. The lower arm was broken. Next they got the X-ray, and confirmed what was pretty clear on the outside. The orthopedic doc called and told us they would need to knock him out straighten the arm. The procedure did not call for surgery, but it did call for unconsciousness.

We needed to sit tight for a couple hours and they would get the doctor in and fix his arm. He was in pain now so they hooked him up with some morphine. I needed to get some food and some coffee for Kris, so I ran down the hall and took care of that. When I returned Kris thought I should go get our daughter from the school and let his class know he was OK. I needed to call work and tell them what was up too, since now I was going to be running into the end of the work day.

Everyone at the school was glad to hear he was OK and everyone said how tough he was through the whole process. They were all worried. His sister was a little put off by being pulled out of class, but I reminded her to think of his broken arm. We ran home and she grabbed his MP3 player and his favorite stuffed animal. It was very sweet of her, and showed me she was getting it already.

When we arrived he was in for the procedure already, and after about an hour he was up and ready to go. The whole process from in to out was maybe 5 hours. He had a cast on, his arm was mended, and he was in pretty good spirits. When we got home some of his buddies came by to see the cast and check on him. He also called some other friends and talked it up.

It was a crazy day, but I'm amazed by so many things. How good a family I have in the fire department. How cool my friends are. How flexible you have to be in life. How strong someone can be. How wonderful the love of a Mom can be to a son. How lucky I am to be where I am and with whom I get to spend this trip with currently.