Thursday, July 10, 2008

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to...

On Tuesday Jonathan had a bike accident. He rode to work in an effort to be healthier and save gas. He was riding along La Brea (an L.A. road so busy it feels like a freeway) when he suddenly started thinking about how dangerous it was, since there were no bike lanes, and decided to go up on the sidewalk. He turned, his wheel got stuck in a grate and he flew off, scraping and bruising his 41-year-old-body. He's got head to toe road rash. He tried to call home but Benji hung up on him. So he just doused himself in hydrogen peroxide and worked all day through the pain. Until I happened to call him in the afternoon and totally freaked out. I could hear he was still in shock over the phone.

He forged on. He never complained. Barely even told me, and seemed incredulous that black and blue bumps had emerged on his hips and legs by nightfall. That is Jonathan, immune to pain, forging on, alone.

The next day he had a business meeting in Culver City. During the meeting his phone vibrated repeatedly in his pocket, shaking so frequently he had trouble concentrating. (Confession: One call was me, wanting to chat.) He emerged from his meeting, still slightly dazed from the day before, and was driving along when a high speed hook and ladder nearly drove him off the road and killed him. He pulled over, caught his breath, then drove on.

Then he began to pick up his calls. It turned out his sister had gotten in a car accident with her newborn baby, Elaina. She was rear-ended and when she looked in the back seat she was terrified because her baby's eyes wouldn't open. In a panic, she called 9-1-1. Apparently, California State Law requires that if there is a car accident involving an infant, a hook and ladder MUST go to the scene of the accident. When the paramedics arrived at the site, it turned out that the baby was just sleeping soundly. She slept through the accident, and didn't even wake up when Carolyn got her out of her car seat. Luckily, everything was OK. It turned out that the hook and ladder that almost drove him off the road was on the way to save his sister.

He was very tired last night. But everyone is well.

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