Day 122 - Wednesday - How Stupid can I Get?

Day 122 - Wednesday - How Stupid can I Get?

A late night yesterday and not a lot of sleep after the emotional play, and I have to be up early for the second session of my class.  We're moving out of the campground so Vicky stays home to pack while I head into the office.

I arrive a little before 8 and can't see the car of Sharon, who is opening up the office for me.  I leave my papers in the car and walk around the building looking for Sharon.  I get back to the car and discover it's not there.  I look across the long but fortunately empty parking lot and see the car heading backwards for the building at the other side - I forgot to set the brake.  A quick sprint takes me to the car - the only thing I can look at - just as it stops short of the building and starts to roll forward.  I jump in, stop the car and then, with heart thumping, drive back to behind the HRB office.  This time I do apply the brake.  I take time to calm down, thankful that no damage was done, and then discover Sharon's car on the one side of the building I hadn't checked.

After arranging when Sharon will return to lock up, I turn on the computer, start up my virtual classroom and am chatting with Eliane, my supervisor, when a policeman walks into the office!  To cut a long story short, when I saw the car approaching the building (a motel), that was at least its second approach.  It had previously crashed into the motel, destroying a brick wall and smashing a plate glass window.  The policeman finds it hard to believe I didn't notice this (I didn't - as Vicky will tell you I'm not the most observant person).

Although the cop says he'll only need 10 minutes of my time I'm too shaken to think of teaching, but Eliane takes over and finds another instructor so the class goes ahead.  Thank you, Eliane.  Meanwhile I'm expecting serious consequences.  Amazingly, the only damage to our new car is some paint scratches caused by the glass from the motel window.  There's a lot of glass on the car - another thing I hadn't noticed as I drove it away.  The motel owner comes over and is not upset since I have insurance and didn't try to run away - I parked within clear sight of the motel.  Turns out there were people in the motel room at the time but thank God nobody was hurt.

Things end as happily as they could in the circumstances.  The policeman accepts my explanation so I'm not charged with anything, Vicky gives me a lot of support over the phone, the car has no serious damage and the insurance company promises to work with the motel people, who, as I said, are quite philosophical about the whole thing.  I just can't believe how stupid I am.

I'm able to drive back to the RV which Vicky has made almost ready to go, so we hook up the car and head back up to Cedar Breaks (with Vicky driving).  We have tickets for a reading of a new play "Gertrude and Claudius" (a prequel to "Hamlet") on Saturday morning, for which we'll have to drive back down to Cedar City. 

As we're about to leave town we see a large electronic board announcing that the road will be closed from 6 am to 11am on Saturday so we won't be able to get down for the show.  We pull up at the side of the road and Vicky waits with the RV while I walk into town.  The box office is happy to exchange the tickets for an earlier reading - tomorrow Thursday, so it'll be another early morning.  As I'm walking back to the RV I have more time to study the sign by the road - the closing is not this Saturday but the following Saturday - so I didn't need to change the tickets at all!   Oh, well, what's done is done.

We make it up the hill with no problem.  Our favorite spot in the alpine meadow is open and so I'm able to pull myself together and relax with the support of Vicky as well as Quill and Cosette, who seem to know I'm not myself.