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Tag Archives: Damage

What a Day!! :( Accidents Happen

02 Saturday Nov 2019

Posted by Tim Hughes Living with CML in Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

accident, Band, Car, Damage, Football, Ford, Insurance, playoffs, trailer, Truck

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It’s going to quite around the house for the next few days because my wife is not speaking to me. She told me not to do something and I did it anyway.  I had an accident with the band trailer on my way to a football game tonight.  The route we took led us downtown Birmingham where they are currently working on the bridges that go through the center of town.  It’s 5 o’clock traffic, it’s bumper to bumper and along some narrow streets.  A lady and her brother were sitting at a traffic light in the left turn lane.  I’m next to her waiting to go straight.  The light changed, I move forward and I hear a long and loud horn blow.  The lady pulls up next to me and tells me that I hit her car.  Now, not only did not hear the crash, I didn’t see it either.  I was not about to stop in the middle of the street and call the police to come and do a police report. But there was nowhere to pull over either. I drove for several blocks trying to find a place and all the while the lady was beside me in the turn lane trying to get me to stop.  We finally stopped at a traffic light long enough for me to communicate to her that I was looking for a place to pull over.  I finally found a parking lot big enough for me to pull into so we could exchange insurance cards and get a police report.  Which we had to wait over forty-five minutes for the cop to show up.

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The school has insurance on the trailer so therefore the school’s insurance will take care of the car that I hit.  I was told that it would not go on my insurance but my wife does not believe this.  And this is where the rub comes in.  When I first sat down with these people to volunteer to haul the trailer, I signed a document stating that very same thing.  Plus, if anything happens to the trailer or any of the contents I would not be held responsible. My wife did not want me to volunteer for this.  In fact, she doesn’t want me to do anything outside the home since I retired.  She always has some excuse for why I shouldn’t do it.  I get paid $100 each time I haul the trailer no matter how short a run or how far. So far I’ve raised $800 and that’s pretty easy money.

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As you can see there wasn’t much damage to the car I hit but still, I hit a car.  My wife is worried that regardless of who pays for it, this will make our insurance costs go up.  I haven’t had an accident in over thirty years and I really doubt our insurance will go up but I can’t get that in my wife’s head.

Our team is in the playoffs and they won their game tonight.  Next week we travel again to another school but this time we don’t have to go through town to get there.  Originally, this was supposed to be my final night but because they’re in the playoff’s we have yet another game to go to.  This could be over an hour away so I’m not really looking forward to hauling the trailer that far. Is it a bad thing to hope they lose so next week would be their last?

All is Well at the Home Front; Well, Sort of

20 Tuesday Mar 2018

Posted by Tim Hughes Living with CML in Nature, Photography

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Damage, dashcam, Idiot, sideswiped, tornado

We had some pretty bad storms come through the northern part of our state yesterday afternoon and evening.  There was an EF3 tornado hit one of our colleges and destroyed a lot of student dorms and apartments.  Luckily, most of the students were away for spring break.  I’m not sure where the students will live once school resumes.  Thankfully there were no fatalities.  Although, we keep hearing of one fatality through social media but not through official sources.

I had a small altercation with another vehicle this afternoon as I’m trying to enter the interstate.  As you can see by the sign I was clearly in the right.  If I hadn’t slowed down we would have sideswiped each other.  I’m not sure who’s fault it would have been but at times I wished I had a machine gun attached to my bumper.

365 Day Photo Challenge 115/365 “Four Years Ago”

27 Monday Apr 2015

Posted by Tim Hughes Living with CML in Photography

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

2011 Tornado, 365 Photo Challenge, Alabama, Band, Damage, High School, Photo, Photography, Pleasant Grove, tornado

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Our little community was hit by an EF-4 tornado and as you can see it destroyed much our our great city.  Thirteen people died on this date four years ago.  A total of 64 tornados were recorded that day with 250 recorded deaths for the state of Alabama.

My son and I woke up to the news that morning of a tornado that hit Pell City, a city east of us.  It did a lot of damage including my sister in law’s house.  My son and I was getting ready to leave out on a trip with the high school band heading to Orlando, Florida leaving behind my wife and two young twin daughters.  Little did I know that I would later on fear that they had perished in the storm that would hit around 4 pm later that evening.

We were on a bus near Tallahassee Florida when we started getting messages that a EF-5 tornado had hit Tuscaloosa and was heading toward Pleasant Grove, my hometown.  We all watched in fear as we saw the tornado inch closer and closer to our city.  I had called my wife and told her to take cover because it was on it’s way.  The radar program I had installed on my computer showed the path leading dead center of Pleasant Grove.  I hung up the phone not knowing if I would ever see my wife and girls again.

I watched in horror as the storm reports started coming in on the tv on the bus.  Reports also started coming in from loved ones on the bus.  Friends, neighbors and loved ones had died and their homes destroyed.  Reports of fires and heavy damage all over our city were flowing freely throughout the bus but I could not get through to my wife.  I tried her cell phone, the house phone and I even called the neighbors phone.  It wouldn’t even ring.  All circuits were busy.  I couldn’t text my wife because she didn’t want to spend the money on text messaging.  I cursed her for that.  After about 15 minutes of not knowing I started getting that sinking feeling that I had indeed spoke to my wife and kids for the last time and I would not see them alive again.  People all over the bus were crying because of the news of their loved ones either being hurt or loss of life.  The lady behind me knew I was concerned and started trying to calm me down.  I went to my son who had also been trying to contact his mother and I could tell he had been crying too.  We held each other in our arms for a few minutes.  Other people started trying to call our numbers but were having the same luck.  Finally, after what seemed a lifetime, I finally was able to get the phone to ring.  I can’t remember just how many times the phone rung but I remember thinking to myself that even if the phone rang it didn’t mean that she was still alive.  I also remember hearing the most beautiful sound that I could ever hear at that time, the sound of my wife answer the phone.

The tornado had missed the house by about five hundred yards.  She had went outside and looked around and saw no damage, just a few limbs down and a lot of insulation all over the yard.  She wouldn’t know until the next day just how close we were to losing everything we had.  At that time she didn’t know just how close the tornado came and just how much damage was done to our city. We were truly blessed.

The buses were instructed to stop at the next rest area and the parents and band leaders met to decide what we needed to do.  Several of the parents wanted to go home and check on their homes.  The decision was made to continue on to Orlando and let those parents that wanted to, make arrangement to rent a car and let them go on home.  All the kids were made to stay on the bus and head to Orlando.  We had some opposition from the kids but the kids needed to stay out of the way of the cleanup.  Later on I think the kids realized that we just wanted what was best for them.  It all worked out for the best.

This happened on a Wednesday and we stayed in Orlando until the following Sunday.  The ride home was a somber one.  The realization had set in and we were about to find out first hand what type of damage was done to our families.

Our city is still trying to rebuild from the 2011 tornado.  Many people packed up and left never to return.  The band went from nearly 200 students to 80 in less than a year. The same effects were felt in the high school.  We’re slowly getting back to where we were but it’s going to take some time.

“Life Goes On!”

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