This is about all the things that I can remember that ever happened to me...

Here is one of the stories that got me going on doing this Blog. I was telling it to my wife in the car on the way to the beach with the boys.

1999 - sometime in early summer.

I was on my way to an interview for a job at a local university as a teacher for computer science. I was driving along #7 highway between Silverdale and Mission. I was all dressed up in an uncomfortable suit to look the part(teach), when I saw a full-sized fan in the oncoming lane make a b-line right for me! It seemed like slow motion, and the van didnt' swerve, so I pulled off the road and rode along the big ditch on the right hand side(full of water and farm runoff), just about running off the road. I avoided a head on collision with the van as I watched it skip off into the ditch behind me and roll over on its side - under the water! I popped it in reverse, got out, tumbled down the ditch and stood on the back left wheel to stop it from rolling any further. Some bikers came along and threw me down some rope and I tied it around the axle under the right wheel and they held it tight.

Another passer-by jumped up on the passenger side door to get a look inside. He quickly described what he saw:

"holy shit you won't believe this, there's a little kid sitting on top of a pile of paving stones in here". He then started trying to convince the little guy(totally in shock) to pop the knob on the door.

The little kid was definitely in shock and wouldn't open the door. Then we all looked at each other. WHERE IS THE DRIVER? We all yelled "break the window, break the window, we have to get the driver! " I guess the kid heard us and snapped to. He jumped up and popped the knob. We pulled him out and then one of us jumped in and started moving paving stones(3'x3' slabs).

We found the driver with his head underwater underneath the paving stones. We carefully moved the paving stones and got his head above water. He was breathing and the ambulance came shortly after. They were both OK, except I think some bruised ribs.

So I carried on to my interview with my suit covered in mud; I slopped down the hallway and all I could do was talk about the rescue, my hands waving excitedly, mud up to one knee, soaking wet feet, and my tie all undone. Who the hell cares anyways - it kind of puts things into perspective.

It turns out what happened is that Lumberland kindly helped this gentlemen load a generous accumulation of paving stones(above the level of the seats) into his van, and when he tried to slow down from tailgating the guy in front of him, the stones fell over onto him pressing his face up against the dash between the steering wheel and the driver side window. At this point he had no control over steering so he made a b-line for the ditch and crashed.

The miracle was that the little boy(must've been protected by angels, because they knew he had a ignorant father) was shocked, but not a bruise on the little guy! He was just sitting on the pile of paving stones.