Lucky to be alive!

So last weekend was Palmer's Homecoming. Heard it was great. Dr. John Dimartini (from "The Secret") who is a chiropractor who has written tons of self-improvement books, gives seminars, and is booked for years out, agreed to speak at Palmer. http://www.drdemartini.com/ Awesome! Wish I could have been there for that, and all the other things happening at the world's greatest chiropractic college.



I had booked a trip to Atlanta to meet with my practice management consultant, Dr. Peter Fernandez http://www.drfernandez.com/ who was hosting a 3 day seminar on how to successfully integrate personal injury claims into a practice, how to market this service, working with personal injury attorneys, the insurance companies, and doing it all ethically with a focus on the patient's needs. Great seminar (what I got to attend anyway)



It was supposed to be Kristi and I both going, bringing our son Dartagnan, who's 14, and leaving our daughter Delaney, who's 2, with Kristi's parents. Unfortunately, Delaney got sick with a fever, and we couldn't leave her with Gramma and Grampa because they both work, and Delaney can't go to daycare with a fever. Kristi elected to stay home with her, as she has more to study for anyway, and was not sure she had the time to devote to a weekend seminar. (Turns out she devoted a weekend to a sick toddler, Delaney had that fever for 6 days!)



So it was just Dartagnan and I going. We left Wednesday night last week, at midnight, after I took a short nap. I wanted to hit Chattanooga by lunchtime, as I wanted to spend the afternoon there with D (we call Dartagnan D for short) We were going to Ruby Falls http://www.rubyfalls.com/ and maybe rock city http://www.seerockcity.com/ because D is a nut for caves and cliffs. We made it to Ruby Falls at 1pm, and we weren't hungry for lunch yet so we decided to go straight to the tour. It was Awesome! There's a 130ft waterfall thats 1200 ft under the mountain. It was breathtaking. The rock formations were so cool too. I would highly recommend it. It was an hour and a half tour, and by the time we were done we were starving, so we decided to head down the mountain (lookout Mountain) into Chattanooga for a late lunch.



When you're up on top of Lookout Mountain, it's easy to get lost, as it's a residential area (very expensive homes, multi-million $ view) The roads wind and switch back to follow the cliff sides, literally hanging on the side of the mountain, or weave through the forest, which is definitely intact. A few wrong turns later I realize, to my horror, that I have no brakes! I frantically go to pull the e-brake, only to find it was already pulled! Evidently I used it at Ruby Falls and forgot to disengage it! In my defense I never use my e-brake, and only did this time because of the very steep decline I was parked on, with a drop-off in front of my car. When we got out of the car D threw his blanket over the brake handle between the seats, and when we left Ruby Falls I didn't see it, and the brakes didn't drag or grind or anything when we left. The car drove normal. I guess they were contacting enough though to heat up the brakes to the point that the fluid boiled, at which point you have no brake pressure at all.



So anyway we're going faster and faster, as every turn I make in hopes of finding an uphill road, I find more downhill roads! Drop-offs are whizzing past me to the right, and big trees are growing right up to the road on the left, where there isn't a rock wall, that is. Finally I make a turn away from the cliff side into a residential street, but it's going very steeply downhill. Now I'm moving at about 30 mph, which doesnt sound fast but believe me it's fast when you have no brakes on top of a mountain! There's trees hugging the road on both sides. Up ahead I see a break in the trees on the right. There's a driveway, with a mailbox and huge tree on the far side of it. Looks like about 6 feet between them, with an ivy covered ditch and burm. Looks like enough room to squeeze the Civic in. If the ditch and burm don't stop us the telephone pole 8 feet in will definitely stop us! So that's what I did. The car just fit, I didn't hit the mailbox, the tree, or the telephone pole, and I was a few inches from each! The back wheels were up off the driveway, and the front was down in the ditch. The car was stopped , and we weren't hurt. Lucky. Guardian Angel. Probably both!



3pm. Standing on the side of the road, trying to get AAA to help us. Worthless! Transferred 4 times! Had to start from the beginning each time. Didn't help that I didn't know wether I was in Tennessee or Georgia. (Lookout Mountain is in both) We're starving, I'm seriously sleep deprived at this point. Hotel is booked and payed for in Atlanta, seminar starts next morning at 8. Things aren't going well, but at least we're alive. Cop shows up. He's helpfull. D went to get the registration out of the glovebox for me and his very real looking toy handgun is sitting right there on top. Nice. Cop doesn't notice, or doesn't care (This is Tennessee) He gets a tow truck for me in a half hour (best AAA could do was two hours)



The tow driver was so nice, but he could have called me an idiot and I would have just smiled and nodded as I couldn't understand a word he said. Thick mountain accent. By the time he had my car out of the ditch it was after 5, and the shops were all closed. So he took the car back to his house on the mountain, but back south into Georgia 20 miles. The cop took us back to the Police station/Fire station/Town Hall.

From there I tried to get a rental car company to come up onto the mountain and pick us up. Bad news, Hertz couldn't spare a driver after 4pm, only one person working. No one else had a car available. So I booked the car with Hertz and next tryed to line up a taxi to come up and get us, and bring us to the airport where Hertz is. All this took over an hour. The taxi took 45 minutes to get to us. The cab ride was almost 30 minutes, and cost me over $40. We get to the airport at 6:30. We haven't eaten since 7:30am. Starving delerious. Dead tired. D is sick with a fever now. Kristi meanwhile is lining up a hotel for us. We have to go all the way back up to the tow driver's house, 40 miles away and back up on the mountain, in order to get our bags to stay the night. When we get there he lets us know the brakes are working (they cooled off) I still wanted a mechanic to check it over as we had 1000 miles left to drive on our trip. So we figured out a shop to meet at in the morning.

Zombie-tired and starving, we made the trek back to town to finally get some dinner. We ate at 8:30 at a nice brewery restaraunt downtown chattanooga, Big River Grille and Brewery www.bigrivergrille.com It felt so good to finally eat, and when I told the waiter our story he brought me a beer on the house.

Kristi booked us at the Chattanoogan Hotel, which was a very classy place www.chattanooganhotel.com . Not that it mattered much as we just slept, but the beds were awesome. D got to sleep in while I went to the service center in the rental Toyota Prius. At first it felt like a tincan, but it grew on me. The car was fine other than some air in the brake lines and some glazing on the rotors, and they promised it would be done within an hour. So I went down the street to a coffee shop where they roast their own beans and had a great americano. www.chattanoogacoffeecompany.com So good I bought a bag to take home. (Drinking some right now) I'm at least a 3rd generation coffee snob. When I was still too young for kindergarden my mom brought me to her parents' house, right next door, for morning coffee nearly every day. I was drinking coffee by the age of 4 (probably mostly milk and sugar) I drink it black now, unless it's lousy, then I'll put cream in it to mask the flavor. I'll drink the worst coffee, as it's better than nothing, but given a choice I love the good stuff!

So got the car back and off to get D up and get on the road. He's feeling lousy. I decide not to drive to Atlanta right away and just take it easy. We lay around the hotel til checkout at noon. We then go have lunch at this great place that Kristi and went to last time through called 212 Market www.212market.com D had his usual, a filet minion, jeez that kid's expensive. Didn't touch his veggies either. A little sightseeing (by car) and it was time to hit the road. We made Atlanta at around 4, sat in rush hour for an hour. That evening we just layed around the hotel room and watched tv. We don't have tv at home so it's a treat when travelling! Went to Cheesecake Factory for dinner but neither of us enjoy it as he's sick and I'm feeling rocky too, in hindsight I now realize it's probably whiplash from the accident.

Next day at seminar was great, although I had a hard time concentrating. D was feeling better and wanted to go to the mall nextdoor, Atlanta's Perimeter Mall. It was huge and overwhelming to him so I decided to stay and walk around with him a bit. We were there about 2 hours and called it quits, as everything there was so expensive. I gave him $75 to spend how he wanted and he didn't want to buy anything. His mom instilled some thriftiness in him after all!

We then went to McDonald's and to go see The Expendables. Great movie! Plenty of gratuitous violence, hardly any of it plausable. Thin plot. Just what I needed! I felt like a super hero by the time we left. Then I realized that everyone in the movie (except for Jason Statham) is a lot older than me and in a lot better shape than me. Oh well. (I meant that Jason Statham is not older than me. He is, however, in a lot better shape...) My self image still includes chiselled abs and big guns, even though they disappeared long ago. I believe a healthy self image is important, however dillusional it may be... I keep telling myself it will be easier to get and stay in shape when I'm done with Palmer. I'll be pushing 40, who am I kidding!

The next day, last day of seminar, I decide because I'm still not feeling great that we'd better hit the road instead. We left at 10am and got home right before midnight. Long day on the road!

Monday was D's first day of highschool. That went well. Going to class was hard for me, and I'm still feeling rocky. My doctor in the student clinic is home sick so I've not yet been in to get checked after the trip and accident, and meanwhile I've been hanging drywall in D's bedroom for the last 3 days. I'm a glutton for punishment.

Test tomorrow in Cervicals class, and I'm nervous about it. So many listings to keep straight.
X-ray analysis is starting to click for me though. I'll let you know how that goes. I better log off now and start studying, as tonight is open house at D's highschool. Fun times.