Radical Eclecticity

The Car after the Accident 1

Originally uploaded by mattlavery
It’s been just shy of five months since the accident, and just this past Thursday, I started teaching again. For the few of you that may find this site and not know what happened, let me fill you in

I spent the first half of Saturday November 4th, 2006, at school working with the Junior ROTC. I led them in PT, did some marching practice with them, and practiced some Drill & Ceremony. After it was all over, I rearranged my classroom. I decided to set up a completely different seating arrangement for my students, but I didn’t make up seating charts yet, since I planned to do that on Sunday.

Then I went to meet several of my fellow teachers at EPCOT for the Food and Wine Festival. I am glad I got to do this. I’ve wanted to go to this festival since I lived down here last time, I just never got around to it. The food was outstanding, the wines were downright tasty, and my colleagues were as fun to hang out with as ever.

Lest anyone think the wine was a factor, though, please keep in mind that I had the equivalent of, at most, four glasses of wine over the course of six hours. There was a good hour and a half or so, too, between my last taste of wine and driving. I remember the events of that day up to the point that I drove out of the back parking lot at EPCOT. My very next memory is six weeks after that, but I can tell you what I’ve been told.

After dropping my friend off, I started to head home. Having been out since about 7:00 or so that morning, and driving all over central Florida all day, I made it to within two miles of home. According to the police report, I was driving within the speed limit in my lane just after midnight when a pickup coming the opposite direction crossed a double yellow line to pass the motorist in front of him. He hit me head-on, turning my Honda Fit into a squishy little pile of scrap metal. Shame too, because I really liked that car. Well, that, and the fact that I was inside it when it got scrapped.

As you can see, the damage was quite extensive. They tell me, of course, that the other vehicle was totally at fault, but I don’t remember any of it, so I can’t be sure. Was I momentarily distracted? Could I have avoided the accident if I had done something differently? I couldn’t tell you for sure. In the end, though, does it really matter? All of that is a discussion for another time, however.

The bottom line is, I have reached the other end of the long road of recovery. I am back, doing what I love. When I saw those pictures, I realized what a miracle it was just to be alive. Suffice it to say that I am extremely thankful to be back at work. Now that I am no longer going through surgery all the time and on life support, my parents are no longer sending out a detailed update every few days. In order to keep those people updated who want to know, I figured I would put this blog up. I will express my thanks and my other thoughts in later entries, since it is time for me to get some sleep now, but let this entry serve as an introduction.