Thursday, June 17, 2010

The return of the 'slave. I hope.

Hi Folks,

About 2 months ago, or soon before my last post or two, I was in a car wreck. It was pretty dramatic--I was stopped at the end of a line of cars, minding my own business, thinking the lofty thoughts you have come to expect from me, when a young woman decided that the time was perfect to both drive fast and not pay attention. It's a bad combo, if you think about it. She plowed into me doing about 40. The impact launched my poor, trusty, elderly Subaru into the car in front of me. That car, in turn, passed along the love to the car in front of it. Four cars were destroyed, and the driver in front of me and I got play a game called Who is Going to Get to the Hospital First in Their Ambulance? She got sirens and I didn't, so I silvered in that event. I did, however, get to see the inside of an ambulance (kind of a let down, if you must know) and I had the opportunity to ask the chatty EMT a few questions about the nature of his work. All things considered, though, I was pretty lucky. The Venerable Subaru was completely destroyed, whereas I walked away* with only broken glasses, a few cuts and burns from the airbag, and a concussion.**

Recovery has been disappointingly slow. The head trauma has affected my vision, which has made reading difficult. Even in this post-literate world, that has been a bit of a problem. I also had actual memory loss (very freaky), so even the Dewey Decimal System, that anchor and lamp, deserted me for a time. I actually had to use the catalog to find where the sewing books were, squinting pathetically at the screen the whole time. As you might imagine, this has made very little seem particularly funny or slaveworthy of late. I must be getting better though: just today, after a particularly galling interaction, I found myself thinking that I might be able to convert the misery a patron inflicted on me into something amusing for the blog. We'll see. So thanks for continuing to check in and hopefully there will be more here soon.



* OK, I didn't exactly walk away, but that sounds a whole lot better than "I stumbled dumbly into oncoming traffic."

** Note to you extreme sports enthusiasts: Even if you are rough and tough like Your Humble Deskslave, under no circumstances should you pick a fight with an airbag. They are mean. And speedy. They come at you so fast, even the lightning-fast, Ninja reflexes of a reference librarian are not quick enough to avoid or deflect their powerful attack. Final score: Airbag 1, Deskslave a big old goose egg.

6 comments:

Brenda K said...

What an awful experience. Best wishes for continued recovery. I've missed your witty humor.

beth said...

oh the drama!!!!!! I've missed you as well, and hope you continue to recover quickly.

shushie said...

I had hoped perhaps you had won that elusive lottery and left the library business to the rest of us suckers ;) So sorry to hear of the real reason, but here's to your recovery and more humorous stories. Get well, get well soon, we want you to get well!

Akashic Librarian said...

Hope you have a speedy recovery. Your hilarious posts help me make it through my deskslave shift.

Diane said...

Welcome back! Just found your blog and I've enlivened my deskslave evening by reading back through many pages of your posts. Thanks for highlighting in your own inimitable way the minutiae of all our days.

reference goddess said...

I've missed your comments. They are so universal and true!