Hit By a Car

My boyfriend keeps a scanner in our bedroom. This morning he heard a boy on a bike got hit by a car near the CNR Center in the old downtown area of our town. This was right after my 14-year-old son left to go visit a friend. On his bike. So naturally I jumped into my car and drove down there to see if it was my son. It wasn't.

The victim was a much younger boy who by the way lived through the experience just fine so don't start crying. I talked to the poor woman who was driving the car. She was still shaking and terribly upset. She said it happened up on Indian Creek Road. Two boys came down one of the dirt roads out of the hills as fast as they could on their bikes and without looking or stopping rode right in front of her. She hit the smaller boy, then he asked her to drive him to his grandparents' house which was downtown near the CNR Center.

It reminded me of the time my brother got hit by a car when he was seven and spent a month in a body cast in the hospital. As I recalled there was not much liability since my brother was riding erratically and wasn't looking where he was going.

I guess it is time to review bicycle safety with the kids. My son rides as fast as he possibly can around this town. He's very fast. I will corner him and discuss safety with him.. probably tonight during our homeschool session.

This semester I'm reading a bicycle touring manual with him so this will give us plenty of time to talk about the hazards of the road.

Wrecked Cars, Weeds, and Web Maintenance

Saturday - my son took me on a tour of the town to see old classic trucks he's scoped out, and one wrecked classic car... we recorded this with photos in our homeschooling weblog.

I'm trying to get some weeds out of the garden. I thought I'd have a nicely landscaped yard this year but the guy who was doing yard work for us got into a silly argument with our son, then our neighbor accused the guy of stealing food. Anyhow, he's disappeared from our section of town and my half-started yard needs help. I'm trying to spend time out there every day to "make progress" and I'm encouraging my boyfriend and son to do the same. They are helping. My son weeded around our front stepping stones this morning. Any little bit helps. So far we've planted sage, periwinkle, iris and rosemary in the front yard. The kids planted the vegetable garden and though there's some seedlings showing, I have no idea what they are.

I got a lot of work done on a web maintenance job tonight and am feeling good about it right now. My to-do list has gotten so long, its scary... and there's several high-priority items I need to get on right away. Guess I'd better get busy.