Accident

Is anyone out there following my career? If so, you may have noticed I've gone kind of underground. If you're not in the know, last month, my girlfriend Kim and I were in a car crash. We were driving on I-10, headed towards Houston, the first stop of my solo tour. We were going to spend a few days hanging out together in Austin, visiting old friends and having tacos at Torchy's twice a day. She was going to fly back to Nashville, I was going to head out west for more touring. But it wasn't meant to be. The road was wet, and I spun out in the left lane. We flew across the right lane while spinning 180 degrees, and crashed head on (rear on, I should say) into a tree. Ow. It all happened in about 4 seconds, thought I'd say by the time we hit the tree, the wet grass had probably sped us up to about 85 mph. That type of impact is something I hope you never experience. Those 4 or 5 seconds too, where you realize your life is suddenly purely in the hands of fate, are also something no-one should go through. Needless to say, we are lucky to be alive, with only a severely bruised midsection on Kim's part, and a slightly messed up right hand on mine. Unbelievable, really. The cop on scene told me that hydroplanes happen all the time in that stretch, and a friend of his was killed spinning out in that same area. Have you ever seen the roads in Louisiana? Not to blame the road necessarily, but I'm not surprised by this at all.

My shows were either canceled, or in some cases rescheduled for next month. Among the many fortunate upsides stemming from this otherwise completely UNfortunate incident, is the fact that Kim's mom lives only about an hour and a half from where this happened (I-10, just went of New Orleans). Kim was hospitalized overnight, I of course stayed with her, and the next day, her mom and stepfather took us back to their place, where we rested for two days. Then they performed the very charitable act of taking us back to Nashville. Thanks, Diane and Ernie! Oh, I forgot to mention: our minivan (purchased specifically for touring once my Natalie Stovall days ended) was totaled. I signed it over to the junkyard. That's a weird feeling. I was still in the process of registering it in Tennessee (it had been registered in Texas, where I bought it in January), so hadn't yet insured it with a new TN based insurance company, and hadn't bothered to upgrade beyond basic liability the coverage with what was soon to be my old insurance company. So...no replacement coverage. Goodbye minivan, goodbye second vehicle that allowed Kim to get to work and around town when I'm away. Give us 6 - 12 months, maybe we'll be able to afford something again. Really though, I can't tell you all the things I've learned from this accident. Maybe that's a good thing. Kim and I are still here, and as always, it just means more digging, more prioritizing, and hopefully, onward and upward. We have much to be thankful for...even if it originates from something to be kinda pissed about.

This is the more friendly of two photos I took at the scene. The other one shows more graphically how the back of the car wraps around the tree. That photo kind of scares me, and I don't really want to put it up.

This is maybe my favorite picture - holding hands in our matching hospital bracelets.



2 weeks later, we got our his and hers matching hospital bills in the mail. Not as romantic a moment.

After all of this, though, I have to say the most puzzling aspect is how little things have changed at all. I mean, for a week or so I had this notion that I was going to do things differently, slow down, not let the little things in life bother me, etc. etc. But soon I became just as frenetic, scatterbrained, and disorganized as always. The only thing different is, well, I'm more cautious than ever when driving now, and I seem to have developed this numbness inducing fear of rain and wetness when on the road (go figure). Other than that, though...nothing different. Damn. I guess drastic change is really a byproduct of how serious the incident of inducement is, and luckily, it really wasn't as serious as it easily could have been. One thing that got to me, though, was when I got the police report in the mail the other day, and saw that the cop filled in my condition (as the driver of the vehicle) as "inattentive". Really? One of the most emotional moments of my life, my poor girlfriend is moaning on her back, as they're trying to somehow dig her out of the car...I'm as fixated on my love for her, and what I should do, as I ever have been...and somehow I still come off to the world as "inattentive". Do you ever advance past 3rd grade? I mean, I'd just slammed into a tree and almost killed us, but still...

Anyway, I'm choosing to end this with something happy and lighthearted, so here is something emblematic of a much happier, simpler time...in all our lives (cue soothing music). I give you scenes from the greatest sitcom of all time - Welcome Back, Kotter!

My dear late Aunt Marie introduced me to this great show when I was 4. You can thank her.