ciroccoj | not in Kingston

Decided not to go to Kingston today. We'll just drive up tomorrow for Turtle's birthday, then come home. And I'm OK with that, even though it was my idea to go there for the whole weekend, because the reason I'd thought it might be nice to go had to do with seeing Chris' family, not mine, and he was the one who didn't want to go. "So... hon, are you saying you don't want us to have to pack and pay for a hotel and go through a lot of trouble to be with your family? ::pause:: Whee!"

Which is kinda too bad, because I like them and I was also hoping to see other Kingston friends (hi, Al!) but I had to admit Chris was probably right in his prediction of what would happen if we went. We would screw up, somehow, and be blamed for all sorts of insensitive non-loving behaviour by the very people we love and would like to see, no matter what we did. If we called way ahead of time we'd be putting them under pressure to reschedule their lives around us, and if we called at the last minute it would be proof that we don't love them enough to give them time to reschedule, and if we stayed for an hour it would show we didn't love them or we'd have made more time, and if we stayed for four hours it would mean we didn't love them because we callously plopped ourselves and our loud, unruly children in their homes, and... and really, right now, neither of us can deal with that kind of thing.

So. No long Kingston trip this weekend. Just in and out and back.

Instead, today we went to a sugarbush. Rode in a horse-drawn cart, saw the sap lines, watched the boiling vats, had a pancake lunch which included maple cheesecake and maple tea (MMMMMMmmmm!!!), then got a maple taffy and went home.

And on the way home, we came across an accident. One smoking car in a ditch, totalled and semi-submerged in water, and one jammed into a another ditch. The couple in the second car seemed shaken but fine, but the elderly couple in the other car were pretty badly hurt. They both had blood running down their faces and seemed very confused. About 5-6 cars were at the scene; two guys had pulled the couple out of the water, and one of them got busy piling blankets on the husband and checking his injuries, and Chris went to the wife and started reassuring her and checking her out. A woman came over and started to help, and Chris soon realized she was a nurse. I called 911. After a long, long time, a cop car pulled up, then an ambulance, then another ambulance, more cop cars, firetrucks, another ambulance, and finally a medical chopper (we were out past Pakenham - about 45 min away from the city).

Eventually the emergency people took over, got info from Chris and the nurse and the actual witnesses to the accident, and began packing up the couple to take them to the hospital. The lady Chris had been with stopped breathing - I think that's when the paramedic called the air ambulance. Chris said he and the nurse had been checking her and had suspected she might have a collapsed lung, but weren't sure. And she didn't seem to be suffering from any kind of major brain damage, though she was a little confused. I guess she was more hurt than they'd realized.

It's always a little weird for me whenever I watch Chris doing his medical thing. He's very efficient and competent, and it makes me proud to see him doing what he always wanted to do. I mean, all I did in the accident scene was reassure the kids that we'd be on our way soon, call 911, and help cover up the elderly couple. Oh and I kept putting a blanket on the guy who was helping the husband, because he'd taken off his shirt and wadded it up under the guy's head, and he was shirtless on a rather cold day. But Chris actually did something. Actually helped that woman, which is what doctors are supposed to be able to do.

I so desperately wish that, from the inside, medicine had more to do with healing than with destroying the lives of those who practice it and their families. Because when you think about it, it's an awesome job - or it should be, anyway. Too bad it seems to be inextricably linked to so much bull****.

And now here I am, Chris and Justin have been sleeping for a while, I've been catching up on my Legislation readings, and soon I'm going to wake them up so we can all go to Toys R Us to buy Turtle's present. We have to keep them moving and out of the house today, because they're behaving like little monsters. Days like this, staying at home is a Bad Thing. Most conducive to wistful fantasies of running into a Gypsy band or traveling circus we could palm them off on.