Whirlwind of a Week! (LONG)

The Stolle bunch (okay... there are just two of us here!) has had a week that just flew by - not necessarily in a good way.

Let me start from the beginning...
Last Friday, November 7th Jared had the day off and wanted to take his bike out on such a beautiful (and it was) day. He didn't make it very far from our house (about 5 miles) when the unthinkable happened. Jared was hit by another car - he was in the far left lane of a 3 lane each direction road. The woman was turning left on a solid green light (across green light traffic Jared was moving in) and said she didn't see Jared or his bike. She turned into him as he was traveling through the intersection (he was already past the stop bar). Jared's bike stopped exactly where it was hit, however Jared kept moving forward. He flew over the van (we guess), came down on the asphalt, hit his head, proceeded to flip over, and eventually stopped in the far right lane - about 50 feet from where he was hit. THANKFULLY he was wearing his full face helmet and all the riding gear that the Navy requires. Florida law is not as strict and NO helmets are required for any riders. Also thankfully, everyone in traffic stopped and no one hit him with their cars. There was a nurse a few cars behind him that ran to him and there was a firetruck on their way to another call that stopped to assist as well. Jared has some pretty bad road rash to his left side and has a very bad bruise on his leg. He has gotten over the neck pain and total body soreness and it recovering nicely. His bike however, was a total loss. The forks were bent and replacing just those cost more than the value of the bike. After the poor Honda Shadow was dragged (or is that drug?) to the side of road and Jared was checked out and standing, I was called to come get him. Seeing the bike with it's front tire in the radiator made me a sad girl - Jared loved that bike, it was his first, and he had just finished making it his own. Within a few hours of the accident, the bike was no longer ours... it was written over to the salvage yard and we were left with a measily check. That dumb woman (angry stage still!) had a few scratches on her undercarriage and my husband had a lot of scratches on his BODY! He could have been killed from impact if he hadn't been wearing a helmet - all she got was a citation for failure to yield. We lost our bike, she got a ticket. Jared went to the flight doc on Monday and was put Med down for 5 days, he returned to the doctor yesterday and was cleared to fly again.

Last weekend I spent time taking care of Jared and making sure he was all right. I also had committed to two other things: making a birthday cake for a friend's husband from Navy Relief and shopping with some ladies from Navy Relief as well. So I went shopping on Sunday and was getting ready to drive home when my car wouldn't start. STUPID CAR!!! I am not the nicest person when my car breaks, so of course I blamed Jared because he was at fault somehow... I just knew it! :) My car was jumped and I drove home on instructions from my jumper - go straight there. I also hadn't made the cake yet and still needed to do that... I was running out of time. Jared fixed my car (dead battery) and I completed my cake, so everything was straightening itselft out... except the bike, but we had accepted it was totaled. The salvage yard came Monday to get the bike and Jared and I were in mourning for the rest of the day - until we went to look at other bikes. Yep, you read correctly... we were getting a new bike, but we didn't know which one quite yet. Wednesday I worked and got out late. I rushed home (because we had a date) and as I opened the garage door there was a new bike sitting in Honda Shadow's place. As they say, if you fall off a horse, you have to get back on and ride... in our case substitute bike for horse. We got a 2005 Yamaha VStar 650. As far as our date, we were going to see the Trans Siberian Orchestra to get us into the "winter is coming, Christmas is near" mindset. It was fantastic! Carol of the Bells made the concert well worth it. We loved it. The rest of the week was pretty uneventful, I volunteered and Jared modified his new bike to make it exactly how he likes it. He spent all day yesterday (Friday) rewiring brake lights to make the blinkers also break lights and to make everything brighter. He is talented! Today, I am going to be making another cake- a spiderman cake for another lady from Navy Relief. I will post pictures once I am through with it. A Jags game is on the schedule for tomorrow with Navy Relief and then another whirlwind week up ahead!