There’s always a first for anything. Right?

In the 38 years I’ve been alive, I have never found myself in a situation in which I had to call 911.

Today, was my first.

Like every afternoon, I was on my way to pick up Marley from school. Except that today, I had left work early and had extra time, and I needed gas. My plan was going my normal route, go down the usual road where there is a Maverick’s gas station. I do not know why, but I have always been skeptic about that particular gas station. I mean, gas is gas, right? And to be perfectly honest, given that I had almost an empty tank, this was the best option, and yet, I decided against it. I said to myself, “I’ve got plenty of time, let’s take this other road and drive to this other gas station by the house, then pick Marley up”.

Well, as I was driving, there was one car in front of me, and in front of that car, a school bus. It is around 3 o’clock, so no surprise. As most school busses at this hour, the bus makes a stop, to drop some kids off. At the same time the bus is stopping, two kids, a boy and a girl, are waiting to cross the street. The bus stops, and there was when the kids thought it would be safe to cross, from behind the bus.

The thing is, there was a car coming from the opposite direction. And there I saw it, the bus’s lights start flashing yellow, and the car speeds up just enough to make it pass the bus before the bus’s lights turn red, when the kids take off running.

The lady in front of me honks, trying to alert both the oncoming car and the kids. The car notices the kids and tries to avoid them by pulling to the right, but it was too late. The kids did not get ram by the car, but they did hit the driver’s door pretty hard. Hard enough to knock the side mirror off the car.

As this is happening, I park to the side of the road, the lady comes out of her car yelling, “please call 911”. As I am calling, the lady grabs the girl from the street, opens my back door and gets the girl inside. The boy sits on the ground on in front of my car. My voice is shacking as I’m trying to describe what was happening and our location, even my English fails a bit. I am going back and forth asking for the kids names and ages, trying to give as much information to the dispatcher. All I remember, they were about 13 years old. Next thing I know, paramedics and cops are in the scene.

Kids are shaken up, as expected, the girl didn’t have any visually serious injuries but her right leg, will bruise and be sore. The kid had a scratch on his knee and he was compliant, his right foot was hurting.

I remember it was 3:30 PM when I had a chance to call my in-law, to please pick Marley up by 3:50 because I didn’t know how long was I going to be involved in this, to which he obliged.

3:40pm and all was over, even the lady who was on in front of me was gone after filling up the statement of what had happened. And the kids went off with their parents, paramedics and all. I called my in-law, told him to turn around as he was just leaving the house. I went to the gas station, filled up the car, and made it to pick up Marley by 3:50pm.

The End

Not sure anyone noticed, but I had quit Twitter for a week, well, more like five days. It was a rage-quit, I read something or something was going on in my timeline that made me go, stop the lap dance, I want to go home!

I don't even remember what that was. The thing about Twitter is, okay, we have all done this dance. We love/enjoy twitter, then we get overwhelmed, sad, and or mad. We take breaks, we hate on it, and we write about it. Others, successfully, have quit it, entirely, not ever looking back. Well, personally, there is a lot that I like about Twitter, I do follow some cool people and accounts, or so I think. Then there is the rest of the stuff that I don't like, and it's the echo chamber part of it. This is when some things become too overwhelming, and irritating. Hates spreads faster, as they say, and Twitter in some way is a big part of it.

So yes, I quit, deleted the account. Five days later, I reactivated it. Perhaps all I needed was just a small break. One thing I did though, was to go on an unfollow rampage. I have unfollowed any account that I felt might contribute to my twitter anxiety. Accounts that retweet or post things I rather not see or partake. In other words, I was reshaping my bubble. I have gone from over 3oo accounts followed, down to 164, or something like that, and I think I could probably go even lower than that.

I guess like many other social venues, they are what you make of them, except for Facebook. And even from the best ones, it is probably wise to take breaks.

Today we will have rain all day, and carrot knows it.

It is a nice, quiet and relaxing Sunday in the Santiago-Ortiz household. There’s not much to do except for perhaps folding some of the girls' clothes.

The girls are dressed as the princess they are, and playing games.

The plan is to just do nothing, and make some taco soup thing later this afternoon for supper.

The beer of choice, Voodoo Ranger Future Hop IPA by New Belgium Brewing Company. In my not humble opinion, rainy days call for a stout or a ‘good’ porter, but the beer selection at my local Albertsons' it’s somewhat crappy. So, a delicious IPA it is.

If only tomorrow wasn’t Monday.