Buns of Steel

Can you believe I pushed in an SUV's headlight with my butt? I mean, the SUV did most of the work, but my butt fought back and did some damage.

I was walking home from a pub on King Street, where I'd met some friends for drinks (in my case, that entailed half a glass of wine). I had stopped at CVS on the way over to get smoke alarm batteries, so I didn't stay out long, knowing I'd need to be coherent to change said batteries. I was walking down Washington Street--crossing with the approval of a solid walk sign--when a driver coming from the other direction turned right, without stopping or looking, just as I was in the middle of the street. She did see the man who was crossing the street at the same time, in the other direction, so she missed him. She got me, though, right in the butt--which, if you're going to get hit by an SUV, is a good place to put forward (I did not do so consciously, since I didn't see the car until a few seconds before it knocked me over). I got up and out of the street and just sat on the sidewalk, sleepy and nauseated. I think I took a cat nap, after the EMTs had arrived (this is Alexandria, so it took less than a minute for the emergency response to gather). The EMTs strongly suggested I go to the trauma center, since I flew a few feet and at some point hit my head. I called a friend, left a message, of which a part was 'funny story: I just got hit by a car.' When he asked if he should come to the hospital, I declined, but I was really glad when he showed up there later, as I was shivering and staring at the ceiling in the ER after my CTscans and X-rays, which, thankfully all came out negative for serious injury. They prescribed some pain meds, warned me it would be worse tomorrow, and sent me on my way (via the very inefficient check-out line).

For the most part, I felt, feel very lucky. It was upon coming home, after 2am, that I lost it. The smoke alarm was still chirping. I got on the step-ladder and changed the battery. Chirp. I got out of bed, changed it to the other battery in the pack. Chirp. I realized that the negative side wasn't even touching the device, and there was no way to fix it to do that. I mean, I realized that after getting out of bed four or five times to change it. And then I realized the only thing to do was to pull the thing out of the ceiling and stash it. I don't know if RM broke it when he replaced the battery over the summer--probably not, it's just old. In any case, it was the middle of the night. I'd worked late and gone out every day of the week (apart from Thursday night, unless you count the trip to the rabies clinic). I wanted to sleep. The smoke detector wanted to chirp. We were at in impasse. I prevailed. But I somehow doubt it's going to be a super-productive day.