I'm Going To Hell

I've been in Denver since last Thursday helping my sister after her arthroscopic shoulder surgery. Happy to report she is doing well.

On Sunday, a beautiful Spring day, my other sister and I drove down to Colorado Springs and decided to visit the Garden of the Gods. Since it was the first warm day after a week of cold and snow the park was crowded. All the parking lots were filled and automobiles, trucks, tour buses, and motorcycles seem to endlessly circle the asphalt roads that meander around and between the sandstone rock formations. As our car crawled alone my sister would take photos of the red rock formations that loomed over us. Taking photos was a little tricky since we had to stay aware of the moving vehicles in front of and behind us, watch for open parking spaces in the pull outs beside the road, and keep an eye on the people walking, running, biking, and hiking along the road edge.

Just before we completed our first loop around the park we saw what we thought was a space in a pull out area that was large enough to park the car and turned in. We were wrong so my sister slowly drove back onto the main road. As we did so I saw out of the corner of my eye a woman walking on the other side of the road with a man stumble. I turned my head and watched as she lost her balance and pitched forward. She threw her arm out to stop her fall but her outstretched hand slipped off the curb and I watched in horror as her face hit that curb, causing her head to bounce back at impact. The force of gravity kept her body falling forward and then, when she hit the ground, rolled her over onto her back . As this was happening I was scrambling to get the car door open while saying to my sister, "Stop, stop, stop."

I must have made some sort of sound when I first noticed the woman because my sister was already breaking when I asked her to stop. We were now directly across from her and by this time she was sitting up with her had over her mouth. My sister asked if she was alright and she replied, in a voice dripping with disgust, "Yeah, I just broke my tooth."
We asked the man if we could take them anywhere and he said no, their car was just over there (pointing to the pull out area) and they would be OK. Again my sister asked if there was anything we could do and again the man said no.

Now, I had two thoughts after the woman said she had only broken her tooth and the man said they did not need our help. First, that the woman was not hurt as seriously as I thought she had been, which was a great relief. Then right after that I thought, "Oh, there's going to be a parking space opening up. I should tell Tara to turn around."

I am definitely going to hell.