accident update: i'm healing nicely. all the scabs are gone from my arms, flaked off. my head still hurts from time to time, still have a headache every morning, still have a sorry-ass left wrist, still don't remember anything about the accident. looks like i'm close to back to the pre-accident me. still haven't even looked for a car yet. lots of paperwork and insurance crap to sort through.

life update: late thursday night a young man was driving home after a typical night of drinking and smoking at the pool hall. he lived down a very dark, windy, rural road. he may or may not have been drunk, but his driving was slightly impaired. he took a turn too fast, like he always did. only this time it was different. this time he lost control of his new truck. the truck spun around, slammed into the ditch. his body catapulted out the windshield and into the ditch. the airbag deployed, but he wore no seatbelt. he laid there for 6 hours before help arrived. didn't matter though. he was killed immediately. where this young man lived, this is what people did. they drove fast, they lived fast, they hunted, chewed dip, drank too much beer, drove drunk too often, but because its a tiny rural town, no one notices anything wrong. its the way they live. this particular young man was getting married to his high school sweetheart in september. she had stuck by him even after he had a daughter with a one night stand woman. he lost his father 5 years before on the day the father was supposed to leave the hospital because his health was "fine". recently he had started his own business, which was growing all the time and making him good money. he had a younger sister in college in minnesota. this young man was 24 years old and he was my cousin dominick, we called him "dom". we weren't all that close, but family is family and its still a tragedy to die so young with so much going for him. i still don't really understand why this happened. i still don't know why i walked away from my accident, an accident that could have killed me, and he didn't. i can't imagine what its like to lose a fiance or a brother or a son. i don't get it at all.