It’s finally hump day…a brand new day.
Yesterday evening, I went up to Lake Hefner right after work and rode around the lake on my bicycle. It was a little chilly, but it was a good ride. Unfortunately, the rain earlier in the day brought out the gnats, so I fought with them when I reached the north side of the dam. They kept hitting me in the face and hitting my jacket and bouncing off. When I finally finished my ride, I drove on home and did not do anything but watch TV and get on my computer. I was really tired, so I went to bed at 9 pm. Karla and Gayla drove to Shawnee to watch Gayla’s boyfriend play a basketball game at OBU.
This morning, Karla went back to work. Gayla is on Fall break, so she will not go back to school until next Monday. Since Gayla was out of school, she took Karla to work. Since Karla’s foot was re-injured when she had her accident last Monday, she was going to the doctor this afternoon to have it looked at and to get some more pain medication.
It’s strange how, when we lived over by 44th and Blackwelder, I took the city streets everywhere and very seldom got on the highway. Since we have moved, I take the highway everywhere and seldom take city streets. As a matter of fact, now that I am on the interstate more, I have come upon more accidents and more motorists that need assistance. I don’t mind because that’s what I do as a REACT member. This morning was no different….here is a summary of this morning’s motorist assist.
I was northbound on I-44 this morning at around 6:10 am. As I passed the SW.29th street exit, I noticed traffic slowing down, almost stopping. For that time of the morning, it is very unusual because traffic isn’t usually heavy that early. As I approached the turn lane that takes you eastbound on I-40, I noticed a car just sitting in the middle lane of I-44. At first I thought it was an accident, but then I noticed the car was sitting by itself. I carefully changed lanes and turned on my emergency strobes. I pulled in behind the vehicle and cautiously got out of my truck and approached the car. The occupant was a young Hispanic lady and she informed me that she ran out of gas.
I went back to my truck, grabbed my cell phone and called OHP. I informed them she was blocking the middle lane and causing a traffic hazard. I let them know I was with Central Oklahoma REACT and that I was behind her with my emergency lights on. They informed me that it had already been reported and that a trooper was on his way. At around 6:20 am, an OHP trooper pulled up behind me and lit up. I got out of my truck and explained that she was out of gas. He thanked me for stopping and told me he was going to push her over to the shoulder and that I could leave. As I was attempting to pull into traffic, he stopped me and asked me to block the right hand lane of I-44, so he could push her to the shoulder. I cautiously moved over to the right-hand lane, making sure traffic was stopping and watched as he pushed her car off onto the shoulder. Only one jerk went around me. He actually almost hit my truck because he was in such a big hurry. I honked, he gave me the ‘sign” and drove off. Once I saw that the trooper and the disabled vehicle were safely off the interstate, I turned off all my emergency lights and went on to work…it was 6:25 am.
This report was submitted to the Central Oklahoma REACT Team 6023 Board of Directors
In other news….
We are short two dispatchers today, so all of us are having to work through our lunches and I am working the sewer radio, which is one of the busier radios. This evening, I have a meeting to attend at the church at 5:45 pm and then we have a business meeting at the church I need to attend at 6:30 pm. I usually give a report at our business meetings on what the youth department is doing, so I am getting prepared for that. Tomorrow is Thursday and tomorrow night is our monthly CFAAA meeting.
http://www.okcentralreact.org/
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