Books...yes YOU LOVER OF BOOKS...how arrange them?

[DoYouKubuntu]

When my daughter was 11 (and son 14), they went up to the shopping mall the day after Christmas. As they exited the bus and began crossing the street, a driver who tried to pass the bus lost control in the snowy slush and slid into my daughter, breaking her leg. By the time we found out about it, my son had already called the police and an ambulance; they were just getting ready to go to a trauma center. I don't know if J. Random 14-Year-Old these days can act in such a mature fashion, but ours sure did.

Wow. That's quite a story, Steve. I can only imagine how grateful you all were that your daughter "only" suffered a broken leg. It could have been much worse.

[DoYouKubuntu]

My experience was similar to yours, Qqmike, albeit without the water moccasins and falling through ice. The suburbs of the lovely San Gabriel Valley were pretty tame by comparison--but we were free to roam and explore and play and wear ourselves out. I remember riding my bike a few blocks away to Caltech, and admiring the campus with its beautiful architecture, and walking up to Colorado Blvd on New Year's Day to watch the Rose Parade, and walking all along Lake Ave to shop at various favorite stores, and walking to our favorite park, etc. My siblings and I were aware that there were bad people out there, but we exercised common sense caution, such as never getting near to a car that a stranger was in, things like that. We DIDN'T have a pervasive sense that evil was all around.

[SteveRiley]

How much was the settlement?

We didn't pursue litigation -- there's too much of that crap. Drivers in Washington are required to carry a minimum of $10,000 medical on their insurance. The driver's insurance paid out their $10,000 without complaint. Then Amazon's health insurance finished off the remaining $6,000 or so -- the injury occurred six days before my employment there ended, heh.

Of course, that didn't stop Amazon's insurance company from attempting a subrogation investigation. They demanded all kinds of details from me about what happened, who paid for what, etc. I ignored their letters and calls for months. Eventually I relented. "Look, you fsckers, your problem is not my problem. Here's the driver's insurance company info -- call them and leave me alone." Not a word after that.

[SteveRiley]

Wow. That's quite a story, Steve. I can only imagine how grateful you all were that your daughter "only" suffered a broken leg. It could have been much worse.

I know! When I got the news I pretty much fell apart. My son handled it a lot a better than I did.