Lucky

Friday morning we had to take L's car into the shop for repairs. He left first, I followed a few minutes later.
As I was driving down Big Ranch Road, I saw several cars stopped on both sides of the road and as I kept going a car that had plowed into a telephone pole at obviously fairly high speed. I didn't see L's car on the way so I kept going, slowing down to let a sheriff's department car pass in the other direction. Had to wait at the bottom end of the road for another sheriff's car, a police car, an ambulance and a fire truck.
When I got to the repair shop, L was visibly shaken. Turns out the car that had hit the telephone pole had missed him by about a foot. He didn't have his cell phone with him so we drove to the sheriff's department to leave contact info in case they needed us. Turns out the police was in charge of this. They did take his info and CHP contacted him that afternoon.
Between news reports and the CHP we learned that it was a 30-year-old woman driving the car. She had had a diabetic episode, lost control of the car when her blood sugar dipped and is now in the hospital at UC Davis in serious condition.
L was incredibly lucky she missed him. He was ready to take his car into the ditch to avoid her when he saw her weaving off and back onto the roadway hitting a mailbox first and the pole at the end.
Here's a picture:
http://napa.patch.com/articles/driver-injured-in-crash-on-big-ranch-road#photo-8937389
And from the local paper:
http://napavalleyregister.com/news/local/woman-injured-in-solo-crash-in-north-napa/article_1db3cc62-43d4-11e1-87ff-001871e3ce6c.html

Getting there

This is obviously a work in progress. I'm taking another online class with Deryn Mentock and Sharon Tomlinson that involves both mixed media art (very hard for me) and metalwork.
This is my first attempt at the metalwork part of the class - it involves both cold and hot connections. It's not finished, I still need to make and attach a bezel to the copper piece, but it's getting there. I really only took the picture to show my teacher what I was having problems with - the solder didn't flow.
I know I said something about putting up pictures from the Hawaiian vacation - but I've been sick for almost 2 weeks. Quite unusual for me. I was dragging a bit when we came back from vacation, sounded like a cross between Barry White and Sam Elliott for a couple of days (quite amusing for somebody who's only 5'3") and then got hit hard by what apparently is going around town: sore throat, head cold, chest cold. I'm finally feeling a bit more like myself - about time, too.
I'm far behind with everything, including putting up pictures. But, since my class ends in mid-February, I figured I'd better get moving there. The artwork has taken me so far outside my comfort zone I'll need a GPS to get back home, but it's been fun. Not something the public will ever see - most likely - but fun, anyway.
So, hopefully, I'll be catching up really soon and there will be pictures.