Train Derailment in Still Listening to Spirit

Well, well, a bit of excitement in and around Our Town today. I have seen a photo, which I placed on Facebook which shows the train engines definitely off the tracks but upright. I used to be pretty good at accident reconstruction while working as an insurance adjuster. Course, these were usually roadway vehicles and I had interviews from participants, reports of the police, measurements and even marks on roadways to help me along.

I have nothing but a photo which shows the tracks on the right side of the photo and the engines sitting to the left completely off the tracks, perhaps 3 feet from said tracks and a wee bit of track which is a switch. It looks like the engine just ran straight off the switch rails instead of curving onto the rails to the right. Hmmm....

Fortunately it was at or near the summit, and there was little danger that the derailed engines and the next 2 cars behind it would tumble off the mountain. One car did, however, fall over into a shallow lake and the passengers on that car were able to get out, and wade to dry ground.

Carol B is our emergency management director at the Clinic. Sitka Coast Guard station was notified to standby in case helicopter hoist and medical attention was needed atop the mountain. Juneau Bartlett Medical center was notified they may be receiving mass casualties. Then EMT's, ambulance (I think we have 2) and other first responders headed up the hill along with medical staff from the Clinic.

First reports were that 9 people were injured with bumps and bruises.Final count by the clinic was that they treated a total of 23 people, several at the clinic. All rode down the mountain on the rest of the train still on the tracks and people were treated on the train and then in the clinic.

Trains were cancelled, of course, though this occurred around 3pm so there were only the evening trains to run. No trains today, Thursday July 24 but I have read on Facebook that it is likely they will run their regular schedule tomorrow.

As a result, tour sales today for the rest of the vendors in town was brisk and every seat ran full. I am sure there were plenty of people who didn't get a tour at all. Even Dolly ran 2 full tours today, something that just doesn't happen for her anymore. Seldom ever has, but that's another story for another day.

Carol B posted later on FB her gratitude for the quick actions of her team at the clinic as well as the team from the fire department and EMTS, etc. She let us all know Sitka and Juneau had our backs which is incredibly wonderful due to our isolated location. She was being both praisefull and letting us know lots of people 'had our backs'.

I commented that in the 20 years I have been a patient in the Clinic, I have always been supremely confident that the people at the Clinic were not only competent but caring. I said that I trusted my life in their hands under all circumstancs. I went on to say that I tell those shocked that we have no doctors at our clinic that we have a Clinic full of HEALERS, people who know us and our lives, care about us, and I believe our health care is better than what a mere doctor or two could give.

I said that we may not have doctors or specialists immediately available, but that did have the 'special-ist' healers in the world.

Yesterday and today were cloudy and cool. Winds blew hard from the south most of yesterday and today but have calmed now at 10pm as I write.

Bill and I had a discussion about bills and that dreaded word 'budget'. I made a decision last night after examining the hospital bill and their request that we sign a contract to pay x a month until the remaining bill is paid. I signed the agreement, made a note on the letter that accompanied it that we would pay X a month to be taken out of his social security debit card and gave them the number and his signature authorizing this. Sealed in an envelope and ready to mail. I left it on Bill's work bench where he would see it.

He wanted me to come down to discuss it today, so I did. He is resistant to making any automatic deductions, he would rather pay each month. He was as usual all stressed and muddled over "I have all these bills and I have to call to put off this and we dont' have enough money, etc."

I asked him, How much a month are our regular monthly bills? How much money after those are paid is left for payments to our 1 credit card, doctors, and bills we are catching up on. He had no idea.

We talked about this. It took me 20 minutes to find out which obligations we had that were outstanding for this month. I kept asking "What bill or bills that we have promised to pay need to be paid out of what we have." He went off on tangents, gave me information I didn't need and misunderstood about our upcoming property tax payment.

I just kept going back to the questions. I finally got out of him that we had a payment to the Clinic, by contract, that wasn't paid for July. So I told him "Pay that one."

I suggested that he needed to write down the regular monthly bills. Then to write the regular monthly obligations on past due bills. Then to add them up and see if we even have enough money coming in from social security to cover those bills. I am certain we do, but how can either one of us know for sure.

Anyway, I finally got through to his last resistence by saying that for a year now at the least that he has been putting out fires, just paying what is urgent without a real plan or idea what was going on, what was happening. I told him we were on a road at an intersection and had no way to know which way to turn.

He said "Well, yes, we need a map" and I said "EXACTLY!!! And this list I am asking you to make is the map!"

I know most of the people who follow me here are groaning at this whole thing. Budget is vital, budgets must be stuck to, budget, budget, budget. We don't usually budget, but I have paid attention, made budget, and with the recent huge failure in my working all summer and in the 5 months of working we could pay off all prior arrearages as well as save some for winter knocked us both back mentally.

So, I told Bill I do this list thing just to reassure myself that we do have enough money, it's a measuring device for me. I hope this turns out to do the same for him.

Not a big trauma or drama, but hopefully a stepping off point for less stress for Bill paying bills.

Blessed be! I have run on and on, so be it.