Dec 3 2014
I load up my two dogs, My Beagle Porthos who loves to ride in the car, and Pita a border Collie who does not. Things were different Porthos didn’t want to get in and Pita got in with no fuss.
Pita is about five years old and has never got in a vehicle since I brought her home.
It was sunny and cold. There was frost on the inside of the passenger window.
Normally that amount would have melted by the time I reach the highway a mile away. 500 feet before the Highway is a cross road with a stop sign.
I stopped at the stop sign the sun was just at the right angle to light up the frost on the window and blind me for a second. I looked down the road that I have looked down a thousand times before. Thinking it was clear I started out.
The next thing I see is my airbag and the inside of a cab of a truck with two people I don’t know. I woke up a few seconds later. “Fuck” first words out of my mouth. My body is twisted around the cab of my jeep. I look and see smoke rising from the left side of my dash. I remembered I had gas cans in the back of my Jeep. I shut off the key the smoke subsides.
Then I do what I always do at accidents even my own. I climb out to see if anyone needs first aid or rescue. I get about two steps and realize my neck and back are hurt so I lay down on the ice.
I reach for my cell phone arrange for someone to pick up my animals. Then I call for services. The occupants of the truck came over I asked if they were all right. The driver had a split lip and his girlfriend was fine. Their little dog was running around in view.
I could see Pita she was on the dirt road and moving okay. I could see the Beagle. Porthos was killed instantly.
I put the circumstances together during my 45 day stay at the hospital.
The two kids were in a white pickup traveling fast on a white road. The sun had lit up the frost on the window masking the truck. I have been on that corner a thousand times. This time I missed seeing the vehicle that almost killed me and did kill my little traveling buddy.
What does this do with the old truck. I decided I had enough with low vehicles.
I needed a truck. Because I live on a dirt road I need a 4×4. I needed an old truck to make it easy to work on an old Chevy. I used to own a 49 Chevy pickup. I thought that finding one of those again would have been impossible.
Especially since I was hurt I couldn’t work. Alberta GOV was screwing me around for the $627 a month they were not about to pay me. My insurance was doing everything they could not to pay me. I didn’t want to forget my unfriendly revenue Canada agent who swears he is going to grab my insurance payments if I do get them.
After spending all my Holidays in the Hospital. Christmas and New Years With fours hours of Spinal Surgery on Boxing day. I finally arrive home Middle of January.
The fractured wrist, hurt ankle, knee, broken back compressed vert T8, Broken Neck C2, Broken ribs.
After the surgery lost my voice and swallowing is difficult. Moving around is hard. I get a hard collar with instructions not to lift anything over 4 lbs. Not only did I have to bring wood in I had to chop it. No easy task anymore.
I live in the country with a few cats and one dog, nobody else. I heat with wood. I don’t have a log small enough to weigh four pounds. I was away for forty days we had -46 while I was away. My plumbing is shot. No running water.
I am not looking for sympathy here just to be clear. if I can do this disabled so can you.
Undaunted no cash, I start searching Kijiji. I find a 1954 Chevy 4×4 for swap. I found out later it was really a 1955 1 st series
Fifty three emails later we come to an agreement. I swap some Harley parts, my welder, a motorcycle lift and some other stuff.
A friend offers to let me use his car hauler to go and get it. He actually drives me in buys me lunch and uses his own fuel and does the heavy lifting.
We drive in to the big city and make the swap load up the truck and bring it back to my little acreage. I now own a truck. Like I said earlier it is actually a 1955 1st series pickup. It sits on a 99 Yukon 4×4 frame with a Vortec 350 motor.
Chevy sold this model until Mar of that year and then changed to a new body style.
More to follow
