wow chef! really glad your still here! damn!

 

yeah. kinda makes my "bad day" seem less bad

 

W O W, where u run over by an 18 wheeler or what

 

Ya Chef that's a mess right there...Glad you pulled through!!!

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Chef, more details on how that T4R died...glad you're ok.

 

no pics of my truck, but i just wanted to show yall what its like up here. im at about 7000 ft.

looking out my kitchen on the SECOND FLOOR



again, a second floor view



looking out my front window



first floor room- theres a hangover where the kitchen is, and thats what you are looking at. also known as my tire rack lol

 

Holy snow bank Batman!! Thats nuts. I couldn't handle havin that much snow here. We live right at 9000 and have never gotten that much snow. But we are in a different climate zone.

 

yea, im sick of it. i just want to go wheelin, and the snow ruins everything haha. i want it to be summer. its been snowing for like the last week and a half and weve seen no sun at all. ugh hopefully it starts melting soon.

 

Hey Guys, thanks! I am VERY lucky to be alive, indeed! In fact, I died, 3 times(once for 2 minutes, 2 times almost 3min. each.

Fathers Day, 2002, my ex called me and asked, "PLEASE, can you bring the girls back from the camping trip? I'm sorry, I forgot they had a Dr. Appt. tomorrow!". Around 9PM, half way home, I turned around and dropped them both off. They were 9 and 11 years old at the time, both sitting in the back seat with the top off, really upset that their mom was making them come home.........

Upon NEARLY driving up my street to go home, ...I looked down and realized I had 10 Videos on my front seat floor board that were due BEFORE 8AM when they open, at the Library(Free to rent but 1$ each, if I'd waited...) I was ticked off at the ex, so I figured I'd get a cruise to the library in and take my mind off it, saving 10$ in the process, lol..... I got on the freeway, hit 65mph, and someone was heading straight in the slow lane, kinda screwing with me, I thought, until I realized, he wasn't letting me over! The entry lane to the freeway had CALTRANS stuff on the right, and I saw a mess of stuff/equip/supplies up ahead, namely 25 K-Rails for fixing the center divider or something, stacked up on top of each other, 5Wide x 5High.....

I couldn't stop, the guy was literally side swiping me, pinning me in out of spite or something, so I hit the rails, head on, 62+MPH, all 15 K-rails of the top rows slid right over my hood, tore back on the pass. side, some on the driver side and then slammed down in the back seat area...... WHERE MY DAUGHTERS WERE JUST SITTING, 1 HOUR BEFORE THIS! The weight of the rails flipped me over sideways like a bottle cap, I went over the edge of a decent hill, rolled a couple times and wound up on the driver side down. SOMEHOW, my seatbelt had wrapped around the shifter, almost immediately, and kept me suspended in the pass. side floorboard area. I was out, and it was 12:30AM, so no one saw this, until 30 min later, where I was literally hidden in this freeway offramp area, kinda hidden in the bushes.

I was held by the belt, so that kept my head from completely being crushed, but not before my forehead was cracked and split open on the body rail at the top of the windshield. I was suspended in an upright position because of my seat belt, being that the truck was laying on the driver side door-side. That partially saved my life, as my ribs were all broken, and one in particular was snapped off and had torn through the top of my left lung.

I woke up, days later, in AGONY, brokededed everything, lol.... with a guy asking me "Do you have a will? Also, we're required to ask you to sign this waiver"......I thought, "WOW, comforting", as I passed back out for another 24hrs.. I that time, apparently all my vitals calmed down and I was miraculously steady, no longer any internal bleeding(other than within my chest, which was being taken care of by tubes, placed through my body/rib cage, etc.). Within 8 days, they wheeled me out of there to heal at home, after taking out the drain tube in my chest.

In some of the pics, you can see my two best friends, as well as my daughters and Ex....All, including myself, had NO CLUE that my truck was totaled, until, when coming into the front desk room of the tow yard, asking, "Where is the 86 Toyota 4Runner, white? License, blah blah".... The girl at the desk started getting emotional and saying, "OH MY GOSH, I'm so sorry, was that a friend?"..... To which I asked, "Ma'am, WHERE IS MY TRUCK?" hahaha(Dang Toyota Addiction! lol.... More worried about my truck than my throbbing headache, hahaha). She looked at me, figured, wow, I guess so, and then walked us back to what you see in the pics. Both my friends were in awe, even tearing up, my daughters were SOBBING(i felt so bad) and my ex was as well....when they realized I lived through that. MORE SO, THANKING GOD, as was I, that my GIRLS WERE DROPPED OFF EARLY, OUT OF A '''''MISTAKE'''' BY MOM! They would have been killed, almost instantly!

To this day, I have the 6x9 speaker boxes, my mangled toolbox that nearly decapitated me apparently, the "Tweekers Suck!" sticker that I had on it, all in my 87 that you see in my sig!

The reason I bought this truck, guys, is because I LIVED THROUGH THAT IN THE OTHER! Plus, it had really grown on me, aside from that. I know it seems silly, but that is why I WILL NOT let these gremlins and screw ups by my machinist BEAT ME! I am determined to get this thing as TIGHT as possible, without issues. NO ONE who knows what I've been through and has seen those pics asks me any longer.... "Why would you bother with an old truck? it's giving you so many problems?" .... While most that don't know DO ASK that, hahahaha! Honestly, THAT, RIGHT THERE, what you see in those pics.... THAT SEALED it for me with these old trucks..... As they say, "I was sold, right there!" lol.

Thanks for your concern, but I have to say, as odd as it sounds..... I'm GRATEFUL in a way, because it changed my entire outlook on life, including how I let things get to me, depression, alcoholism(etc., etc., lol), struggling relationships.... ALL ENDED, THAT YEAR that I spent recovering!

 

Ummmmm ya, that's kinda deep man. I like the snow but that's a bit much.

wow.

 

Damn Chef what a mess...

Just glad you made it through to be with your family today!!!

 

wow chef, someone upstairs is looking out for you. That sounds like a hell of a crash, and again, im glad youre still with us.

 

Thanks guys, ...and honestly, I'm ALMOST 100% thereafter, lol. "Almost", because of quite a bit of pain on REALLY cold days(it wears off after 30min-1hr., lol)> ...and, well, it somehow screwed up my thyroid, so it's MUCH harder to keep weight off. Oh well, I could be GONE, right? hahaha.

DANG, X2 ON THAT SNOW, HOLY CRAPOLI!

 

Yeah for sure. We didn't get tons of snow here at the house but record fall just about everywhere else. Most of the good trails out here dont usually open up till mid June due to the snow load. I definitly can't wait to get out there and wheel it up.

 

just got it solid axle

 

Mark,

I had no idea you were involved in such a bad accident that long ago. You sir are lucky to be alive! I thought my accident was bad when i t-boned a tree at 80mph (passenger grabbed the steering wheel), but yours makes mine look like a fender bender...

 

chef, i am glad you are alive.

 

Why would someone do that?

 

Because we missed the exit, i was just going to go up to the next exit and turn around, he had other plans...

 

OMGOSH, ....BRIAN, ...THAT PASSENGER....DEAAAAAAAAAAAAD MANNNNNNNNNNN! LOL. Actually, that's happened to me, I didn't wreck. Two weeks later, camping, ...he did it in the car in front of me( I would no longer let him ride with me...TOTAL 'bug'! LOL) They went straight off a cliff and landed in a tree at around 75mph.... MY BUDDY CRAWLED from the thing before it exploded, and the guy who did that with the wheel? UNHURT! grrr, LOL.

Anyway, THANKS, GUYS! Glad to know people care/understand, and the 'WOW' is understandable. Trust me, my daughters were BALLING, and I felt so bad, but I DIDN'T KONW, honest, how bad it was. The police didn't want me to see pics, because it can traumatize people after wrecks, etc., ...plus the hospital can ask them <"Please, not now"... Well, they forgot to come back, hahaha. When I went in, i'd forgotten I was in a coma, ...they said, "840$ please?" ....my jaw dropped! lol. "OH YEAH, that's right, coma, lots of fees. NVM", lol GREAT rig that was, honest... I'd gotten TONS of air in it, believe it or not, hahaha. ROMPED on that thing, all day, every day. NEVER quit!

OHHHHH, and yes, one day, a girl did that with the wheel out of fear(she thought we were gonna hit a RACCOON! (I know, ....'andddd?' I thought, hahahaha). We hit a fence, just clipped it, but right to the right.... 240' DROP, 75* ANGLE! stupid wheel grabbers! lol.