Thanks!

The first thank-you is to seat belts. I rolled my Honda Element last night on the way home from a fine Thanksgiving and meeting with my new grandson in Portland. It was a gorgeous, sunny day, but there was ice in the Wallowa River canyon, probably frozen fog. I fishtailed on one corner, and did not slow down enough on the next. So I rolled it.

So thanks to the seat belt — and the Honda. A blemish on my side says that the belt was strong enough to hold tight while I rolled, and that sturdy Honda held up enough so that I didn’t hit my head! The car landed upright and the driver’s side door still worked, so I popped right out. (I remember when seat belts were first required. There was a huge cry about government overstepping its regulatory bounds and being trapped in burning vehicles. I’m thankful the government won that one.) Thanks to the Honda, which did not collapse on me as Gunnar said it might have. Grandson Aidan later said that it “did its job,” keeping me safe through the tumult.

Thanks to Gunnar, a young truck body-paint worker going back to Elgin from a family Thanksgiving in Kamiah, Idaho. He witnessed my antics, stopped and stayed with me. We sent the next kind man who stopped out with my grandson’s phone number — we were in the out-of-range canyon. He stayed with me until the Oregon Department of Transportation and the Oregon State Police trooper came; they ordered up more sand as a pickup following my path did its own fishtail.

I didn’t get the trooper’s name, but he told me, looking at the car, that I’d had a lucky day. Gunnar and the trooper stayed until the tow truck came, and then grandson Aidan arrived, and we headed for a checkup at the hospital.

We all have to be thankful for our hospital. How many remote canyon roads in the rural West are as close as we were — and we all are — to a fine and well-staffed hospital? I can’t name everyone, but there was Dr. Ziegler and nurse Michelle, who I had watched throw the javelin at Joseph High School decades ago. I’m thankful that she came back to the county. Thankful for all who were on duty at the end of a long Thanksgiving weekend.

Another nurse — and I didn’t get his name — did an initial assessment and put my neck in a brace as a cautionary. Said that neck and head injuries sometime show up a little later. I was measured and coddled, and sent in for a CT scan. (We didn’t have that locally just a few years ago. I’m remembering when docs Siebe and Euhus managed everything here, when Lowell would get paged during a town team basketball game and have to go to the emergency room. Remember that small ER in the old hospital? Thanks to those two for hanging with us until we got our whole new complex and crew of medical workers!)

It turns out my head and neck and chest are all fine, and my only apparent injuries are a small fracture in the left clavicle — and a big bruised ego! I told the trooper he should write me up for stupidity. Stupid because I didn’t take the first fishtail warning serious enough and slow down enough to avoid the rollover. Stupid because I said the weather was fine and I’d save a little on my winter studded tires and NOT put them on before the Portland trip.

The trip itself was wonderful. Visits with brother and sister and nieces and nephews — and great nieces and nephews. And granddaughter Oriana, her partner Michael, and their new little Mateo. And spending time with son Matt and his wife, Dawn, as they prepare for a two-year assignment to Guam.

Oriana tells me to take off a month, and that I’m too old to be driving to Portland. I’m not believing that, but am thankful that I have her and other caring relatives and friends in my life.

Did you catch the news about the importance of friends and relatives and relationships in having a good and long life? It turns out that a decades-long study — Harvard, I think — says that we’re all important to each other. That kindness and friendship are keys to long-term happiness and health.

And I’m one of the very lucky ones on this account. Fine family members and friends across the country, and a nest of close friends and casual acquaintanceships here in The County.

Yes — even those small post office hellos and goodbyes, the shopkeeper who knows your name, and the nurse who remembers you from when she was a kid in Joseph 40 years ago are all part of the relationships network that make us happy today.

Thanks!