Wah-wah pedals. Laser pointers. Firearms. These are the sorts of machines that are simply too much for fun humans to use objectively. You might have a considered, intelligent opinion about their proper use, but it'll melt away as soon as you get your hands on one. Motorcycles belong on this list, too.

So, I'll just get it out of the way, since people are asking, and this seems like as good an information-dissemination mechanism as any that are available to me. My mom got into a serious motorcycle accident Wednesday evening. According to the cops, some guy suddenly decided he really, really needed to make that right turn to get some gas — enough so that he was willing to do it from the left lane. I suppose my above list is unfair, since the accident wasn't her fault. But I'm still not feeling very fond of motorcycles at the moment.

The resulting breaks, as of the last round of CTs: clavicle, back, pelvis, ribs, right arm in twenty places. Amazingly, it appears that she'll be fine. The right arm is the worst of the lot, but today's surgery on it went well. It sounds like she'll probably be in the hospital for a week.

What comes after that, I don't know. I'm trying to prepare myself not to be surprised by whatever unpleasant surprises come up in the future. So far everything seems to be going great — but I suspect that when an ICU nurse tells you something is great, it really just means that it isn't horribly, horribly bad. So we'll see. She should be moving out of that unit tomorrow and back into the real world. I'm guessing that a sense of scope will arrive around the same time as her physical therapist.

Anyway, thanks for everyone's kind thoughts and sentiments (and balloons! no flowers in the ICU, so folks have been loading her up with mylar and helium). Honestly, everything is surprisingly fine. My sister has been incredibly great. My mom started off the afternoon groggy, but was pretty lucid and cheerful by the time I left this evening, all things considered. Things are going as well as can be expected. Her head is fine, her life doesn't appear to be in danger, and we basically know what has to happen next. That sort of clarity makes it possible to remain pretty even-keeled about all of this.