A very eventful weekend

I know it's Wednesday, but I took last week off and it takes a few days to go through all of the e-mails and answer them, and get back into the swing of things at work.

Thanksgiving was great. We had 35 people at my brother Fred's house. Jessica, his daughter, counted.

We ate and ate and then sat around and talked. Then we ate some more. It was the usual Okamoto holiday dinner. We love to eat.

Last week, I wrote about the things I was thankful for. And I forgot to thank the doctors who took care of my mother when she had her quadruple bypass in July. Her primary care physician, Dr. Shabbir Motiwala; cardiologist Dr. Samir Mewar and cardio-vascular surgeon Dr. Jeffrey Travis, all worked together and she came through with flying colors.

Now, she's doing cardiac rehab at St. Francis and those physical therapists are working with her. I'm not so sure she's as diligent as she should be. She absolutely hates going to exercise three times a week. But I know it's good for her and we want to keep her around a little bit longer.

So I'm very thankful for those good people.

Getting back to my original thought of an eventful weekend, we did go shopping (the second best thing the Okamoto family does best). And on Friday, we went back to Fred's house for dinner. My mother refused, saying she didn't want to eat left-overs.

We had more than just left-overs.

On the way back, a deer came out of nowhere and ran into my sister's car. This is Dorothy, who lives in Charleston, S.C. Again, I'm thankful my mother decided to stay home.

Dorothy and I were not hurt, but really shaken by the accident.

And you really need to be careful -- we were driving down Woodruff Farm Road toward Forrest Avenue. It was close to the apartment complex that's on the street and very close to the soccer fields.

It was a huge deer. My brother said it was the perspective, but he's wrong. It was a big one.

Dorothy pulled off in the soccer complex and the woman who was driving behind us followed us to make sure we were OK. She said her son screamed that a deer was running in the street just before it hit us.

She offered to stay until the police got there, but with those small kids in the car, I told her to go on home. She was very, very nice.

Dorothy got on her phone to call 911. I called my brother and our other sisters, Nancy and Patty.

Fred came from his house. Patty and her husband, John, who were also at dinner at Fred's and left the same time we did, came back to help us.

The car was not driveable and the officer called for a tow truck.

And since it was Friday, there was nothing Dorothy could do over the weekend. She had planned on leaving Sunday, but spent Monday on the phone with her insurance agent, an adjuster, the impound lot and North Columbus Collision Center.

Patty had to go out of town to work, so she suggested Dorothy take her car and go home.

She did yesterday, where I believe she's still on the phone with all those folks I mentioned earlier.

I'm really glad it happened in town and not out on some rural road on her way home. She did say she's very paranoid now!

On a more lighter note, I'm so glad Helio Castroneves won "Dancing with the Stars" last night. When they announced the stars a couple of months ago, I predicted he would win. I'm so glad I was right.