— पाँच हजार पाँच सौ उनतालीस —

I got a bit of a fright this morning, which was how I discovered my brother apparently has me listed as an emergency contact.

First, I saw a banner notification on my phone: I had a text from Christopher. We text only occasionally, so at first my thought was not much more than I wonder what that's about?

I opened my Messages app to read it, and it wasn't so much a genuine text from Christopher as something automated, sent by his Apple Watch (which I didn't even know he had)—a new experience for me:

Crash Detected SOS
Christopher M________ called
emergency services from this approximate location
after Apple Watch detected
a crash. You're receiving this
message because
Christopher has listed you as
an emergency contact

Just below that, it even provided a map, with a pinned location, which also serves as a link into Apple Maps when I click it: it was clearly on I-90 westbound, just on the west side of Osburn, which is only a few miles from Wallace. My guess is he was on his way to work.

I was mildly kind of paralyzed about this for about a minute. What do I do? I tried crushing some nuts with my iPhone once and it almost started to call 911 because it was detecting impact—I never did that again. But, my point is, sometimes Apple devices, let's say, overreact. I didn't want to panic unnecessarily, and get other people panicking unnecessarily. On the other hand, what it he'd really been in a horrible crash? I certainly wouldn't want to ignore that.

The SOS text came at 8:06 a.m. At 8:07 a.m, I texted him back, Christopher? Are you okay?

With no response within three minutes, I then got onto Facebook Messenger to ask Tristen, at 8:10 a.m. Under a screenshot of I took of the automated SOS message from Christopher, I texted Tristen: Hey Tristen, it's entirely possible Apple Watch misinterpreted, but I don't know, and I just got this text notification, and it shows the location of where it happened, so you might want to see if you can find out if your dad is okay?

Much gratitude to Tristen, one responded within one minute: He is. He started sliding and hit a guard rail

Whew! At least now I knew what happened.

At 8:13, I texted Shobhit to share about the odd experience this was. Shobhit, who can always be relied upon to fear the worst, said: Wow. Is he in the hospital?

Given Tristen's initial response, I rather doubted it. But, I figured it couldn't hurt to get the clarification, so I hopped back over to Facebook Messenger to ask him: Did he get hurt at all?

So, at this point we could all breathe a sigh of relief. I did wonder, though, how many people Christopher had listed as SOS Emergency contacts on his Apple Watch. I could not possibly be the only person who received this SOS notification.

Then, a bit of a glitch became apparent. I had already followed up with Christopher, at 8:12, to tell him, Tristen got back to me, glad to hear you're okay. But, at 8:21, I got another automated message: Crash Detected SOS The approximate loction of Christopher M________ has changed. Beneath this, another Maps link, with, indeed, a new location.

It happenbed again at 8:37. So far, at least, it hasn't happened again.

But: a text came directly from Christopher, finally, at 8:39: I don't know why it keeps sending out multiple alerts but I am fine. Thank you & love you

He sent this to nine people.

This would suggest I am one of nine people Christopher lists as "Emergency SOS" contacts, which I soon thereafter figured out is something you enter into the Health app, but is also accessible under Settings. This was where I double checked to see who I have listed: Shobhit and Danielle. (Shobhit, fairly reasonably, asked why not my dad. My rationale is that Danielle is closer. If she needed to get a hold of my parents, she'd be able to find a way.)

Nine people. I guess I feel a little less special now!

— पाँच हजार पाँच सौ उनतालीस —

— पाँच हजार पाँच सौ उनतालीस —

In other news, what I thought would be all I would write about today, I spent most of the evening last night watching a movie—Society of the Snow, a Netflix movie released this past weekend, about the 1972 Andes Mountain disaster in which survivors had to resport to cannibalism in order to stay alive. Seventy-two days out there is pretty stunning, and the movie was very well made, harrowing, and riveting. Although it was streaming, it was a fairly high profile release, and so I went ahead and wrote a review.

The movie is over two hours long, and I typically take a good hour or so to write a review, so that was three hours right there—significanly chopped up when Shobhit asked me to come out to the living room to listen in on a Braeburn Condos virtual board meeting discussion about the buidling re-siding project, and how it'll get financed. In the face of expecting to need to take out a loan for that, Shobhit and I have decided to combine most of what I had in my savings account with a good chunk of money he's getting transferred from India, to pay off the mortgage. This is actually a very exciting development, so much so that Shobhit is seriously considering finally opening his Pappy Van Winkle whiskey—which he bought at a steep discount four years ago next month—once it's done. Anyway, I sat in on the meeting for maybe forty minutes.

All of that pretty much sucked up my whole evening. I did do some proofreading of a letter Shobhit sent in, to be considered as the appointee to replace Teresa Mosqueda on the Seattle City Council, as she is shifting to King County Council. He knows his odds are low, but as he very rightly pointed out, if he doesn't go for it then his odds are zero.

— पाँच हजार पाँच सौ उनतालीस —

Christopher later texted photos of his car to the group text he had started: dents all along the left side of the car, including a pretty smashed up front headlight.

I wrote, Oh that sucks. Sure glad you got out of it unharmed though, and Christopher sent this reply:

Same here, it definitely could have been a whole lot worse. Just sore & a slight headache from hitting my head. Ex EMT at my staff meeting looked me over, I am fine & pupils were totally even & fine. So I am ok.

Honestly, knowing he hit his head sounds a little concerning to me, and I'm not convinced a look-over by someone who is not currently a medical professional is really sufficient. But, I do think that based on all the information at hand, he probably is indeed fine. He's certainly fine that it could have been way worse, and that initial text was a fine way to throw me (and, likely, nine of us) for a loop for a minute there.

— पाँच हजार पाँच सौ उनतालीस —

[posted 12:34 pm]