A Little Help From Above

I almost met my maker this morning and I can tell you that unlike other people who might have said that their life flashed before their eyes, the only thing that ran though my mind was one simple thought, "Please don't let this hurt..."

And really that was the only thing I could think of as I sat like a sitting duck in my car with my eyes squished tight and a monosyllabic scream emitting from my throat while a large SUV came barrelling over to my side of the road as if he had lost control or lost his mind... (Whichever came first...)

The diagram I so cleverly created (during the last 15 minutes of my work day) to help re-enact the almost accident (for your reading pleasure) is as true of a representation as my non-artistic hands can draw. The details go a little something like this...

It was early... Early enough to know that my coffee was too hot to drink, there weren't any good songs on the radio and the van in front of me was nearly impossible to see around. I was taking my time, running early for once to work and in no great rush to get there when I noticed that the van in front of me was breaking hard, breaking way too early for the four way stop ahead. Being the law abiding driver that I am, I started breaking myself, anticipating what I didn't know ahead of me, but anticipating something all the same.

It happened as fast as a strike of lightning. On a narrow road with barely any shoulder to speak of, a high speed SUV - for reasons unknown - suddenly leaped from his own lane to ours. I looked up and suddenly he was there directly in front of us, the white van and I. And I thought for sure that this was it. He was going to plow into the white van and right into me and we were all about to be toast. Instead he jerked his wheel, hit the shoulder at max speed and kept going for all he was worth, passing my car on the right passenger side so close that I had to check twice to see if my mirror was still intact.

After I remembered how to breathe, and yes, this did take a minute or so, it was if nothing had even happened. In my rear view mirror I could see that public menace number one had made it back into his own lane, and traffic around me was continuing on as if nothing out of the norm had happened. But there I was wanting answers. Wanting to know exactly what happened and why and a little bit pissed that this driver didn't even have the sense to pull his damn car over and cool his jets before continuing on his merry little way despite the fact that he came damn close - too close really - to annihilating two people in two cars on a Monday morning...

On the bright side however, I've got to be thankful for whatever blessing kept us all out of harms way...

Thanks Guardian Angel... We'll do lunch. Soon... Just not too soon...