Life, Comin' At Ya!
What do you do when you can see it coming, but you just can’t avoid it (“it” being something you’d rather avoid)?
Remember how much fun driving was when you first got your driver’s license? And how you used to beg your parents to let you drive the car at every opportunity? You would have given your left leg (but only if you had an automatic transmission – otherwise, substitute some other useless body part; and no, not the head) to drive anywhere, anytime.
Well, thanks to the magic of the internet, I found a transcript of an actual conversation between a teenager and his mom about this very subject. Let’s listen in, shall we?
“Hey mom, I’ll get the mail for you. Can I borrow the keys to the car?”
“But dear, the mailbox is only 10 feet away from the front door.”
“Awww, Mom!”
Y’know, until now, IÂ never understood the sense of terror my parents felt at just the thought of me behind the wheel of a 2,000-lb piece of mobile machinery. (And I was actually a good kid. Really.)
Once, on a Christmas vacation family road trip (and no, my dad wasn’t Chevy Chase), I just happened to be driving the car (we were in a 1968 Buick Wildcat, a land yacht if there ever was one) when we somehow ended up going through Garden City, Kansas on the freeway during a weekday rush hour. My dad was sitting next to me, while mom and sister were in the back seat.
Everything was going pretty well (or so I thought), but I was a relatively new driver and there was a lot of traffic, so I mainly tried to stay pretty focused. At one point I had cars on both sides and relatively close behind me – and that’s when I saw it.
A Christmas tree, fallen off a truck – right in the middle of my lane! Yikes!
You know how, during times of sudden stress, your time perception is supposed to stretch out as if you had just become immersed in a slow-motion movie, right? After all, every action film made since 1972 proves it. Well, guess what? It ain’t true, Bubba! Nope, I had a grand total of about 48 milliseconds to react. That was barely enough time to:
a) Glance right, b) glance left, c) check the rear mirror, and d) get a firm grip on the wheel, and finally, e) plow right over it! Whap!
Needless to say, my dad took a rather dim view of that, but after all, what could I do? I saw it coming, but there was absolutely nothing I could do about it!
I’m struck by a couple of thoughts here (sound of dull thud, twice).
You have no doubt observed (if you’ve lived longer than 5 minutes) that every now and then life has a way of throwing unexpected little, um, gifts your way. After all, what would life be without an occasional surprise now and then, right? And, you understand the fact that planning can help you be prepared for those times.
But you might as well face it; sometimes when those little surprises come your way, even when you see it coming, you might just have to… take it!
7 responses so far
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So true!
I was once a courier driver and I decided to quit, so I gave the company four weeks notice. But how would I make the payments on my courier van? That I did not know.
Anyway, one week before I was due to finish I was driving in a remote area, when due to a moment of inattention, I clipped the side of the road, and in no time at all found myself veering into the forest at 90km/h! (Which is 60mph I think.)
The car was a complete write-off, but miraculously I was not injured and what’s more, the insurances I had took care of almost all of the debt on my car.
Which just goes to show, to get want you want in life, you sometimes have to drive through a few trees!
LOL Markk
“Which just goes to show, to get want you want in life, you sometimes have to drive through a few trees!”
Not according to my dear mother. (And it wasn’t even a few trees, just the neighbour’s car in front)
Karin H.
Plowing right over that tree was probably the safest thing to do. Most fatalties come from swerving and losing control.
Love how you turned this into a life lesson.
Ah, but what if your car can jump? Then you can easily bypass such trees in the road.
Now that I think of it… what did the car behind you do when the tree came up from under your car and went right at them?
Markk, I can think of easier ways to solve the problem, but what the hey. You’re right, though – sometimes solutions just come your way as well!
Karin, uh, sorry ’bout that!
Karen, I agree, it was the ONLY thing I could do! Thanks for the kind word, too.
Sam, it would have been nice to have that Police Special the Blues Brothers used! As far as the guy behind me, I have no idea, but I suppose he had the opportunity to learn the same lesson I did… Hope he came out OK.
Bob, what brought on this story? Is your son or daughter learning to drive so that your own past surfaced? Just curious!
Howdy, Robyn! No, nothing like that. Actually I saw a branch in the road the other day and it reminded me of this incident.
Unfortunately my brain doesn’t operate in a linear fashion; I need “triggers” like this to remember these things.
That’s why I try to keep a notebook handy – you never know when something will trigger a good blog post. Now, if I can just remember where I put that notebook…