Things that go bump on the street

Igh....life is scary sometimes. I watched a movie ("What Dreams May Come") which was very good--I think I got teary-eyed no less than three times, probably more. Three of the main characters die in car accidents.

I am foreshadowing.

Later, I gave Amanda a ride to work. We brought the camcorder along, because I am putting together a tape to send to my brother and sister--it has been almost five years since I have seen them. On the way back home, I sort of mounted the camera on the dashboard, and recorded a few minutes of the trip in order to illustrate how different it is up here compared to the LA Metro area. ("Thirty seconds from nowhere" is what I call it.) I found myself thinking it would be beyond eerie if I were to have an accident en route, and to have the grisly details on tape for my horrified relatives to view. I turned the camera off.

More foreshadowing. I am making this too easy.

I went to the store in search of a few sundry gadgets and couldn't find what I was looking for. I was going to head for another shop, and had just pulled out onto Burnside Road. I wasn't driving fast, because I had just entered traffic, and there was traffic aplenty. Suddenly a red Celica emerged from the store parking lot, right into my path. Time does weird things in moments like this--slow motion and lightening-quick all at once. I braked, but the road was slick from rain.

I slid.

As I careened towared the Celica, I remember thinking "oh shit, I am not gonna stop in time to miss this car"....it was utterly out of my control. I was the helpless driver and passenger of my own vehicle, and I mentally braced myself for the pile-up I was certain was about to happen. I think it must be the way that thoughts flood one's mind in times of great stress that causes the sense of "time standing still" and "life flashing before one's eyes"....in that brief span of time, I wondered how hard my car was going to hit the other car. I wondered if I'd be hurt, and if so, how hurt. I wondered if I would wind up in the middle of a car sandwich, and what would be left of my Nissan. I wondered how long something like this would put me out of commission and how I'd pay the bills. I thought of my dear children and how badly I didn't want to fuck up their day. All this wondering in so little time....and then our cars collided. I don't know how I pulled it off, but I managed to not swerve and kept my vehicle straight, so that when the impact occured, it was with the padded bumper of my Nissan, and not an oblique shot with the passenger side door.

Silence. That was it.

Miraculously, no one else skidded, and there was no pile-up. As a matter of fact, even though it was a damned good jolt, I wasn't hurt. True, everything which had resided in the back seat was now wedged firmly under the front seats, but hey, it was a car accident....no time to be picky.

The Celica pulled out into the right lane and at first I thought it was fleeing the scene. I was ready to chase the driver down....like I'm that tough? Ha! It wasn't necessary, because the Celica pulled into the first available driveway and we both parked.

I had so much adrenaline in my system I was shaking as I got out of my car and approached the man in the Celica. "You pulled right out in front of me!" I exclaimed. "Your reflexes were pretty slow!" he yelled back. I told him there had to be witnesses to the collision and it was obvious he was at fault. We then looked at our cars and I was amazed to see that aside from a bent license plate, my car was fine. His driver side fender was dented, but that was the extent of the damage.

Okay, okay, we both said aloud, let's figure this out. We both decided that we were very lucky it wasn't worse than it was, and I said that we should exchange information just in case there was more damage than what we saw at the moment. He was visibly relieved, and after we gave each other our respective names and numbers, we shook hands and he apologized and I said "no problem" and we went our separate ways.

Of course now my gut aches and I feel wiped out, but who wouldn't? When things like this happen, one is reminded of how tenuous our grip on life and the status quo really is. I think I will lay down for awhile.

current mood: thankful
current music: Roadhouse Blues