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January 20, 2005
Dilemma Du Jour
Driving to work this morning I narrowly escaped being in a nasty automobile accident. But the thing is that I really didn't do anything to avoid getting hit. Instead, it was the guy in the car behind me that exercised his masterful driving skills to avoid hitting me in a way that was just.....well it was beautiful. It was very odd, but also very spectacular.
Here is what happened: on a two lane road (no median, one going north, the other going south) people in front of me were suddenly slamming on their brakes for reasons I still do not know. We were all driving appoximately 50 - 55 mph at the time. So I applied my brakes and I could tell that although it was close, I was going to be fine and was not in danger of hitting the car in front of me. As soon as I was done worrying about getting *my* car stopped, it occurred to me that there was likely a car behind me that was going to be confronted with the same issue - so I decided to check my rearview mirror.
However, my eyes never made it up to the rearview because that very instant I noticed that there was a car next to me going vary fast off the side of the road to my right. There was a ditch there with some water in it and I thought 'well, that guy is going to end up stuck in the ditch'.
The people in front of me began to move again and I just sat there astounded wondering what was going to happen next. His car never stopped moving. He was right next to me (well actually about half a car length ahead of me) on my right and when I looked at his car I could see that his left front tire wasn't even touching the ground and it was spinning 900 mph (I clocked it). But he just kept moving - and I totally let him in front of me so he could get back into the line of traffic. It was like vehicular choreography.
When that spinning tire hit the pavement again it burned rubber and made a bad smell and a lot of smoke. But I didn't care - this guy was amazing. At the next red light I wanted badly to get out and thank him and tell him what a skillful driver he is. The more I realized what would have happened if would have hit me, the more thankful I became....and how he averted disaster...so gracefully. It was just, well, there is no good word for it - it was just a really big thing.
And then it occured to me:
Why in the hell was this asshole driving so fast in the first place? What is he, an idiot?!
He could have killed someone!
Namely ME, hello?!?!?!
WTF?? (<- this familiar acronym is making an El Blog de Jamie special guest appearance with new and improved dual meaning - the lesser known one being "where's the fire", ::snort::)
So, silver Ford Taurus dude, license plate Z58 - DRX, I don't know whether I should smack you with my lips or my hand, but you sure did make the morning trek to work a memorable one! [<- edited, I was obviously still discombobulated when I wrote that earlier..."rocked my world"??? who talks like that?!?!]
Pearls of "wisdom" by Jamie at January 20, 2005 08:23 AM