I almost bit it today. Often times I think of how events can affect time and how the passage of time can affect future events. I usually hope for uneventful days because my mind supposes a memorable event is bound to be a bad event.
Amazing the mess three inches of snow can make when combined with thirty mile an hour winds. I was twisting with back roads, taking my time admiring the empty tundra like landscape. I was comfortable on those roads. I know my limits, I know getting home is not a race, and better to arrive alive then push on the clock and fail to make it home. A lesson I've learned the hard way like so many other lessons.
While on a little trip today I stopped at an Oasis. No problems. Got in the vehicle and it was jumping like a mad bronco. Managed to get the thing to a mechanic and was told they couldn't help. So I found a transmission store and naturally, on this turn of the engine the vehicle obeyed the manual gears without protestations. Naturally still the transmission man couldn't find anything wrong. A fluke. A fluke that delayed my arrival home by more than three hours and put me in the bad end of a snow storm on a busy highway.
I was in no rush. Had what I thought to be plenty of room between me and the next vehicle. Until he touched his breaks and turned on the blinker, but didn't move into the other lane. When my brakes touched the rotors the tires found themselves to be on ice and unable to respond. Hoping against hope that the vehicle would move as they suggested their intent to be, a quick thought of throwing myself into the snowy shoulder and possibly ditch and a decision to use the e-brake. Then a bump and a spin into the opposite shoulder, watching traffic descend upon me. A semi trailer rolls by not more than five feet from my passenger door.
Quick to act, start the car, put it in reverse, wait for a clearing and spin to right traffic pattern and pull over to check on the teenagers with their hazard lights blinking. All are okay and none are damaged. We shake hands and wish well. We are lucky.
There's a break in traffic and I jump in the right lane, mount a hill and behold a sea of traffic on the opposite side of the highway. Five cars in the ditches within a mile stretch. I am alive and see my child without great delay. Events stacked to topple but fortune granted grace.
