Tuesday, June 20, 2006

Life and Death

Yesterday on my way home from the office I managed to beat death by a mere millimeter or two...and I'm not exaggerating! I was following behind a dump truck where the driver thought I should be able to read his mind on his intentions.

At this point either my professional driving skills or luck kicked in because there is no logical reason why I'm here today to tell the story.

The driver of the gigantic dump truck decided that he had the right of way of the entire road. Just as the construction area ended the lanes broke from one to two and a turning lane. He gunned it to the left and I kept going straight. There was obviously some kind of communication error between his vibes and mine because all of the sudden he gunned it for the right...right into me. There was no way out of it. Before I knew it his bumper was headed for my side window, otherwise known as MY HEAD. This is when my ability to maneuver a car around any obstacle came into play. Somehow I managed to slam on the gas, get up on the curb and get past him. We never touched, though there's no way to explain it.
As I watched in my rear-view mirror he sat there for a second, obviously yelling to himself about those damn women drivers. Then he turned his truck back to the left side of the road. He was basically taking an extended WIDE TURN.
He didn't signal, he didn't even slow down- that would have warning enough for me!

As I kept on down the road I was amazed at my composure. I wasn't shaking or even out of breath, I was simply going over what just happened to try and understand it.

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