Hello and welcome back the wonderful world of the Dogpound.
Just recently I have been thinking about accidents, and I will tell you why, but first let’s review my history of car accidents. I have been in a few accidents, but thank the good Lord, I have never been in one that was really serious. Now I did have two that had potential written all over them; in one case, a young kid for some reason decided to make a U-turn out of the clear blue sky, right in front of me. I hit the side of the truck a pretty good lick. I got a badly bruised knee out of it, and my poor little Nissan truck was totaled. No one in the pickup was hurt.
Then there was the time I lost my traction on some black ice in the middle of the night and went over the freeway embankment. By all rights, I should have rolled my truck 30 feet to the bottom of the hill. Somehow I slid down almost sideways through heavy snow but managed to stay upright. I have no idea how that happened, other than my guardian angel was working overtime that night.
Interestingly, I have had more accidents in parking lots than on the road. One good thing is that they are all done at low speeds but are still very aggravating because they are the most avoidable. Just the other day, I avoided two potential collisions in the Walmart parking lot. I had just made a purchase and was starting to back out of my spot when a lady on the other side of the aisle started to back out as well. What was really insane is that she saw me get into my car first, but she backed out like I was not even there. Another customer saw us both moving toward each other and was trying to get the lady’s attention to no avail. I was halfway out but relented to avoid a collision. She acted like she never even noticed me. Now if that was not enough, I continued to back out and had just straightened out when a pickup a few spots ahead of me started to pull out. Again, rhe observer was making motions and even covered her mouth when she thought we were going to collide. I was about ready to throw my car into reverse, but he managed to get his truck out and take off without any acknowledgement of my presence or the near miss we just had. As a footnote, the observer just looked at me and shook her head in disbelief. I did the same as I “slowly” pulled out of the parking lot.
Now the whole point of this conversation was to tell you about my latest accident, and even though it did not involve motor transportation, it still deserves mentioning. I was coming down the stairs from the family room and my toe got caught on the edge of one of the steps. This situation could have resulted in a serious fall, but I was able to lean my shoulder against the wall and slow my slide down the steps. However, the wall stops five steps from the bottom, and there is no railing, just a baseboard that is only 4 1/2 inches wide. I slid off the wall and landed on my back on a small flat surface with my feet over the steps and continued to slide 6 feet to the floor where I landed flat on my back. I am not sure how I managed that little acrobatic act, but I did. And other than feeling a bit stupid, there were no broken bones or bruises. My guardian angel has to be very alert!
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK
“Never travel faster than your guardian angel can fly.” – Mother Teresa
I better close for now. As always be good, do good, play safe, and remember to be careful out there. – JR
