Wipe Out

Over the years, I have learned a lot of lessons, rarely has one made me make an immediate change in my lifestyle. Yesterday we finally got some much-needed rain. But it was the type of rain where it was a mist rather than a drizzle, just enough to make you need your intermittent wipers. Traffic was horrible, so I decided I would take the shortcut over to the post office.

Once I was off the main road, I grabbed my phone and called my sister. Not thinking much about it, I continued along the road rambling on as I always do. There is a curve in the road as you go down a hill. You can also turn into a parking lot where there is a water mill. This turn is in the curve, once you start to straighten out from the kiss-your-ass-curve, there is a bridge and the road starts to straighten out a little more. The speed limit sign says 25 mpg, with good reason. I begin to brake as I am coming down the hill and suddenly I realize that nothing is happening. Then it hits me that I am in a full skid. I know I screamed to my sister that I was skidding and threw the phone. I tried to remember if I was supposed to go with the skid or try to correct it. The Jeep goes sideways down the hill and rather than taking the curve, it went sideways into the turnoff and lands perfectly next to a parked car. I don't remember much other than thinking to myself "OMG, I have NO one to call". I was thinking okay, I'm not driving anymore, this is my sign to hang it up and stop driving.

Normally, I am an excellent driver (if I do say so myself). However, with the combination of talking on the cell phone, excessive speed in a curve and rain bringing the oils out onto the asphalt, it was a dangerous combination. A combination I'm not willing to take again. I have only been involved in one accident and that was an 80 yr old lady T boning my sister's car while running a red light. That incident scared me enough that I didn't drive for close to a year.

I don't know which guardian angel was with me yesterday but whoever it was, I thank them. I learned the hard way why you should hang up and drive. So easily I could have flipped the Jeep and messed myself up pretty good. From now on, I think I'll stick to keeping both hands on the wheel rather than trying to pretend I'm a NASCAR driver. What should have been a left hand curve turned into a right hand park, backwards no less. Oh yeah, I found the phone in the backseat and I am still trying to pull the cotton out of my ass.