Friday, February 29, 2008

Look Before...

Happy Leap Day!

I had a near miss yesterday.  It started snowing around 2pm and by the time I left work at 4pm, quite a bit had built up on the roads.  I only live 2 miles from work but Bob had asked me to pick up an RX at W@llgreens.  It’s only about another 2 or 3 miles away so I told him I would get it on my way home from work.  Driving there was not a problem.  The speed limit is 40 but I played it safe and drove closer to 30 mph.  I made it to the pharmacy with no problems whatsoever.  Driving home was a different story.  Right away I noticed that in the 20 minutes I’d been in the store, the snow was wetter and the roads slicker.  I took it slow from the get go.  Still, at the first stop light, even though I began braking WAY before I really needed to, I began fish-tailing and sliding rapidly towards the car in front of me.  Seconds earlier, that car was farther ahead of me but the driver must have noticed the precarious conditions and put the brakes on right about the time I did.  I did everything I knew to do to no avail. My car was sliding on a slippery surface and was rapidly approaching the rear end of the vehicle in front of me.  I was helpless to do anything to stop it.  Since the first stop light is at the bottom of a hill, both our cars were not only sliding, they were gaining speed.  I was so afraid that the car in front would stop only to be rear-ended by me and pushed into the intersection and into on-coming traffic.  Feeling helpless and seeing everything in that weird slow motion way that happens at times like this, I just yelled out audibly, “Lord, help!”, and seriously, both our cars stopped right where they were simultaneously.  It was the weirdest, most magical thing and I heaved a huge sigh of relief…until I saw the car behind me rapidly approaching my rear bumper.  Thankfully, they were able to turn out of the slide and go around.  Whew!

I feel like crap today.  I woke up at 2 this morning having to use the bathroom.  Once I was finished, I went back to bed only to toss and turn for the next 2 ½ hours.  I was so tired and my eyes so heavy and sore and burning from needing sleep.  Still, sleep would not come. I ended up getting up at 4:30 and doing some stuff around the apartment.  I left for work about an hour early just to keep busy and now I feel like I could topple over at any minute.  I’ve had that vague, gnawing feeling in my stomach all day.  That feeling you get when you’ve had too little sleep and to much caffeine.  That feeling like if you ingest the wrong thing, it’s all coming back the way it went in.  Do you know that feeling?  All I want to do is go home and crawl into my bed and fall asleep.  What a waste of a Friday night.

Oh, I forgot to say that because of the little mishap/near miss mentioned above, I did not attend the photography small group meeting at the church we visited on Sunday.  Their next meeting isn’t until March 20th, so I have to wait a bit.  Still, I thought better safe than sorry and was glad to spend a quite night at home watching Lost.

4 comments:

Joan said...

That was a close call, Amy. I'm glad you're ok!

Yvonne said...

So glad you avoided the accident.

I hope you had a restful, healing weekend.

Unknown said...

Whew, I'm glad you weren't in an accident, but I'll bet that added a few grey hairs to your head.

I do know exactly that feeling you are describing... when I get that tired, for some reason I want to cry. Hope you make it through the day ok.

black and white and read all over said...

Driving on winter roads is scary. I had my share the 10 years I lived in Tahoe.