Near Miss This Morning
Thought I'd share here. This morning when I was driving in to my office in the dark I almost was in a head-on collision with somebody driving the wrong way on our local blvd. It happened so fast. He grazed the dodge durango in front of me, headed my way, and I managed to swerve very hard across the center divide to miss him. Luckily, at that early hour, nobody was coming the other way on the other side. It happened so quick - from seeing his headlights to just missing him was only about two seconds. I quickly spun my truck around to try to intervene or see how he ended up. Luckily, again, hardly anybody out at that hour. He got turned around and was being visited by the durango driver...who was so frightened he was shaking. I made sure the wrong-way driver didn't leave because he was clearly challenged...acting drunk. Ends up he is an old veteran suffering from diabetes. Guys...this happened so fast. My body just reacted and my mind thought, "So...this is how it happens..." I was shaken, but am at work today...reevaluating my life a little bit.
That's when I was a young man with sharp reflexes in my early twenties and fairly fresh out of the Marines.
Anyway, year by year, at least twice on the boulevard I drove by multi-car bumper-to-bumper pileups that involved six or more cars. Someone would ram the back of a braked to a stop car and then what followed was a domino effect.
One day I was driving home and was on Southern Boulevard beside a grass island between the different direction lanes and was in a line of cars stopped by a red light.
Dead behind me I heard Crash! Crash! Crash! and immediately knew what was coming. I took my foot of the brake and briefly toed the gas while wheeling right onto that grassy median.
The last car hit got bumped halfway through the space my car had vacated~~that stopping the domino bumper-to-bumper effect.
Save for some people rubbing the back of their necks, no one was seriously hurt. Well, maybe.
When I was a state corrections officer during 1986 something once flowed through me, calming me when I was on my back
fighting an inmate.
That inmate had grabbed my baton when I grabbed the one he took from another officer being beaten up.
I had been in a terror that other inmates standing around would start kicking my head in at any second.
But what I felt flowing inside me was very loving.
Before a minute could pass, rescuing officers had pulled off that inmate and pulled me to my feet. I did not have a scratch on me.
Okay, after now mulling it over, I don't care who doesn't like what I think it was that comforted me. It was my holy spirit connection to God.
And if I'm wrong, an angel embraced me instead.
I am not religious as you know, we spoke about that subject many times here in the Gulch.
But I believe what you just described. We all have experiences like that and what it signifies to me is that we are all connected to a power in the Universe.
That power holds the Universe together, be it of the dimension that exceeds the resolution of the human mind. But I believe it exists and maybe a 1,000 years from now it will be revealed, aided by science/technology.
That's not my Christian belief system. Everyone has some idea what that's about.
And there's a rule against preaching religion on this "open board."
We're not in a "PM universe" right now.
Besides, I was not "preaching" against religion, simply stated that I was not one.
I wasn't aware it was forbidden.
I just looked into Frequently Asked Questions, scrolled down to Galt's Gulch Etiquette and further down to~~~
Please do and then to
Please do not . .
(scroll a short ways past other "please do not" stuff)
Proselytize your religion (means try to convert) or advocate faith. Inquiry, yes. Advocate, no.
Me dino believes so far I've stayed with Inquiry yes bounds though others here may find that debatable. Recall years back when just simply writing "OMG" would give some Gulchers conniption fits. That's not advocating, y'all.
All that out of the way, No, I don't know what you are alluding to. Your stated "Universal power" makes me think of an imploded version of the Force that runs through the galaxy of Star Wars.
I find it amusing that some Protestant preachers find that fictional Force to be a threat to their theology. That silly ecological moon goddess in that Avator movie didn't bother me either. Heck, me dino enjoys Greek and Norse mythology. Thor of Marvel Comics and its movies is a pretty neat super hero. That recent descendant of the Greek gods Wonder Woman movie was great entertainment!
And just last month my husband's 31-year old nephew died in a house fire. His wife realized the house was on fire and tried to wake him, but he was already gone from gas inhalation (at least he didn't burn to death). She just got out of the hospital after 3 weeks in ICU. Of course her life will never be the same! And only 31! So much promise. Both were high achievers (of course she still is).
Now about those people with diabetes. You don't have to be old or, well, anything, to go into insulin shock, especially a T1. But T2s who take insulin can also be affected. And it often looks like drunk driving, but testing tells the story. How do we get affected sufferers of diabetes off the road? I don't know. I tried 20+ years and finally refused to allow my (then) husband to drive our kids anywhere. He just couldn't keep his glucose levels high enough to be competent.
So glad it was a "near miss" and not a dead-center hit. There's no such thing as being "too" alert when you are driving. These things DO happen fast. You don't see them coming, until they are there.
You never know when the end will come - glad that this is giving you time to think about life - verse your loved ones missing you in theirs.
We were caught in a violent thundersnow storm on a very high pass when a van from Oregon was plummeting out of control downhill toward us.
We looked at each other and smiled. We knew that we were doomed...what better place to die?
At the last second the van passed by us on the driver's side. I watched everything in slow motion. I doubt that you could have slidden a piece of paper between the vehicles...but nothing happened.
Nether of us can understand what happened or why we weren't grizzly fodder.
We lived in Saucon Valley, a beautiful woodsy area of hills and valleys. It also meant that during the Winter we had to deal with all the usual impediments a frosty season presented us with.
Living in the Valley implied that in order to get to Bethlehem or Allentown we had to ascend a steep hill that froze up in the first few days of Winter, making the road practically impassable with a car, even with one equipped with snow tires.
I was driving to work one morning, taking my chances if I could get through the snowy/icy hill ahead of me. I saw other cars getting through all right on the two lane road. As I was ascending on the hill, suddenly I saw one of the oncoming cars breaking from its lane and crossing into mine. It looked like the driver lost control as his car was skidding toward the car in front of me. There was no way anyone could do anything from there on. The two cars collided head on, saving me from the same fate. I was right behind the car that was hit.
Ambulance came and took the drivers away. It was one of the close calls I will never forget.
Glad you made it. There are a lot of compromised individuals driving who should not be.
Are you in the Santa Cruz area?
Just to add my recent experience: I was pushing my cart out of the supermarket the other day, across a yellow band on the road, marked so that drivers should yield to pedestrians.
I saw a car coming from the left and took it for granted he'd stop seeing me crossing.
He did not.
I was in the yellow strip already when he hit my cart. Then he stopped, stepping out of his car, apologizing profusely.
He was a very old guy who either looked the other way or did not know driving rules. I was shaken up and was less than polite as I told him he was an arse and should not be driving.
You can't have a drink at work but have one when you go home and relax.