The Right Choice

You ever have one of those moments where if you turned left instead of right something terrible would've happened to you? I was supposed to take a morning flight to Los Angeles on Sept. 15, 2001 that was pushed back from earlier that week – whether the original date was Sept. 11, I honestly don't know as I was not the one making the arrangements. It spooked me though.

One day I came home for dinner during one of the worst summer thunderstorms I can remember. I parked the car in front of my parents' house and ran up the walkway. My father was waiting for me with the door open. He saw a flash behind me as I was running and then a loud crack bowled me over and knocked me into him. Lightning had struck the ground where I was running an instant before (and the ground was singed).

The one moment that really stays with me happened about 12-13 years ago. The drive home from the library where I (still) work was literally five minutes. It was almost all residential driving except that I had to cross over a major road (where there was a light) to get to my house.

There are stop signs all along the street leading up to this intersection. For nearly the entire ride there was no one ahead of me. At the last stop sign before the intersection someone pulled up on the opposite side and wanted to turn in front of me. I have to confess I'm not exactly Mr. Courteous Driver. I hate when people cut me off to make stupid left turns across Northern Blvd and crap like that, so more often than not I'm like, "I don't see you!" and don't let them in.

However today I was being charitable and I let the person turn in front of me. Now I was the second car at the intersection waiting for the light to change. The light turned green and the driver in front of me inched out only to be broadsided by someone who ran the red light. The guy who hit him jumped the divider, hit another car coming the opposite way and then a parked car. The guy in front of me was pushed forward about twenty feet and he hit a parked car.

Obviously had I not allowed that driver to go ahead of me I would've been creamed instead of him. It was the worst accident I had ever seen or have ever seen. I was shaking for hours on that one.