Skip to main content

The Car I Won't Forget


As many of you know, I have a non-trivial commute to work every day. I've gotten used to it, but it means that I spend more than a few hours on the road. That means that I also see quite a few cars on the road. Most of the time, I only pay attention long enough to ensure that said car is not going to endanger my life. Other than that, I forget all about the vehicle as soon as it's out of eye sight. Still, there was this one car that managed to make a permanent home in my memory.

I first noticed this vehicle out of my peripheral vision when I was making a turn. On this particular intersection, three lanes all turn left, and I usually end up in the middle of those three lanes. I've learned over time to keep an eye on the lanes of either side of me as they turn, because people have very interesting ideas about which lane they are allowed to use. Also, some folks have a harder time staying in their lane. Either way, there is a bigger chance than I would like that I have to avoid a car suddenly entering my space. So, I like to keep at least a sidelong glance trained on the two other cars.

I did precisely that on this occasion, and something in the corner of my eye made me pause. I can't honestly tell you what it was that made me hesitate in that moment, but I tapped the brakes just a little bit out of reflex. We both completed the turn without problem, but the momentary decrease in speed allowed the car to pull a little farther ahead. I could now see exactly what had caught my attention: the hood was flipped up and bent in two. You know how the front end of modern cars "crumple" when they get in to an accident? It was a little bit like the hood had gone through that process. So when I say the hood was bent in two, I mean that it looked like there was a small hill where the front hood of the car should have been.

To be clear, I have no problem with older cars on the road. The car I drive is getting a bit long in the tooth itself. After all, I add 70+ miles on my car's odometer on a daily basis, so I'd feel silly putting a nice car through that kind of grind. Still, this car was in very, very obvious disarray. Aside from the fact that the engine wasn't protected from the elements in that condition, it had to have been harder to see when there was a big metal impediment in the way.

Now that the car was no longer right beside me, though, I noticed a second fact: it was spewing some kind of liquid. I quickly rolled up my windows, and then I did a double-take to ensure that I wasn't seeing things. Upon that second inspection, I realized that my eyes weren't playing tricks on me. There were actually drops of liquid coming from the car. And I noticed that the car's windshield wipers weren't on, so it's not like the driver was trying to clear the windshield. Whatever it was that was being propelled at my car, it wasn't intentional. What's more, I had no intention of lowering the windshield to verify what manner of liquid was being ejected from the car (side note: this thing reminded me a little bit of a zombie or a barely-holding-it-together monstrosity, so I shall henceforth refer to it as Franken-car).

For all I knew, that liquid was flammable. Hell, even if it was "just" oil, Franken-car's engine was slowly inching towards a very dangerous mode of operation. Engines can overheat. I specifically remember having visions of a fiery explosion in the lane next to mine. I also distinctly remember that the very next three words out of my mouth were, "oh, hell no."

I quickly applied more power to the accelerator, to put some distance between myself and Franken-car. Still, we weren't on the freeway, so I was inevitably bound to stop. And as I did so, I noticed Franken-car creeping back in to the picture on my right side. It was like the movie monster that refused to go away. It just kept coming and coming. In fact, it continued to dog me for the next few minutes. Those were some scary minutes, let me tell you.

Mercifully, we headed in different directions a few minutes later when we took different forks in the road. With maybe one exception, I have never been so relieved about a driving-related turn of events. I don't really remember the rest of the drive home, to be honest. I probably could've passed a spotted unicorn on the side of the road and I wouldn't have batted an eye at that point. I had survived an encounter with Franken-car, and that was good enough for me.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

All Good Things ...

August 8, 2009. Over twelve years ago, I started blogging with this simple post . I didn't really have a great reason for starting the blog, other than I wanted to try it out. I wanted to try writing and putting it where others could read it. I don't know, it just seemed like a new adventure to try. Along the way, there have been all sorts of posts and all sorts of life events, but through it all, I kept writing. It just became a part of what I do at some point. It wasn't a matter of whether I was going to write a blog post, it was a matter of when. The Mild Wife has described it as a "writing practice," and it was one of the reasons why I kept writing. Honestly, it's good practice, and it gives me an opportunity to hone my craft. I'm no professional author, but we all have to write stuff in our everyday lives. Why not give yourself reps to get better at it? However, I think it's time for that practice to change. My weekly anecdotes sure kept me amused...
Post a Comment
Read more

Where Do I Go?

As the days of COVID-19 are dragging on, we are having to make more adjustments to our usual routines. Some of these changes are so mundane that I haven't mentioned them at all in this blog, while others have lead to some pretty funny anecdotes . That's probably par for the course, since you wouldn't expect a global pandemic to be all giggles. As it turns out, however, not all of the anecdotes happen to us directly. Having to socially distance and remotely do things has actually led to at least one goofy episode that we found out from afar. You see, it was our niece's birthday recently, but we couldn't visit her because of the aforementioned social distancing. So, we figured we'd ship her a present and call her on her birthday. We couldn't be there in person, but we could still wish her well and try to make her feel special on her birthday. Given that shipping times have been erratic the last few months, we ordered the present with plenty of time, and it arr...
Post a Comment
Read more

Dreams

Normally, I don't eat very many sweets. I tend to eat pretty generous portions, but I generally prefer savory food over sweet. In fact, I usually prefer things half as sweet when possible. My preference doesn't have anything to do with health reasons, it's just one of those things that I've always liked better. That said, I do inevitably eat dessert, particularly if I'm out with other people. My stance towards dessert is roughly equivalent to those who are social drinkers . If other people want to munch on something for dessert, I'm not about to cross my arms and refuse. That'd be just a tad gauche. So, I do eat some dessert. I even have a few standby favorites that I'll usually order when presented with them (brownies, creme brulee, and apple pie). But left to my own devices, I'm not about to go hunting for dessert. Apparently, this means that the sugar can really mess with my system under the right circumstances. As I've discovered, ...
Post a Comment
Read more