The first time was in the morning when I was driving to my part-time job. I got on the freeway and it was one of those situations where the traffic should have been moving at close to posted speeds and everyone expected traffic to be moving at posted speeds. It wasn't. There's that one person who is creeping along confusing everyone and causing people to hit their brakes.
All of a sudden I saw brake lights in front of me. I hit my brakes hard and looked in the rearview mirror and cringed. The guy behind me was coming fast. Fortunately he had room to swerve to the shoulder to avoid reshaping my car into this:
I exhaled. The Grim Reaper had fired a shot and missed.
Later, storms rolled in. We saw heavy rain we have not see in months. Flash flood warnings were in effect. Smart people were at home watching Heroes with a six-pack.
But I had to go to work. The drive is only about 6 miles and I made it to work uneventfully. I should have known that something was up when the power went out at the health club where I was working. Fortunately this happened after I finished my class.
Coming home is when the Grim Reaper re-loaded.
It's still raining hard. It's dark and it's hard to see. I'm driving along and hear CLUNK, CLUNK, THUD, RUMBLE, RUMBLE......
OH SH*T! What just happened? You have to understand that I just finished a yoga class so I was very mellow at this point and my brain was very slow to react.
I'm asking myself did I run over a cat or dog? It sounded like I hit a bear. I thought I saw a cat running on the other side of the street but my brain says that if I hit that cat, it wouldn't be running.
But I'm still moving. No tires blown out. Car is functioning.
I continue to slowly process thoughts. Did I hit a PERSON?
I don't think so.
After hearing the racket I had checked my mirrors and didn't see anything in the road laying motionless. I finally come to my senses and turned around to take a closer look.
As I was driving back to the "scene", I started seeing remnants of tire tread in the road. As I turned around again I saw larger remnants in the area where I "hit" something. I know. That's not very exciting. I ran over an effing tire tread.
I'm breathing a sigh of relief. I didn't want to kill or maim anything or anybody, especially myself. Fortunately The Reaper missed again.
When I got home I walked around the car and didn't see any damage but later I noticed a little bit of "out of place" plastic on the front left side. [Sigh] Don't they make anything out of metal anymore?
It's really not that noticeable.
This whole thing reminds of an episode of Red Dwarf where Rimmer kicks the Grim Reaper in the nuts. ROFL! I think it's the last show of the last season.Give my poor little car a smiley, won't you?
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10 comments:
That damn Grim Reaper! Luckily he's an idle sod, or we'd all be in trouble.
Red Dwarf is superb, but I don't think I've seen the episode you refer to.
Wow. Sounds like a tough day! Glad you were fine and dandy. :)
@Chris - Smoke me a kipper......
@MeadowLark - Thanks!
Well, at least it wasn't a living thing you ran over! I rearranged my front driver side bumper last year while backing into the garage I've been backing into for 7 years. Thought my front bumper had cleared the frame of the door and that I could cut the wheel to get closer to the side wall of the garage. Instead the corner of the bumper hooked on to the bracket that holds the door track in place, which is far tougher than the plastic bumper. The noise didn't sound too bad, but when I got out, there was the driver's side of the bumper hanging on the ground, the plastic screws that hold it to the frame of my car along side it. It took the parking light out, too. I smashed it back in place, said some truck diver words and took it up the street to Cooper Tire and they put it back together for me for $2.80, the cost of the screws and new bulb. I flash them every time I bring my car in and they treat me quite well. They even give me coffee while I wait.
I've had those days plenty of times! I came to realize that the grim reaper is a terrible shot!
@Deb - Ah, so that's how you get repair folks to do their best work. I must have missed that somewhere in my sheltered life!
@Jayson - I'm very glad the Grim Reaper is a bad shot. Hope it continues.
OMG...it turned the entire car BLUE!!!! I think...
Oh, and you will be tagged tomorrow. It's not pretty.
PS – You better not miss my post for Fri 11/14. I’m one post shy of 600 and out of those there are only 3 current pictures of VE and NONE of him when he was younger. Ever wonder what teen VE looked like? Here’s your opportunity to find out along with a mega embarrassing meme as well. It’s not pretty.
@VE - Yeah. What a surprise! The car used to be maroon ;-)
Don't worry. I would never miss one of your posts.
to hell with the reaper. I'm kicking his ass when he comes for me. I've hit those dead tire parts before as well. How could there be so much of it? If you take the time to look for it it's like everywhere - but I've never seen a truck in mid tire blowing up motion.
Deb, did I tell you I'm a mechanic? I'll be one if....
@dude - And they don't show up well in the dark.....Anyway, I saw this lady at Discount Tire and she...
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