News of a family death this morning but I owe ya a little story
. so I'll be briefish. Now, it's not about brie, or fish and I could make it long
but I'll midgetize it so not TL;DR.
. Couple days ago I'm out country way looking at a house up on a hill. Had all the right general features that I'm looking for, but just didn't "feel" right. Lacked warmth, but it's a short drive from the Big Reservoir, my favorite fishery, so I get there (to the reservoir) about 2 PM. It's a shit day for fishing, high wind, high sky, high barometer, full harvest moon though so that was the single plus. I'm like, man, I'm only two outings away from 250 consecutive w/o getting skunked for Bass. 20 minutes in I decide to check a small cove which I know well even though I suspect that the fish may have moved to deeper water, but a couple casts around a large submerged rock and BAM! a nice 2 lber. But it was a tough day, only 4 catches in nearly as many hours. Anyway, none of that has anything to do with the story I want to tell other than serving as explanation for why I was over there into the evening hours.
Break to collect thoughts
Okay, so this is actually difficult to deliver in Reader's Digest form....but....
Getting out to the highway, a good 20 minutes from my fishing, night starts to fall, and as it does I start to think back on the days when I first moved from the Meadowlands area of New Jersey to more rural climes. (please, don't tell me that location isn't climes at least in a poetic sense because it is so STFU). As I drive the light retreats and then there is full darkness except for the Harvest Moon (play song at the end). I recall when first I moved countryward one thing that was very difficult to adjust to, and it remains difficult, is that county roads and highways don't have street lighting as they do in areas more densely populated. I got plenty of practice though driving nights from work, 1 hr+...no street lights.
I'm thinking about this, I'm considering how careful one must be because there are animals jumping out in the road from nowhere, oncoming cars with dooshbag drivers who don't kill their brights, and even if they do you are blinded to the road in front of you so must slow and keep attention focused on every scrap of information your eyes can bring about what is ahead. People nonetheless drive like fuckin nuts under these conditions and I recalled a woman who I used to drive to medical appointments while employed driving cab in a border town (NY/NJ). We talked about driving fast on country roads, she told me of a driver she had who drove too fast for her comfort. She suggested he slow down or hit a deer and she mimic'd him in a gruff low class tough guy voice saying "I've hit plenty deer and I'll hit some more". She was a favorite passenger.
Break to collect thoughts and make edits.
Anyway, I've never hit a deer...a few smaller animals, including a couple of birds that flew directly into the grill of my car as if on a suicide by auto mission. Nothing one can do about it, it happens that fast. Squirrels and chipmunks can be hard to avoid because they dart out as soon as a car approaches for some damn reason, but I don't care how small the critter, my heart stops when their life is in jeopardy. Once on my way home from work, on a dark side street, I heard and felt a bang on my car and thought a tree limb had fallen on me. Slowing and looking rearward in the side-view I see a deer struggling wobbly to its feet. It had jumped a guard rail and slammed head first into the driver's side leaving a small dent and a few hairs stuck under the side molding strip. ...but as I say, I've never hit a deer, - that one hit me though.
Okay, nearly there - this is background. Insert small break here.
It's quite a long drive which seems longer than it used to be but I know there is no rush. The towns and cops take speed laws out that way very seriously...someone is always pulled over as a reminder. It's Thursday...but I don't have work the next day...no rush. Ha ha hah..suckers.
Continuing homeward I'm thinking about how when driving through my town I take it slowly. There are signs like "Slow, we love our kids" and others of the like, and if you have ever considered what it would be like to hit a child, or any person, that thought alone should be enough to give you caution and keep you vigilant while driving. I can hardly imaging a worse feeling.
About one half hour from home, I pass through a shit thing of a town (no names here). Disgusting low class blighted shit town, on the way through there is a hasidic summer camp, smells like rotting road kill, and on the other side the local high school...30 mph posted. You get off a highway, then suddenly 30 mph. I always found that a hard transition, keeping to it is a task. Of course these thoughts I writ of are still rolling echoes through a tired and distracted mind as the blinking light passes behind though they have sharpened my focus....just enough that when I see 3 sticks moving across the road in front of me I swing the wheel and apply the breaks just timely enough to avoid hitting a black dude with cane in dark clothing. Only feet from the hood of my car.....I think, that is how fast lives can change, boy, and I remembered a collision of 50 years ago.. That fast, and nothing would ever be the same. No plan, no hope, no next bottle of Thunderbird for that fucking drunk (probably) asshole. Ruin.
One thing that was interesting to me was my reaction to such a close call of life altering accident. In years past, I'm sure I would have been shaken, literally shaking, but I reacted with calm, and I'll take something from it that will serve me.
. Got home, had a bowl of cereal because it was late.
OH..PS: Good thing that I am still fit and my reflexes sharp, just as
@Fredricka has reported.
. Could have been a very different outcome.
Eat right, exercise and stay fit, people.
a fucking rake?? dude not sure I mentioned this already but you remind me so much of my uncle hahahhahaaaa he’s a biker type but not gang affiliated he’s older 71 so he got himself a trike bike it’s actually very very cool
