Our little town has an abundance of single lane roundabouts. I love zipping around those traffic circles...the dance of cars merging, rotating, and exiting is just plain fun; it's the mom-in-a-minivan version of a doing donuts in a snowy parking lot. I know, that's pathetic. But I take me thrills when and where I can.
Today as I was circling one of those center islands, I saw a car getting ready to merge. What I DIDN'T see was the driver looking to his left to see if he needed to yield to cars already on the roundabout (that is, ME). Nope, the dude just cruised right into in intersection, arm dangling out the window, face staring straight ahead. I had to slam on the breaks and was forced to stop in the middle of the circle. As I sat there, he slowly turned his head and gave me a look like, "What? Why are you looking at me with your mouth hanging open? And why are you stopped in the middle of the road?"
If I hadn't stopped, if I weren't a paranoid driver that is always anticipating others to be boneheads, that guy would have plowed RIGHT INTO the passenger side of my minivan. Right exactly where my daughter was strapped into her cow-printed car seat, singing to her stuffed animals. I looked back at her and an image flashed in front of my face: that car seat smashed towards the center of the car. Right exactly where my son was sitting engrossed reading The Grim Grotto.
For a split second, my world was over.
But I turned back around and exited the roundabout, my world intact. The worries (financial, financial, and financial) of the moments before Mr. Stupid Driver blithely cut me off were forgotten.
So thank you, Mr. Stupid Driver, for reminding me to put it all in perspective.
That was scary...glad that's all that happened.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you guys are okay, very scary. The whole bridge thing has forced me to focus on what is important to me this week, sometimes the universe really does speak to you...I just hate when it speaks so loudly and in a way that makes my heart jump.
ReplyDeleteBTW, love your new header and format, I've been reading you in my Google reader page and haven't clicked here lately...nice!
Wow...I know that was really scary for that brief moment, wasn't it? I've been there...
ReplyDeleteI hate knuckle-head drivers!! It seems that since I became a mom, though, I have automatically become a much more "paranoid" driver too. I think that's one of the things that naturally happens along with the maternal instinct.
Glad y'all are ok.