A Close Brush with Death
I won't bore you by being overly dramatic, but my family came within a hair of dying on US27 between Orlando and Ft. Meyers. A car that had slowed to about 10 miles an hour in the left had turn lane changed their mind and pulled back, still going 10 miles an hour, into the main traffic lane. Right in front of my car. While I was going 60. At night. I jammed the breaks on my unfamiliar rent car and managed to slow just enough to have time to slide into the other lane, just ticking the back bumper. Fortunately, there was no one in the right lane, because I was sure as hell going over there whether it was occupied or not.
So we live, and I had the shakes for a while. My daughter, who had already gone for the bad-traveler trifecta, barfing twice on the plane and once in the car, didn't even stir. My son never really realized how close things were. Good.
Pretty sure my life did not pass before my eyes, and I didn't really reach any lifetime epiphanies or anything so dramatic. Maybe I am just shallow, or maybe I am so optimistic I cannot in my heart accept the closeness of death. Anyway, I had an unbelievably relaxed day today. The one lasting effect of the near-mishap was that 4 or 5 things that were bothering me and stressing me a bit were quickly flushed down the mental drain as trivial.
So much for shortcuts. Tomorrow, we take the longer way back to Orlando on the Interstate.
