| Wednesday January 29th 2002 Traffic accidents have been on my mind a lot lately. Partly because of GB's encounter with the deer, but it really started for me with a dream I had afterward, about a very specific corner along the highway between here and LA's town. It was on the way back, low visibility at night, at a particular corner leading into a particular town - I slid off the road to the right just before a bridge and crashed through the ice. Then I woke up. When I visited LA this past weekend I kept that dream quietly to myself - she's a bigger believer in fate than I am, I figured, so I didn't want to mention it. Fortunately the roads were in good condition driving home. It was at night, but no snowfall. No construction. No reason to worry. But I found myself slowing down as I went around that corner anyway. Turned out what I'd dreamt was impossible; memory hadn't served me entirely accurately. Where I thought I could have gone off the road into the water, there's actually nothing worse than a wide, shallow ditch. Sometimes I wonder what I'd do if I was about to get on a plane and - suddenly - a powerful urge of foreboding overcame me. Would I turn around and not get on the plane? I think I'd get on - cause truth be told, I've had those feelings more than once and nothing's ever come of them, this dream being just the latest example. I pride myself on my imagination, but sometimes it's more of a pain than I'd like to admit. My thoughts were on accidents again a couple of days ago; on Monday I went to visit a co-worker after work, and along the stretch of road between his place and mine I saw a total of three accidents. None of them looked too serious, but I was totally mystified. The road conditions were fine, not slippery. Nobody had any reason to speed, except for it being the tail end of rush hour. I saw the first one and thought 'poor guys'. Saw the second and thought 'that's weird'. Saw the third, and for the rest of that trip had both hands on the wheel, eyes on the mirrors and blind spots, foot hovering over the brake as I went through intersections ... Years of game playing taught me that once is luck; twice is coincidence; three times requires immediate attention. |