Out of Nowhere

About 4:00pm this afternoon I got in my NEW 2008 Chevrolet Aveo to go to the post office, make a quick stop at Starbucks, and pick up my husband from work. I highlight the word NEW because in over 35 years of marriage we have never had a new car. We have paid for two children's braces, private schools, colleges and even graduate school. We have helped them when they were unemployed and without a home after the Marines. They had cars, nice clothes, new laptops and numerous other luxury items and we were happy to provide them. But...we never had a new car. In November, after giving our son our dependable used car and taking his piece of metal that he called a vehicle, and, after realizing the transmission was about to go out, we sold it, gathered most of the cash we had available, and purchased a new car. It was somewhat of a right of passage for us. Time for us to spend some hard-earned money on ourselves.

But, I've digressed from the real message here: out of nowhere. I was driving along minding my own business and suddenly a large vehicle is heading toward me out of nowhere. Of course, I immediately react and swerve to try and avoid the inevitable collision. When you are in a compact car and a car twice your size gets a piece of you it's a given that you will go flying upon impact. And that's just what happened. I went flying into oncoming traffic; spinning out of control. When I stopped, I was perpendicular to the flow of traffic and stunned. I managed to gather my wits and pull out of traffic into a parking lot. The driver of the other vehicle was a 96 year old gentleman. His wife was in the front seat. They were both terribly shaken and she kept saying over and over again, "the cars just go too fast". Once we ascertained everyone was not physically hurt, we telephoned the police.

While we were waiting, I was standing there in shock. I realized I had no idea what had just happened. I didn't know how I was hit, which direction he came from, or how fast or slow he was going. I didn't know if he was turning into me, going straight toward me, or where he came from. I just remember he came out of nowhere. When the police arrived I couldn't facilitate the recreation of the accident. The older gentleman gave three accounts. The police officer did the best he could ascertaining what had happened by the damage to the vehicles. When it was over I drove home (thankfully the car was still drivable) and sat in the driveway for several minutes trying to breathe.

It occurred to me this evening. Our lives are like that. We are going along each day doing the usual tasks and then out of nowhere something or someone comes and crashes into us and changes everything. What happened today was a practical expression of what has happened in my life since first experiencing Barry in Las Vegas in 2006. There was the excitement of having a newfound love of the man and his music, followed by the crash that has become my journey into fandom. Quite apropos and ironic. Life imitating life.

Still reeling from both crashes,
Texas Fan