my love/hate relationship with the open road

I'm either extremely lucky on the roads...or very unlucky...depending on how you chose to view it (I choose lucky). My road encounters are notorious...but by the grace of God alone, I've been very fortunate to avoid any major catastrophe. A few examples...

Case #1:

I'm driving from Austin to Buna on a narrow back-woods road [lined by a wall of pine trees on each side] in torrential rain/wind, trapped behind a truck carrying chickens while desperately trying to avoid a tornado that was in the area. Thought I was going to die in a swirl of feathers and pine needles, yet somehow I escaped the wrath of the tornado [but not the feather/pine needle mix].

Case #2:

As I'm driving from Austin to Dallas [a drive that has caused me much torment over the years], a piece of sheet metal blew out of a guy's truck, flew underneath my car and sliced a tire open. Seriously thankful that the sheet metal went under my car and not through the windshield instead.

Numerous other incidents could be listed including the time I lost power steering [in a van on I-35....not good], or the time I lost the ability to accelerate [on I-10 in Houston...also not good], or the time a muffler fell off the car in front of me and hit my car, etc...but you get the point.

My most recent 'incident' occurred during my drive home for this weekend...which I personally think takes the cake...

I literally drove through hell*...not the fire-and-brimstone type, but the icy-pellet-downpour-that-might-break-your-windshield version...AND [as if the fear of having my windshield broken by these large, angry ice marbles wasn't enough] I'm 99.3% sure that I [ie. my car] got struck by lightening!

Just as I was beginning to see relief from the damaging hail, I heard a loud pop on the roof of my car quickly followed by an extremely bright flash of light in the rear section of my car [I also noted that most cars chose to put fair amount of distance between themselves and me after the fact...I can't blame them, I would be wary of any driver that got zapped as well]. I think that my immediate thought was something along the lines of "Ok God, [you've got my attention] I'm listening." My dad claims that he even found a mark on the top of my car to substantiate my claims....but my brother remains slightly skeptical. I seriously wish I had eye-witness accounts, because I would love to know what the people in the cars around me saw.

I could easily see these circumstance as a "target on my back" issue...but instead I think that I've got an awesome shield around me. Kinda makes me feel stealth. :)

*hail

say anything

here are some quotable gems I've been saving up:
[af = anonymous friend]


af #1: "you know that song....something about lucy..."
me: " you mean...'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds'...?"

(context: trying to casually to break the ice with a group of guys to pass off a phone number on a dare)

af #2: "hey...are you guys from Michigan?" (note: when she asked this, the anticipated response was 'no'....so she could quickly brush off the ice-breaker and pass off the number.)
boy group: Yeah! We're actually all from Ann Arbor!

af #2: "Girls....they really ARE from Michigan!?" (said with a "you've got to be kidding!" look)

af #1: "I like that Dave Barnes song, and surprisingly I don't really have diminishing returns for it"
me: "did you actually just say that you don't have diminishing returns for a song you like?"
af #1: "are you gonna put this on your blog?"
me: "yes...I think I just might"

af #3: "you kill it, you keep it!"
(an interesting dating perspective)

af #4: "patty griffin is good" (said with raised eyebrows)
me: "you're being sarcastic"
af #4: "I didn't say it sarcastically"
me: "no, but your eyebrows were sarcastic"
af #4: "alright, how about this...patty griffin is good" (said with a slow head nod)
me: "ok, your eyebrows weren't sarcastic...but your head nod was"

weather explanation

A recent email from a family member...

As everybody knows, if the Saints ever won the Super Bowl, Hell would freeze over.

Washington DC is under two feet of snow from last week, and they are getting more.

Geaux Saints!