All in all 2010 was a good year, there were a few bumps in the road but overall I was a big fan. That is, until the 3oth of December.
I got up, packed my bags for work and headed out knowing full well that there was snow in the forecast. Glancing up at the sky on the way out the back door, I figured that I had a few hours before it started and silently planned that I would get to work, get a few things done and then head back home to finish up the day before the storm ever hit. It’s a good plan if I do say so myself.
As I’ve mentioned before (maybe?) I drive about an hour to work every day… So, I’m cruising along listening to my newest book on tape Change of Heart (which I recommend as of now — on disc 9) by Jodi Picoult and contemplating what it would be like to be on death row when a spattering of snow starts to trickle down to my windshield. I resolve to just get into work, grab my computer and work from home because this whole snowstorm business is moving a little quicker than previously anticipated.
The roads start to dampen and traffic slows a bit because it’s the first snow of the season — and though I live in a state where snow is commonplace, there are a plethora of drivers stick their heads up their rears the first few rounds every year. This, my friends, becomes an enormous blessing. I’m approaching the Berthoud exit on I-25 — about 20 minutes from work — and the brake lights of the cars ahead began to flare. I push the brake to slow with them and nothing. I pump the brakes because that’s what I’m suppose to do and nothing. I start praying that the breaks will start working and nothing. Nothing, no brakes on the highway. Fabulous.
The car(s) in front of me seem to be experiencing the same set of brake problems when it dawns on me that my brakes are perfectly fine, but the sheet of black ice below me is the culprit. The red sedan ahead of me starts fishtailing then veering to the right. I have to guide myself to the right to avoid slamming into her. She then loses complete control, cutting in front of me, headed straight for the ditch on the right side of the road. I shift further right, leaving the left lane and find myself hurtling toward the ditch.
From there on out it happened so fast that it’s a complete blur. I hit the ditch, rolled the car 360 degrees and ended right side up, facing south on the frontage road next to the highway. The back windshield shattered, the front cracked but miraculously holding it’s fragmented self together. My lunch involving Mac n’ cheese and sauerkraut is flung about the car, strings of noodles and cabage on everything. Nothing is where it was suppose to be.
I’m ok. Terrified of driving (especially in snow). But, ok. I banged up my back and left shoulder, but they’ll heal. I had glass in my clothes, but not one single cut. I was bumped and bruised and sore heading into 2011, but most of all I was incredibly lucky. Someone was surely watching over me.
I don’t know if my car is totaled, hoping to find out by tomorrow, but it’s hard to imagine it would be anything but. A week after — I feel nervous driving anywhere and constantly check the mirrors, slow when the roads look damp and attempt to stay as far away from any other vehicle as possible. I don’t think I’ll be driving in snow for a while… even if I get a bigger car. It sounds so cliche and dramatic to say my life flashed before my eyes, but as my body tucked in to prepare for what was coming all I could do is hope for the best.
Maybe I just need to be lucky that I didn’t start the new year with a bang — since it would have been a whole 365 before I got to start over, instead of just 2.
Hope your end of 2010 and start of 2011 was far less eventful!
