Other then that, what did you think of the play, Mrs. Lincoln?

I'm lucky to be here.

Not so much in the Chamber of Commerce sense of some of my posts, but more in the general direction of being lucky to be anywhere, and not have to get there by blowing into a straw or blinking my thoughts.

By all rights I should probably be dead.

One of my father's admonitions to me was: "Since you'll probably never go to war, the most dangerous thing you'll ever do will be drive a car." A couple of weeks ago I once again apparently tried to prove him right.

Okay enough foreshadowing, I should probably get to what happened, then I can return to waxing philosophic... I was driving south on US1, doing forty-hmmprhmhprh to get through a yellow light before it turned. As I reached the intersection (where Brickell meets Coral Way, right in front of Gordon Biersch for the faithful readers who know Miami), a woman coming north decided she was going to go ahead and turn left.

Time slowed down.

Her SUV, a Toyota Hillfucker, plowed into the front left side of my car, impacting probably around the left light. The airbag and seatbelt combined to stop me from going through the windshield. The fairly lucky "I shouldn't be here" part is that if she'd got me a split second later she would have plowed into the driver's side door instead of the front left side of the car... and I probably would have been on the evening news for the first and last time.

As it was, I somehow managed to escape with only a small bruise from where the airbag hit me. The Nissan Riceburn wasn't quite so fortunate, and that's really another indicator of level of severity --- a week and a lot of insurance calls later, it was totaled. So, significantly more than $11,000 worth of damage was done to my car... and my only residual mark was a left breast that looked like I walked into the door behind Luca.

In a greater way perhaps, I'm also fortunate that my mother came down to the scene immediately, put me up in the house, and helped with the securing of a new car and whatnot. Without getting to into it, I've always been blessed to count on my mom, ever since some tough times as a teen. I'm slowly learning and reaffirming a life's lesson, looking at my friends and my own family --- that there's nothing quite like having people who care for you that you can rely on in the trying times.

So, I'm okay, the other gal was okay... I've got a new car... got a good deal on a used Chrysler 300 (very nice luxury car... perfect for a guy that learned how to drive on a Cadillac Sedan DeVille!) Now all that remains is some paperwork. But sometimes in life, you consider yourself lucky just to be able to fill out a form.

It occurs to me this accident happened before my trip to Tallahassee... I intrigue myself in realizing I posted about that first before this. Maybe it was easier.