Well today sure was an intersting day. It started actually last night when I fell asleep on the couch and woke up with with a horriable back ache around 1am. I transfered that to the bed where the dog had been keeping my spot warm and decided I needed to get up at 4:30 so I could leave early for work. I don’t have to show up for work on Sunday until 7:30 but becuase it was 30 below zero with the windchill and snowing like a bitch, I figured I had better give myself lots of time. Good thing I did.
I managed to get all the way out of Leelanau and over by Traverse City West High School before out of nowhere (well not really) I could not see anytying in front of me on the road. I was going quite slow to begin with so I did as I would normally do when you can’t see, slow down more and keep the wheels on the car straight. As I slowed down, I must have hit some ice in the road becuase within 5 seconds the front of my car was heading over the side of the road and into a ditch. There was no way I could stop the situation at this point so I kept my hands on the wheel, put my foot on the break and just let the snow stop me. For the first time since I’ve lived up here, I ran myself off the road, or Mother Nature did anyhow.
No airbag explosion, no damage to the car, just a big fluffy pile of snow with my car burried under it. I had to get my balance since I was sitting at an angle. I flipped on the light in the car and started looking around for a phone number for a tow service. This would be interesting I thought at 7am on a Sunday morning out in the country. Called Mom and Dad, thankfully not to inform them that I was calling from beyond the grave, and they got me a tow truck phone number.
I sat there in the ditch with my car running for about 45 minutes before the tow truck came to haul me out. In that time I’d say about 10 people stopped to ask if I needed any help. I’m very grateful that people actually stopped but I could not help but notice something about those who did. 80% of them were women and of the 2 men who stopped, 1 was a county snow plow driver who was not allowed to use his plow to tow anything and the other apparently lived near where I was. Again, I am thankful for those who stopped, if I had needed help, I know I would have received it. My question though is for all the people who just kept on going. Why did you slow down, look, and then speed away? Next time, do people like me in this type of situation a favor. Don’t stop, don’t look, don’t gawk. If you have no intention of helping or asking if anyone needs help, get the hell out of here.
Anyhow, by the time the plow arrived it was light outside so I was able to take a look around. I’m actually lucky to be alive and writing this. About 10 feet behind where I went off the road the ditch kept right on going….down about 50 feet. Had I been going any faster and that white out happened any sooner, I would have ended up parked in the top branches of several old cherry trees. They might have broken the fall but they would have never been able to support the weight of my car and thus I would have ended up at the bottom of the ravine, likely in pretty bad shape and out of sight of the road. Call it what you want but I call it luck.
So tomorrow, I get to wake up again at 5am and do it all over again. I just love working for a company that doesn’t care what happens to you on your way to work, only that you get there on time. Like I said in my previous post, I’m about done risking my life just to get to work and sit on my ass because EVERYONE in their right mind is at home and not out driving in the first place. This is the reason I need to be closer to town. This is the reason I will not be saying at this house past August of this year.
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