Serendipity, poetic justice, whatever you choose to call it is okay with me. Not long after I wrote my previous post on Thursday about getting my snow legs, I headed home on my commute. It had been snowing on and off all day in Gaylord, and when I left at 4:30 it was snowing again. I did something I rarely do, I took the downtown on ramp instead of going to the south end of town, because it's easier to make a right at the main turn than a left. This put me on I-75 a few miles north of my usual spot, but that wasn't a problem. It was snowy and traffic was light, and the road didn't look all that bad. I was making good time up until the point where I hit the black ice south of my regular on ramp at #279.
Man oh man, it was *that* quick and I slid from the right lane across to the other side and slammed into the guardrail. Hit both the rear and head lights of the truck and bounced back across the lanes to slam into the right guardrail, and slid along it for a ways before coming to a stop. It's amazing how time seems to slow down when these things happen. You hear about it, but unless you yourself have experienced it, you can't really understand. The time lag between what is happening and how you react is massive, even when it's only a half-second. So much can happen in that half second.
I slid and hit the rail before even registering that the truck was out of control. Then comes what you hope is logical thought. Apply the brake? Let out the clutch? Turn the steering wheel? Which way? Crap, I could die right now. All that and more go through your mind in just that half second. That's a lot of thought happening in a very short amount of time. At first I was thinking "Okay, you know what to do..." then SLAM into the rail and all that 'thinking' was replaced by panic. When the truck finally came to a stop I barely realized that I had done all the right things and was now stationary and out of the line of traffic. More importantly, no one else was involved - there were no other cars anywhere within sight when this happened.
I was still in a bad spot but was out of the traffic lane. It actually took about 5 seconds before I was able to think. During those few moments, I was dazed, felt air rushing through the window and couldn't figure out where it was coming from. Then I realized the sliding window behind my head flew open from the impact. I look at my side mirror on the drivers door and noticed the gas tank cover also had flown open, but the mirror was intact - both were in fact. I needed to check to see if my tires were still okay, but there was traffic now and all I could do was sit there for a bit. That's probably a good thing because it gave me much needed time to collect myself and breathe. I realized that my phone was under my feet, and that there was loose stuff thrown about in the cab.
First things first, I couldn't stay in the spot I was in - if someone else hit me there, we would both be in a world of hurt. After checking the tires, I pulled forward about 30 feet and got a bit more off to the side. That's the right thing to do, but in this case I was on a slight incline and anyone with a stick-shift knows that's a hard place to be. No choice though so I set the brake. Thankfully it still worked. Made my calls and waited for a coworker to check out the damage to make sure I could get on with the commute. I was shaking so bad, I couldn't speak very well. But that eventually passed and the truck was drivable, so I headed home.
Now, I was supposed to go in to work the next day but we had to take the truck to a collision shop first and then I would head on from there. No problem, I'm fine now, right? Yeah, right. Going through the damage to the truck and hearing the words 'totaled' and 'very lucky to be alive' were enough to bring the panic back. Didn't make it in Friday, but I will be damned if I'm going to let it keep affecting me this way. The truck may be totaled, but I AM NOT. I'll be back out there Monday morning - probably a bit earlier and a lot slower, but I will be out there.
So, when you're out there driving and you're 'stuck' behind someone who's not going fast enough for you, remember please that they have a very good reason for it. Have some patience and please for everyone's sake, be kind behind the wheel.
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