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Maybe it's a metaphor for life. Maybe it's bad luck. Poor judgement definitely played a role, so maybe it's only an example of stuff that happens.
After a long and exhausting day and while taking a lengthy drive from a friend's house in a neighboring city, I struggled to stay awake. "Almost there, almost there, almost there," I chanted. I counted. I sang. Finally, I reached my exit a little before 11 p.m. and started on that last mile toward home. "Home free!" I sighed with relief as I approached an intersection, knowing that I only had three more intersections to go.
Did I doze off for a split second? A crash, airbags, cracked windshield. I ran into the back of that vehicle? Is he hurt? No. Am I hurt? Yes.
A trip to the emergency room revealed that I had bruised ribs, a bruised finger (from the airbag), bruised knees, and a sprained ankle. No bones were broken, but the injuries were sufficiently painful to keep me out of commission for a while. Even more painful, it looks like the PIP insurance may not be enough to cover the entire emergency room costs when xrays and head scans are factored in.
The insurance did include coverage for a rental car, and I only had to make a few calls over the course of a couple of days in order to secure that rental. The check for my totaled car arrived at 6 p.m. on the day I was supposed to return the rental car. I ended up keeping the rental for an additional two days at my own expense in order to take the check to the bank and to take appointments with a couple of prospective clients.
Now I sit and wait for the check to clear. I have placed a call to the bank to see if I can get it to clear faster. I must beg rides from friends when I need to go somewhere because I no longer have a rental car.
You'll be pleased to hear that my injuries are mending well though I still have some soreness. In the meantime, however, I've been diagnosed with high blood pressure and diabetes.
I try to get some work done but spend a lot of time worrying. The moral of the story (if a moral can be found in all of this) is that we shouldn't dream and drive. There is nothing wrong with dreaming, and there is nothing wrong with driving (unless you drive like me). When we try to do both simultaneously, we can lose critical focus on what is happening in the here and now. And when you lose focus, bad things can happen.
Then again, maybe we just need to know when to pull off to the side of the road to take a nap. |
