125 The Ditch is No Place for a Car

A good way to shorten ones experience this side of eternity is to fall asleep at the wheel. I often wander why we persist in driving when we are so sleepy that we can’t hold our eyes open, even with toothpicks. It would be so simple if we would just give the steering wheel to someone else for ten or fifteen minute. How many of us persist in driving in a literal fog while our minds cry out for the luxury of sleep. Oh how we hunger for just a few moments of shut-eye. Maybe if we just focused harder we could keep our eyes open. Suddenly our head snaps back and our glassy eyes open and peer into the darkness ahead, no, our eyes didn’t open, we were staring ahead with our eyes wide open not seeing a thing. And why is that yellow line on the right side of the road? Whew got over just in time, I didn’t know semis looked so big. Sure was a close one.

How many of us will not give up the wheel for love nor money, because we are too darn stubborn to pull over and take a short nap? We flagellate our poor brains into keeping our heavy eyelids from closing, hoping we can make it to a comfortable warm bed, when far to often it ends up being a slab in a near-by morgue.

Studies have shown that there is a rise of single car accidents in the early afternoon and again in the small hours of the morning, directly related to our diurnal rhythms, yet we carry on without a thought.

Even though this was not the early hours of the morning I was clearly ignoring all the signs that pointed to a speedy trip into the hereafter, as I nodded in and out of sleep during those last fifteen minutes of our trip to our son’s wedding.

Sandy and I had been on the road for over six hours and it was just a few minutes before midnight and only five minutes from Bobby’s door that in my sub conscious state I noticed a change in the rhythm of the road. This caused my eyes to snap suddenly open and I realized we had veered off the pavement and I was now staring strait at the stop sign of a side street. Sandy, who was sound asleep, yelled out, “What’s the matter!”

I answered, “Don’t worry honey, we’re just going off the road.”

With that we crossed the intersection, completely taking out the stop sign, leaped the ditch, and landed in the weeds on the far side.

This all happened quicker then you could blink, obliterating my Honda Accord’s windshield and sunroof airfoil as well as taking out my left turn signal and damaging the front bumper so it had to be replaced.

I contacted the appropriate authorities and was fortunate that I did not have to pay for replacing the pulverized stop sign.

It could have been worse but I was able to drive out of the ditch and within five minutes we were at my son’s place, a little bit shaken, but otherwise OK. I did learn one important thing from this near disaster and have for the most part been true to my resolve to pull over when my eyelids start to get heavy. It’s amazing how we will listen to our wallet when it speaks, if nothing else catches our attention it will. In all honesty, being faced with my mortality as we sailed across the ditch had a fairly big part to play in my decision; well, maybe the biggest part as my insurance deductible was only $300.