accidents

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Accidents Happen In The Blink Of An Eye

It happened in the blink of an eye; the deer came out of nowhere. Last night we hit a deer traveling to our cottage to close it up for the winter.

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I had no time to react, just absorb the hit and keep the car on the road.

It was the perfect scenario for such an accident. It was dark, and there was a misty rain in the air, so visibility was hindered.

My headlights picked up the deer about one to two seconds before we hit him. All I could do was hold on to the steering wheel and keep the car steady.

We hit him in his hind quarter and he glanced off the passenger side of the front bumper.

I figure he came toward the headlights from the shoulder on the same side of the road as us. At the last moment he tried to veer off, and that’s when we clipped him.

The car continued to drive fine, but everything was not okay.

The plastic bumper was cracked and smashed. He took out our light assembly on the passenger side, and the front quarter panel was pushed back slightly so that the passenger door wouldn’t open very much.

The hood sustained a small crease and though it stayed shut, I’m unsure whether it would shut again if I tried to lift it.

The deer kept going.

On the inside of the car, we were fine. No airbags went off; neither Lily or I sustained any injury. But the dashboard lights went out, and I found out later the passenger tail light was also out.

I’ve never had a head-on collision before … unless you count the time I ran into a fence.

I was about 10 years old and my grandfather had been keeping an old 1930’s car in our driveway.

Some of the boys on the street thought it might be a great idea if we pushed the car into our backyard to see how far it would roll.

We had a little hill at the top of our yard, so all we really needed to do was get the car rolling and then let gravity do its job.

I was the logical driver since the car was on my property and it was my grandfather’s car.

It was my first time behind the wheel. I couldn’t even reach the pedals but that was okay because the drive was all about momentum.

Actually, for my first driving lesson I did pretty well. I kept the car going straight, didn’t swerve or even hit anyone. It all went great until I hit the fence at the end of the yard. No damage; the car went into the chain link fence and bounced back a bit.

The only damage came later when I had to face my dad concerning my first driving incident!

Yesterday caused a little more damage to the car than that first head-on 50 years ago.

I’m kind of hoping this is my last collision. I do plan, however, to tell my friends who are hunters that I got my first deer.

Here’s the thing: Things in life can happen very quickly, with little or no warning. You can’t always be ready and prepared for what is coming next. That’s why it’s best to have your future settled, for whatever might happen. Be sure that you have a relationship with Christ Jesus, and that you are trusting Him now and for the future.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What plans have you made for the future? Leave you comments below.

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The Answer To An Age-Old Automobile Controversy

I believe I’ve just uncovered an automobile mystery that has baffled mankind of a long time … at least since the passenger car was invented.

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In fact, I feel a little like Banting and Best when they discovered insulin, or when a scientist discovers some kind of breakthrough that will lead to possibly finding a partial cure for a certain strain of a multifaceted disease that continues to develop into different strains.

Whoa, I got a little dizzy just writing that.

Back to my discovery. I got in the car the other day and when I turned a corner the sun shining through the windshield almost blinded me. All I could see was a big red ball of light, so I quickly pulled down the sun visor to block it out.

When I did that, I stumbled onto something that could be a key to changing driving habits, all the way to changing insurance rates.

When I pulled down that visor, I almost scared myself into the next lane of traffic. The shield covering the visor mirror was gone. I went from looking into the centre of the sun to looking at two eyes staring at me and it freaked me out.

Fortunately, I controlled myself and stayed in my lane. But not everyone is as composed as I am when they drive. And here’s my discovery …

The mirror in the visor is a driving hazard and the ones who are guilty of using it are mostly women. Because of it, they are causing untold numbers of accidents.

Every time I look behind the visor, if my wife has been sitting in the seat before me, that mirror is visible. Imagine how many men have jerked the steering wheel to the left, when they’ve suddenly seen a pair eyes about six inches from their face.

Or how about the light that reflects off a woman’s bleached white teeth, hits the mirror and like a laser pointer temporarily blinds some poor unsuspecting driver behind her.  Another accident.

Or what about the women who’s putting on her makeup and drifts a little, causing the car beside her to swerve and careen into a light pole on the side of the road.

You see what I’m saying?

Statistics says that “80% of collisions and 65% of near crashes have some form of driver inattention as contributing factors” (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 2010).

I’m not saying women cause more fatal accidents. No, men are best at doing that. But statistics say that women are in more fender benders than men.

It’s that distraction factor, and a little piece of the solution could have something to do with the mirror that is on the back of sun visors.

This is still an early discovery. Now I just have to figure out how to get Lily to place the cover back over the mirror when she’s done.

Here’s the thing: God is trying to teach us all the time, but often we are distracted by other things. Being attentive to little things can lead you to discover something amazing about God that you haven’t noticed before. You can learn much about God from life around you. Don’t be so distracted by something that’s right in your face that you miss learning about God’s character and how that relates to you.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What discovery have you made recently about God? I’d love to hear from you; you can leave your comment below.

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When They Grow Up, They Get Smart and Everything

A few months ago I wrote a blog I called my replacement blog. I had written a blog that my editor (wife) didn’t want me to post. She felt that it was not fare to the person I wrote it about.  So instead I wrote the blog that appeared on July 13th called “My Replacement Blog”.  Since that time my daughter Karlie as given me permission to post the original blog I wrote back in July.

 On that special day when your first child is born, you really don’t have any idea what will transpire over the years. Sure, you may look right into her scrunched up closed eyes and dream about things to come. You might even take that little wrinkly, slippery body in your arms and begin to make plans.

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But you really don’t have a clue what the next few days will bring, let alone the next several decades.

My daughter, Karlie, is coming home after living on the other side of the country for the last six years. No, she won’t be living in our home, but Richmond Hill is under 3 hours away, and not the 36 hours of straight driving distance that she’s living now.

She should arrive next week … that’s if she doesn’t do anything foolish. Ha, like that would happen! My daughter is responsible, sensible and very determined.

But … she’s also adventurous. So, when she goes for a motorcycle ride with a friend and after the ride the friend says, “Hey Karlie, you want to try riding this bike? She says . . .

The responsible and sensible Karlie says, “No, I don’t think that’s a good idea.”  But the adventurous and determined Karlie says, “Ya, sure I’ll try.”

Now if you were going to try to ride a motorcycle for the first time, you would probably pick some really open area with no obstacles around. When I taught Karlie and Mike to drive, we went to a big parking lot, and to streets that had no cars on them.

That’s the sensible thing to do. Karlie and her friend, well, they chose a parking garage. There weren’t many cars around, but there were cement posts in the vicinity. But with some careful instruction on what to do, Karlie got on the bike with no helmet.

Did I really say she didn’t have a helmet? That must have been a typo. After all, she’s sensible, and in a parking garage. It wasn’t a long ride; short, in fact. Her friend described it as “I’ve never been more scared in my life watching that.”

Somehow she found one of those cements posts in the parking garage. She ran right into it. She wrecked the bike, got a ride in an ambulance, and got a $300 fine. Not bad.

The amazing thing is she’s alive! … and received only a few stitches on her cheek, a black eye and swollen face. No broken bones, concussion or death. We’re praising the Lord right now for His protection.

I love this girl; she’s my daughter. I’ll take her adventurous side as well as her sensible, responsible side. But I wouldn’t have dreamed 24 years ago – on the day Calgary won the Stanley Cup – that my little squirmy, wrinkly baby (who looked very similar to the babies on either side of her in the nursery) would be sporting the same beat up face as one of the guys contending for the Cup!

Here’s the thing: It would be nice to be able to protect those around you, to keep them from harm, or at least weigh in on the decisions they make. That may be a reality when a child is small, but is impossible as they get older. We can become relegated to worry about them and for them. However, God can care for them better than we can, no matter how far away they are. Our job is not to worry, but to trust. Trust God with those you love. It’s really all you can do, and the best you can do.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What’s the scariest story your child or loved one has told you? Leave your comment below.