So, today I am driving to school, and I’m at the point where one of our freeways merges into another and, because it’s rush hour, the merging lane slows to a dead stop.

I am a paranoid bastard, so I always give the guy in front of me considerable room, and I always watch the rear view mirror to make sure that the guy behind me has noticed that the lane is stopping.

Today, like pretty much every other time, the guy behind me comes to a complete stop.  I turn my attention back to the road ahead and wait for traffic to start flowing again.

The guy in front of me starts moving again, I put my foot on the gas, and that is when I hear someone plow into the car behind me at full speed.  No warning squeal of tires, just a WHAM that sounds like the world’s largest aluminum can being crushed.

I look in the rear view mirror and there is a car coming at me, driver’s side first.

It’s been hit hard enough to be spun 90 degrees.

It is no longer in control of its own destiny.

I’m not about to get hit BY a car – I’m about to get hit WITH a car.

Fortunately, at about this point, my foot found the MAKE CAR GO FASTER NOW pedal without any help from my conscious mind, and even more fortunately, the guy in front of me seems to have had exactly the same idea, so I do not plow into him in my effort to avoid making a two car accident into a three car pileup.

The car that got slammed into winds up off the side of the road facing back down the freeway, the car that did the slamming winds up off the side of the road, nose-to-nose with his victim, and at least a couple of cars that were behind stop and pull over.

I managed to mostly stop shaking by the time I made it to school, an hour later.

As soon as I am done with my degree, I am going to move somewhere where I do not need to have a car to live.  I’m not sure exactly how I’m going to manage this, but I’m going to do it.  This was the second time in less than a year that I’ve had a close call on the road, and I’m not looking forward to the next one.

I am not foolish enough to think that my luck will hold.