26 December 2005

There's no place like home

If you know anything about I-70 W, then this will make perfect sense. I-70 W is a death trap in the winter. God spared my life numerous times when this highway had a different ending in waiting for me.
I drove home to Grand Junction yesterday for the holidays. I decided ahead of time that it would be best to leave early in the morning so I could avoid as much traffic as possible. Good plan, 5 AM sounded perfect. Now understand that I am accustomed to waking up no earlier than 10 AM daily, so I don’t really know what is going on in the world any earlier than that, but never mind that. I wake up on time and get ready and out on the road by 5:20 AM. Stop to get some gas and pee, and I’m good to go.
I get out on I-70 W near Idaho Springs and it is really dark. Now this wouldn’t be much of a problem except that ever since I had my LASIK vision correction, my vision while driving at night is a bit "impaired" (to say the least. WARNING: If you see a blue Subaru Impreza WRX travelling south on Colorado Blvd around say 11:50 PM on a weekday, you might want to try a different route, okay, no it’s really not that bad...most of the time). Shouldn’t the sun be rising by now, it is almost 6 AM? Okay, just drive behind this car and follow the lights.
Finally around 7 AM the sun is rising and things are looking up. The roads are looking clear, not much snow or anything. Perfect, me and Jill Scott are in a groove. I am not afraid.
Sign reads: Watch for rocks on the road. Okay, can do.
25 miles later, another sign reads: Limited visibility ahead due to blowing snow. Well, it’s going to be a little harder to look for those rocks now, but just be cool.
15 miles west of that, sign reads: Icy roads. So now I am nervous as hell.
Two things I hate while driving: ice and tumbleweeds.
The signs made me more nervous than the actual road conditions. Like they are foreshadowing my impending doom. Follow this way Leela: Fatal accident ahead. So I am driving extra slow around the Eisenhower tunnel trying to slow my heart rate back to normal. Come on girl, there is no ice here, calm down.

But the sign said there was ice! It's there!
Get it together or I will turn this car around now!
Hysterical Leela, overly haunted by the memories of near accidents, refuses to listen to reason, refuses to believe that everything will be alright, convinced that 8 lives have already been used up.
After Eisenhower things were going well again. Cruising through Glenwood Canyon, a lot faster than allowed by the law (no officer, I didn’t know the speed limit was 50 MPH, I’m from Boulder, you see). I see a car accident on the eastbound side with 2 cars, numerous police cars and an ambulance and I couldn’t control the tears that welled up in my eyes before streaming down my face.
I had gotten my emotions in order until I was approaching Rifle and saw a car pulled to the shoulder and 2 dead deer in the road.
The whole drive was filled with bad omens. And I tried (unsucessfully) to give meaning to each of the parts to get some kind of overall meaning.

Bottom line: I am thankful to have reached home safe to see my family.

1 comment:

dreamyj said...

WOW! WTF!!! That is too intense. I love this dialogue in your brain. I can so see you saying those things and going thru all those changes. When did u get lasik?