People Do Stupid Things
It seems to me that funny stuff jumps out of the gap between what we hope will happen and what actually happens.
What would we do without stupidity and failure? We'd probably be bored out of our heads.
Reliable reports indicate that life in the next world will be wonderful without dimness and defeat. That may be one reason why heaven is so mysterious to a lot of us who hope to spend some extended time there.
We had a little neighborhood demonstration of what I'm talking about in our front yard yesterday.
The older couple who live across the street built a very steep driveway about twenty years ago.
Their middle aged daughter and son-in-law came to visit them yesterday. She drove a small black sedan and he came by in a Range Rover. She parked hers on a flat parking spot near the house but he left his aimed downhill at the top of the steepest part of the driveway.
For whatever reason, she left first and got into her small car to go home. She had to maneuver to avoid the big SUV.
While she was backing out her mom was apparently yelling at her so she got adolescent and stopped looking behind her.
She backed right into the Range Rover at a pretty good pace.
Turns out the RR had a parking brake that son-in-law kept forgetting to fix, and the mass + acceleration of her car jolted the big chunk of metal out of its parking gear and into neutral.
Two and a half tons of driver-less Range Rover rolled down their high pitched driveway directly toward our house.
Fortunately, we've got a very sharp, high, and angular curb in front of our house and a split rail fence that surrounds the front yard.
The Range Rover bounced up off the curb and then smashed through the fence and finally came to rest a few feet from our house.
Without the fence and the curb, the SUV would have plowed right through the front wall of our house directly into my home office.
The thought of being killed by a runaway SUV while sitting at a computer keyboard inside my suburban home office is pretty funny to me. Especially when I think about the places we've lived and the kind of work and hobbies I do.
Who can't use a good laugh from time to time?
posted by Wordcat at 9:25 PM
6 Comments:
And...when are you going to post the picture of how this all came to rest?
My daughter Rebecca had the digital cam with her at work so no pic. The guy backed the Rover off the lawn almost immediately after it happened, so even if I had the camera I don't think I could have gotten the really funny image.
I didn't even tell the whole story cuz I thought it would be too unbelievable. One of Andrew's friends was over for the day, and his mom came to pick him up. Her car was parked right in front of our house when the accident happened, and the SUV just missed her car by about a foot as it crashed through the fence. She was standing at our front door when I came running out and she looked at me like I was nuts. I'm not sure we'll see Andrew's friend back playing at our house again any time soon :^)
Ugh, another reason why I hate SUVs! They might come crashing through my living room and kill me while I am surfing the internet.
I just bought an SUV.
Will someone please prescribe a penance for me? I can't deal with the guilt.
Glad you're still alive, wordcat. I guess suburbia has its own set of dangers...
I'm sympathic to your SUV plight, Ruth.
Finger your rosary beads and say 5 Hail Luthers. When you've finished with that, take some aspirin and call someone in the morning.
Hey, I'm driving a Jeep right now. Four wheel drive is actually important in Colorado, and the Subarus are way too expensive and have crappy financing.
I haven't lost a moment's sleep over it.
I'd guess you made your decision because it's practical and useful and because you know your own heart and aren't worried that a used machine is going to blunt your character or committments.
And yes, suburbia does have major dangers. Runaway SUVs are the least of it :^)
thanks. Actually I was thinking of saying several Hail Wesleys...
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