Near Miss Days

        
 
  Living on a secluded farm, we tend to lump our trips together.  We do whatever we can to work from home, and then head out to meetings or to work. Then, on the way home we stop for groceries and place them in a cooler in the car or truck and head for home.  We did this long before fuel went from $1.80 a gallon to the four dollars a gallon it is now.   We also tend to "car pool" with our large family.  When our eldest kids were at the university, they and my husband would arise at four am, and the three of them would head for the city.  My husband would drop them off and they would take buses around the city to classes, and my husband would head to work.  At night, they would do the same thing again.  Occasionally, one of them would drop my husband off, and keep the car for the day. With the three of them sharing commuting and car maintenance costs, this was far more affordable and a more responsible way of commuting.   I tend to do the same thing. I keep lists of things we need, and when I go out I will take care of a doctor's visit, banking, the pharmacy, picking up animal vitamins and sometimes feed, and then some frozen foods before heading for home.
             Because we drive fairly long distances and have driven for years, we are careful and we are careful drivers. Most days we can get in or out of the three cities which are within a days drive, and get home again without incident. Some days are what I have come to call "Near Miss Days". Some days just seem as if everyone insane, senile, blind, drunk, high on antihistamines, suicidal, evading police capture, or just plain crazy decided to drive.  Today was one of those days.  At a rural flashing red light I stopped, and proceeded ahead, only to have a woman in a brown SUV decide to tear across the road in front of me.  My son gasped.  As I drive carefully, I was able to stop.  I was a little shaky after that, but there were two more close calls on the way home.  One woman lost control of her own SUV when she turned on her lights. I avoided her crazy weaving, and she wound up in the ditch.   Another woman was doing such a rate of speed she appeared from nowhere behind me, and almost hit us.  I pulled over, and she disappeared in the dust.
              When we got home, my daughter drove up only to tell us that she had had three near misses today on the highway.  Why some days are filled with crazy drivers and others are not, I will never know !