A good night

Driving home with Amy and a sleeping baby tonight, I ended up with a really bad headache that stuck around after we got home (and in fact, is still sticking around as I type). I was getting kind of bummed because it has been cramping my Sunday routine, but then I had a thought.

We were just in the last few miles of a return trip, driving on a very dark, two lane road at about 50 mph. A very nice-sized buck started to dart across the road.

I hit the brakes, keeping one eye on the buck and another eye on the asshole I had noticed just a few minutes ago to be tailgating me pretty badly. The buck made it halfway into the road and I let off the brakes as I saw him turn to run alongside us, which gave Dr. Ride-My-Bumper just enough room to keep from slamming into the back of us. I drifted over onto the shoulder so that the buck head some more room, now thankfully thinking “$500 deductible if he decides to get personal with the driver’s side of my car” instead of the much more intense “holy shit, don’t wreck” that was going through my mind a few seconds before.

About a mile later, another much smaller deer darted across the road, going from guardrail to guardrail in about two bounds. This time we just slowed down enough to be sure that it was running alone.

Then, about a half mile from home in a residential area, out popped one more, this time a very small buck that made it across just like the previous one.

I am going somewhere with this:

Any one of these three animals (not to mention any others that were running around out there in the darkness) could have really screwed up our night. It could have been as bad as a deer coming through the windshield and causing a really serious wreck or as relatively minor as getting sideswiped and picking up a hefty repair bill. Either way, whether we ended up with cosmetic damage or stranded in the woods with a wrecked Subaru and no cell service, it could have been a much crappier night that it was.

Any automotive mishap I’ve ever had – accident, ticket, whatever – I always went to bed thinking “man, this day really wouldn’t have sucked if that hadn’t happened.” Well tonight, it didn’t happen. And I’ll go on record with automotive karma and say that I’m really thankful that it didn’t.

I still have a headache. And a touch of sore throat that just might be the piggy flu.

But that’s okay. It was a good night.