Close Calls

     We've all had close calls.  I wonder what the average number of close calls someone has by the time they are 60?  I don't know.  But, I have had many.  At least 6 to 8 really close calls.  If I follow the lives of a cat, I had better be careful.  I might not have that many left.  I won't bore you with all my close calls but one stands out at being so weird and bizarre I feel the need to share it.
     It was a beautiful day. Summer of 1979.  I was driving my 1968 Datsun 5-10.  I was heading east  toward the University of Utah Special Events Center.  There was no one around.  I think I was going to summer school.
     BAAM...Something hit my car, right at the driver's grill.  Smoke and steam were coming out of the radiator.  I pulled over to the side of the road and stopped.  No other cars around.  Nobody around.  Empty.  I got out of the car and walked to the front and noticed a large dent in the grill and radiator about the size of a  softball.  What the frick?  I looked around the car, under the car, and in the engine compartment.  Nothing.  As I walked around my car, I looked up the street where I noticed  a city bus was pulled to the side of the road.  It was about 100 yards up the road on the opposite side.  Eventually, I notice the bus driver getting out of the bus and walking around.  I walked up to see if something similar happened to him.  "Hi," I said. "Whats going on?'  "Oh," he says. "I was making this turn onto the road and clipped a fire hydrant."  There was no water coming out but upon further inspection I noticed one of the valves was missing.  Humm.  Putting two and two together, I figured the bus knocked off a pressurized valve, which then flew down the street at mach speed right into my grill and radiator.  If true, I should be able to find the valve somewhere.  I told the driver what I thought happened and suggested we should report this and "call the cops".  I walked back to my car and widened the search area and, sure enough, found the valve about 40 yards away in another parking lot.
     Is that weird, or what?  That valve hit at the exact time I was driving by. Aimed at an exact spot, hits my radiator and grill dead center below the driver's wheel.  I guess if it would have been one foot higher it would have come off the hood or come right through my the windshield, into my chest or head.   DEAD.  Or badly wounded.  I don't know why, but this close call was so random that it bothers me to this day.  Killed by a flying fire hydrant valve that flies a 100 yards and through my windshield and takes my head off.  I just don't get it.  Most of my other/many close calls were explainable.  Some were stupid mistakes, but all reasonable.  This one was not explainable or reasonable. I have never heard of anyone dying like this. I have had a hard time comprehending this event.  It's kinda like trying to understand the universe; another thing I just don't get.
      Cancer is both explainable and reasonable.  A lot of people die of cancer.  But nobody dies from cancer being thrown from a spaceship hitting you in the back of the head.  I just have never come to terms if I had died that way.  I'd be dead, so it wouldn't matter, but I would feel ripped off.  Glad it didn't happen.  Dying at 62 from cancer, sure a bummer, but expected for a certain number of people.  I could face and handle that.  Of course, I would be sad, and really sad for my family. But if I went tomorrow, I can say I have lived a great and glorious life.  I've had more love, mystery, and adventure
than any man deserves.  And now, as I have a chance to reflect, I know that one of the most important things I ever learned (I think from Howard Kadish) is to enjoy the journey.  Enjoy the journey, my friend.   This will guarantee a well-lived life.  Namaste