This is one of those ironic tales that might not have been particularly funny or entertaining.
I left my office today a little after 11:45 to head over to another building for my weekly Toastmasters meeting. The drive in the car is pretty short – three or four minutes including stop lights but is takes too long to walk with my busy schedule. I’m a native Californian, so shoot me for liking to to drive, okay?
Most of the time I listen to podcasts in the car but today wanted to hear a long that was in my head. The song was “Last Day” by English band Editors. So, I hit play on the iPod and drove off for my meeting.
I was waiting for the stoplight at Mathilda Ave and Moffett Park Drive. I was heading all the way across the intersection, but many of the people turning left from westbound Moffett onto Mathilda got backed up a bit and so were a bit in the intersection. But, it wasn’t a big deal so I just inched a bit outside my normal lane and then finished heading across.
Next thing I knew I saw a car (a Prius no less) speeding through the intersection, heading northbound on Mathilda. I was using safe driving skills and was actually looking in that direction as I started across the intersection, so I saw the car and was able to easily brake and let the car pass. As it did, I looked to my left to confirm that yes indeed the Prius has completely ran a red light. And unlike most Priuses it wasn’t going very slow either (sorry, Prius owners, but gotta call it like I see it).
If I had entered that lane two seconds earlier – if I hadn’t been “slow off the gate” due to the backed up traffic – then I very likely would have hit by this very fast moving car. And who knows if I’d be in any condition to be writing this blog.
The ironic part? Remember… I specifically picked that Editors song to listen to. Not a podcast. Not a random song from Shuffle mode. But this very specific song: “Last Day.”
“This is my last day alive
Well, it’s one hell of a day to die”
Thankfully, I only had to listen to the the lyrics. Not live them.
Yeesh, glad you are OK!