My car hydroplaned once.
I almost hit a gas tanker while on a mountain pass. I narrowly avoided it by slamming into the median, blowing a tire and then pulled over and tried to change it. In 33 degree rainy November weather.
The median was small, giving me three feet of space between my car and semis, cars and trucks roaring past at 60 miles per hour. Seeing as how I’m all bad ass and tough, I knew I could change my tire all by myself (like a big boy). After unscrewing one lug nut, I felt pain, tasted metal and smelled dirty water.
A passing truck had sprayed water with enough force to throw my 200 lbs up against my car, bruising my face. The impact of my body against the wheel well knocked the car off the jack, pinning it an angle underneath my car. I was screwed.
My previous decision not to put on the snow gear in the back of my car (I was coming home from WSU for Thanksgiving break) seemed very, very stupid now. No gloves and no hat, just a soaked college sweatshirt and jeans with tennis shoes. And it was raining.
I managed to flag down a VW van full of Mexican dudes who used their little jack to raise up my car enough that I could crawl under and get my much larger jack. As my car was in a ditch running down away from the road, I had to be very careful not to stick my legs out too far and get them run over.
But I did it. I replaced my front tire, which I would later find out had an eight-ish inch gash in it, with a studded snow tire from my trunk. Hopping back into my 1983 Chevy Malibu, I drove up to the top of the pass, stopped to call my parents and girlfriend (no one answered), got back into the car and freaked. I shook. My hands were white. I wasn’t cold, as I had changed clothes and dried off. I was in shock.
Such a feeling that was. I had absolutely no fine motor control over anything I did. I had tunnel vision. I couldn’t hear a damn thing. I got back into my car and drove 45 minutes home. I don’t remember a bit of it.
I wish I could I say I reflected on my life (I was 20, WTF did I have to reflect on?). I wish I could say I thought about my regrets. I wish I could say I thought about the future. I didn’t so any of those things and now I’m glad I didn’t. Had I strayed even a second from what I was doing, I wouldn’t be here.
So what did I learn from this?
1. Always carry a backup, whether it’s a tire, presentation or battery.
2. Practice what you can when you can. My biggest problem wasn’t changing my tire that day, and in the business world, your main objective is usually the easiest one.
3. The longer you think about how scared you are, the more exposed you’ll be to the elements, distractions or anything else that could keep your from your task at hand.
4. Being scared shitless is a great motivator.
5. While preventing problems is important, it’s far tougher to solve them. Solving them, however, is often far more lucrative.
Now go do something.
Thanks to Jonah Keri for inspiring this post. Glad you’re okay, too.
More from tdhurst
- running for my life
- Move toward minimalism
- Fat Off Motivation
- bar versus liquid soap
- Productivity hurts
Arkayne recommends
- The Ups and Downs of Teaching (katiecharland)
- The Tipping Points of Life (katiecharland)
- One hell of a week (katiecharland)
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