Yesterday morning there was snow on the grass and icy slush on the roads. Normally, I would just stay home until the roads were clear, but yesterday I needed to get to the City building when they opened to pay my water bill because they shut me off. (That's a whole other story).
The roads between here and there weren't bad at all, so I decided to go on to work. Country roads are a challenge in bad weather because they don't get cleared off right away, and those that do often get covered with drifting snow, but as I was heading to the more traveled roads I decided the country roads were clear enough for me to continue on, plus it's faster and less traffic than going through the towns.
At the first four-way stop I came to after making this stupid decision, I picked up an SUV who rode my bumper for several miles. I went the speed limit, 55 mph, but I wasn't comfortable driving that fast, and he obviously wanted me to go faster, so it was a lose-lose situation. There was a stop sign ahead anyway, so I took my foot off the accelerator, and he thankfully turned off before we got to the four-way stop. I tapped my brakes gingerly but didn't feel like I was slowing down fast enough so I tapped them a little harder.
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| My car |
I should mention that I drive a Cobalt. It was the cheapest new car we could find in 2006 and the car lots were packed full of them. One of the ways to make a cheaper car is to leave off important features, like anti-lock brakes (grrrr). Personally, I would have paid the extra $100 to have them installed but my husband at the time said we didn't need them. Ha! The car is super lightweight so it slides around even on the smallest amount of snow and ice, especially when stopping and starting.
All it took was that little bit of extra pressure to the brake. I did a 180. Fortunately, there was no one on that stretch of road, and I didn't go off into a ditch. I did scream a curse word over and over. When I came to a complete stop, I took a deep breath and drove at a crawl to the nearest parking lot, where I was able to calm myself down. I had to decide whether to go home or continue on to work. I was equal distance from both. I said a prayer and headed to the office.
No one was coming as I approached that same stop sign, so I just drove very slowly through it instead of trying to stop. Next, there was a stop light at a fairly busy intersection and the left turn lane didn't look clear at all. I wasn't driving very fast anyway, so I was hoping the car would just lose momentum and stop by itself when I got to the light. I was praying, "Please make it turn green!", and it did! I blurted out, "Thank you, Lord." I was now on a heavily traveled road, and it was a straight shot all the way to work. Sadly, the condition of said road was pretty bad. It looked more like no one had been on it, and definitely, no salt truck or plow had been through there. Stupid mistake number two. Plus, what I didn't think of was that there were 14 traffic lights on that messy street giving me at the very least, 14 opportunities to spin-out again. Stupid mistake times infinity.
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| My view and focus as I drove |
I drove white-knuckled to the first red light, took my foot off the accelerator, started to tap my brake, but the light changed before I had to completely brake! As I drove under it, I again said: "Thank you, Lord." The next light just ahead turned red, and I figured, well, here I go again, but as I slowed down, a white Kia Sorento pulled out ahead of me. He was going pretty slow (even for me) but there was no way I was going to pass him. By the time we crawled up to the light, it changed to green! "Thank you, Lord!" This happened through 9 consecutive stop lights. That has never happened in my life. When we (the driver of the Kia and myself) got downtown, the roads were completely clear, and he turned off, and I stopped without incident at the next two lights, and then the remaining lights were all green.
I have no doubt that God was with me through all of that! When we call on Him, He is there. He's there even when we don't call, but it's just so miraculous when He shows Himself in response to our prayers.
God is good! All the time!
