Reaction time

I had my first fender bender.


Decided to practice driving with e - tried to parallel park at this jappy mecca shopping center (the people are notorious bad drivers, I should have know better than to venture into that mimbo/bimbo territory).

this woman in an suv was pulling out. She didn't see me - nothing. Did not even look behind to notice if there were any cars behind her, just backed out like she thought she was the entitled queen of goddamn sheeba and hit my backside.

Well, a bump. Scratched the back, but this car is a turd box so it doesn't really matter anyway - but as she was backing out, he told me to hit the horn. I just sat there stunned. I was frozen in place, hands on the wheel - shocked and horrified.

I could not react.

And that freaked the shit out of me.
What if she had been coming full throttle.

That worries me - my reaction time - hair trigger on some things, slow as molasses in others.

But this quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson sits on my keyboard to remind me to keep perspective of the grand scheme of things.

I got it from one of those desktop day calendars long ago, trimmed it, and then set it on a sheet of strange and scary looking clowns (those dollar store wrapping papers are not for the faint at heart) and put it in a clip frame behind glass.

it's become my mantra

scary clowns and all

"Finish every day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities crept in. Forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; you should being it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense."

amen to that Ralphie...