It could've been a life changing moment

So I left the house last night around 8.45pm to get L from her training course. I debated which route I was going to take. It was dark and pouring rain, wipers at full speed, but not a lot of traffic. I'm heading south in the rightmost of 3-lanes
when all of a sudden there was a loud 'whump!', I'd run over something. I noticed almost immediately that the front left tire pressure indicator had gone on, but kept going. My instinct was to try to get as close as possible to L's location although my heart was thumping and I began wonder what exactly I'd hit, hoping it wasn't something live. I didn't hear any sirens.

After turning west, and driving for about a block, I decided I better pull over somewhere and at least check the state of the tire. I found a small plaza and parked the car. Sure enough, the tire was flat. At this moment, L called to see where I was and I updated her with my location. Then M called to see what we were up to. He seemed to be more worried about the tire and how anyone could drive a flat so far without thinking to stop. I had to mention 'safety first' and that at least I was ok (some Men)! Then I called CAA (roadside assistance) and told them I had a flat tire and my location. He took some other details (make and year of car, its colour), gave me an approximate time of their arrival (within 45 minutes) and asked if I needed them to call family or anyone to notify them of the incident. Thank goodness for a charged cellphone and my CAA card.

I would say I waited about 20 minutes if that, and the CAA truck arrived. A lovely young man stepped out and told me that I didn't have to show my card and that I could wait in my car to avoid getting further wet. I declined and stood around while he jacked the car up, used the lock nut and had the spare tire put on within 5 minutes. Apparently the actual tire had a slash in it and seems unrecoverable. Remarkably and happily, the rim was not damaged. The young man thought I might've run over a pothole or something small that would be difficult to see on a night like this. He was careful to store the other tire where the spare was and consciously avoided dirtying the rest of the trunk contents. Meanwhile M and L had arrived to check on things. My only regret was that I forgot to tip the young man. His last words were, 'be sure not to drive over 80kms on your spare!'.

This morning I woke up thinking it could've been a life changing moment. I may not have lived to see May 1, or my 50th birthday, or my son return from his Montreal trip, or see him start high school. (Maybe I'm still in a bit of shock, but I feel like giving thanks to God) Everyday we leave home assuming we'll return safely to continue all the little things we do that seem so necessary. We take a lot for granted.

It's a lovely day today and I did a couple hours of gardening, getting the beds cleaned up. I also went for a walk and bought a small 'state of the art' looking wind up radio for emergency. They had 4 kinds varying in price from $40 to $165. I got the least expensive one and it says it also can charge a cell phone. Thanks for the idea, Barbara.


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