Catherine, our good friend for over 35 years, lost one of her other best friends to a motor vehicle crash on I-45 on her way to Dallas. News reports are a bit sparse, but the crash... I cannot bring myself to call it an accident... was as classic as it was senseless. Her friend was a back-seat passenger in a tiny Honda Civic that was reportedly going "slowly" (on a Texas interstate, that could mean anywhere from 65 to 75 mph). A massive Dodge Ram pickup approached from behind, failed to control speed (God knows what that speed was), and... as I said, this kind of crash is classic on our interstates. As a result, a dear person approaching retirement age died needlessly. Of course the truck driver survived. How many times have we Texans driven that same road? how many times held our breath? how many times shouted oh shit oh jeezus, only to be spared at the last instant?
Momentum equals mass times velocity; that is a law of classical physics. Given that we in our wisdom have decided that everything from multi-ton trucks to motorcycles shall share the same road, only one of the two variables... velocity... is left to adjust if one hopes to reduce the momentum of that truck behind you before disaster ensues. I admit I've driven Texas' absurdly high speed limits myself, in much smaller vehicles, but when drivers of massive trucks take to the road at 90mph, it is inevitable that innocent people will be killed. And thus it apparently happened to Catherine's friend CR.
CR was a musician, a teacher and an exceptionally gifted speaker and writer of English. Like many of us, she had a "straight job," at which she reportedly excelled. And she was truly a dear person. All of that is now lost to us on this earth. Please, please, people... drive on the highway as if your own best friend's life depended on it.
Medical events in my life are coming thick and fast; I'll have to enumerate them later. Meanwhile, chew on this: tomorrow, my doc is making (take a deep breath, now) a house call. No kidding!
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
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Damn---so sorry about the loss of your friend and the continuing health problems....For what its worth, we're thinking of you and wishing you health and peace.
ReplyDeleteHow horrible and effing unfair. I'm so sorry for the loss of your friend and all around wonderful person who should not have had to die because of an idiot driver.
ReplyDeleteI'm getting to drive the freeways more now... and cringe to see the same type of drivers in So Cal. May they suffer a slow leak in their tires or their radiator before they take out any more innocents...
And cheers to your house calling doc and crossed fingers for a good prognosis.
Most sorry to hear about the medical events coming thick and fast, but here's hoping for a successful and healthy resolution to them. You haven't lost much of your fighting spirit which is reassuring to me.
ReplyDeleteWill be thinking good thoughts your way.
how horrible. i'm so sorry.
ReplyDeleteit's been years, decades, since i lived in houston, and i remember 80mph being the minimum 'safe' speed if you didn't want to get run over. i'm sorry to hear it's still the same on that front.
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speaking of texas, the last time i had a dr who made house calls, i was still living in texas.