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The train I was taking home today caught fire.
Honest. It wasn't my car, but the car in question started smoking (bad for its health), and someone who was on it and later moved to my car said she heard a small explosion.
I think they had about 5 fire engines out there, and they wouldn't let us off the train. We sat there for almost an hour. Maybe more.
And it got me thinking.
Two weeks ago today, the elevator I got into at the end of the day fell. A bit less than a single floor, but that kind of thing is only supposed to happen in movies. I popped a disc in my lower back and have a "dorsal annular tear", whatever that is.
Nine years ago last month, I was eating dinner, and my apartment burned down. The following year, I drove off a three hundred foot cliff into a ravine full of redwoods. Two months after that, I drove a U-Haul truck through an overhang that was just a tad too short for it (or tried to, rather), and a few hours later, drove away from a gas station with the hose still in the side of the truck.
So... am I really, really unlucky? Or am I actually lucky, because I've survived all those things. I mean, the cliff thing... my car was pulped (smashed worse in the back than the front, which I still can't figure out), and I wound up with light whiplash, a hairline fracture of my elbow, and two torn muscles in my leg.
After today, I'm starting to take it personally. I feel like I have this big "Kick Me" sign taped to me.
Posts: 12266 | Registered: Jul 2005
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All I know is, I really really don't want to go on an airplane with you. Or mountain climbing. Or sky diving. Or to the movies. Or to the mall... Posts: 870 | Registered: Mar 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Treason: All I know is, I really really don't want to go on an airplane with you. Or mountain climbing. Or sky diving. Or to the movies. Or to the mall...
<sheepish grin> Well, there was another person on the elevator with me, and she wasn't hurt at all. And no one on the train was hurt, and I was alone during all the stuff that happened in '96 and '97. So I don't think it's catching...
Oh, did I mention that I was stillborn? I suppose that wasn't an auspicious start, was it...
Posts: 12266 | Registered: Jul 2005
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quote:Oh, did I mention that I was stillborn? I suppose that wasn't an auspicious start, was it...
No, being dead at birth is not generally considered auspicious. But considering you still managed to attain a high level of literacy and learn to drive and stuff, despite being dead, I'm very impressed. Not to mention totally creeped out.
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quote: Oh, did I mention that I was stillborn? I suppose that wasn't an auspicious start, was it...
My boyfriend was too! Weird. They told him he would be small and sickly his whole life. He is 6'4" and healthy as a horse.
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As a vastly annoying pessimist, I'd have to say you're accident prone. But then again, I'm convinced that that side of me is frequently dishonest, conniving and seeing and dating women behind my back:)
Seriously though, consider the idea of fate. For whatever whacked-out reason, someone along the Omnipotent chain of command has decided they like having you around, and saw fit to keep you alive for some purpose that they refuse to define in anything but vague unspecific terms.
Singing: Some things in life are bad, they can really make you mad, other things just make you swear and curse. When your chewin on life's gristle, don't grumble give a whistle, and this'll help things turn out for the best!
Always look on the bright side of life *whistles* Always look on the bright side of life *whistles*
Posts: 681 | Registered: Feb 2004
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I'd call you lucky. Go ahead, ride a plane, it'll probably skitter off the runway on the return flight after you've been on it. Ride a roller coaster, the brakes will fail on the ride after yours.
Unlucky is having to repair your car 8 times in 2 years because for some reason people can't stop clipping off your side mirror, or backing into it, or hitting you when you are stopped at a red light, or a stop sign, or when your alternator fails for absolutely no reason. THAT is bad luck. Either that or the Ford Focus I drive is cursed.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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Something about drawing your terminal breath... do do, do do dee do dee do... Life's a piece of sh*t, when you look at it. Something something and death's a joke it's true.
I'm tired. Sorry for all the silly. "And now for something completely different!"
I am going back to talk to Jabberwacky!
Posts: 870 | Registered: Mar 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Tante Shvester: Well, the thing with the train and the elevator were really out of your control.
The driving stuff, however...
How did you manage to drive off a CLIFF? A cliff!! Like at the end of "Thelma and Louise"?
I know, right? The Friday night fire was like being in "Backdraft", and the cliff... well, it wasn't quite like Thelma and Louise, or I'd still be frozen in midair over the ravine. <grin>
I was living in Boulder Creek, just north of Santa Cruz, and I was driving down Highway 9 to work in Santa Cruz. It's a thin, windy road that has a swelled head from being called a highway.
About 5 minutes north of Santa Cruz, there's a double S curve, with an old railroad track going diagonally across the last bend of the double S. The track is flush with the street, and for some reason, there was gravel on the road there.
I was speeding, because I'm a leadfoot, born and bred, and because I was late for work, and when I hit that last part of the curve, I fishtailed.
The mountainside was on my right, and the ravine was on my left, and the back of my car swung out to the left, and I was about to smash head-on into the mountainside.
Believe it or not, I have *really* fast reflexes. With like a few feet between me and the wall, I managed to yank the car around, and as I was about to sigh in relief, I realized that I'd turned too far, and all I could do was watch as the edge of the road disappeared beneath the front of the car.
I think I said something like, "I can't f***ing believe I did this."
The ravine was steep. Maybe 30 degrees from vertical. I went back there a couple of weeks later, because I thought it might be good to look for my glasses (which I never found). I couldn't climb down. It was just too steep for me to even try. And like I said, redwoods all over. I must have slalomed on the way down, somehow, but the airbag knocked me out, so I don't remember much about the trip down.
When I woke up, the car was on sort of a landing, and the driver's seat was completely horizontal. I didn't know it went back that far. I opened my eyes for a second, and then I had this intense feeling that I had the choice right then whether to live or die. Not being a masochist, I decided on the latter, and immediately...
Well, to this day, I don't know whether it was just a dream or a hallucination or whether I really died. No white lights or tunnels. I didn't find myself on the Titanic (for all you Connie Willis fans out there). But I remember it as being completely overwhelming and chaotic, and I sort of "flinched" back and woke up in the car again.
This time, I noticed what looked like smoke, and figured I should get out before my car exploded. Actually, it was the gasses from the airbag, which shows how little time had probably passed.
But my door was jammed. I tried the door behind me (which was at about shoulder level), and it wouldn't open either. Same with the passenger side door. I flopped back down, because I was incredibly fatigued (and probably in shock).
Then I saw two guys running down the side of the ravine.
The next thing I remember, I was sitting on a plastic pipe (those enormous water pipes that look like black corrugated plastic?)) about fifty feet from the car, and a bunch of paramedics had just shown up.
I had no clue how far I'd fallen. I didn't imagine it could have been far, since I felt okay-ish. I mean, I got up, walked over to one of the paramedics, and started talking with him. He asked me if I had my E ticket (for all you Disneyland fans out there), which was kind of funny. When I saw them bringing a flat board to use as a stretcher, I told him I could just walk out, and he looked at me kind of strangely.
They tied me to the board, put on a neck brace and strapped my forehead down, and used a block and tackle (or something like that) to get me out. I almost went batty from the panic of being physically restrained like that. I'm a little claustrophobic.
Okay, and now the weird part. It's a couple of weeks later, and my boss sends me to this storage facility to get a copy of one of our backup tapes, and this 16 year old kid starts looking at me strangely. He said, "Excuse me, but did you have an accident on Highway 9 a couple of weeks ago?"
I was blown away. Apparently, he was riding his bicycle, and saw me go over. He ran and got his father, and they climbed down the ravine. He told me that when they opened the door of the car, I crawled out *fast*. I don't remember that at all. His name was Isaiah, and he and his family were from Utah. Mormons. Which makes this a good place to mention it, I guess.
Oh... and I forget to mention... one week, to the day, after the accident, I was driving up to San Francisco after work. My first time going there, and I was in the fast lane of Highway 101 going about 75 (staying with traffic in the middle of rush hour).
When my front right tire blew.
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People go off Angeles Crest close to where I live (quite often kids from my high school) about two or three times a year. There's at least one death a year (again, often high school students, sometimes drunk. )
I'm not surprised, seeing as even MY FATHER, one of the world's most unsafe drivers (he likes to have the cell phone in one hand and a sandwich in the other while driving above the speed limit if at all possible with his knees IN LA TRAFFIC), makes sure to turn off the cell phone, slow down, pay attention to the road, and not drive there at night if at all possible.
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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You know, I'm really glad you didn't wake up on the Titanic. I have often wondered what in the world started Connie Willis's thought train to get that story. I love her work, and that book was just stunning in the middle, I thought, but I didn't really "get it".
Will have to read it again sometime. The Titanic and Heaven don't really strike me as synonymous.
Posts: 5948 | Registered: Jun 2001
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quote:Originally posted by jeniwren: You know, I'm really glad you didn't wake up on the Titanic. I have often wondered what in the world started Connie Willis's thought train to get that story. I love her work, and that book was just stunning in the middle, I thought, but I didn't really "get it".
Will have to read it again sometime. The Titanic and Heaven don't really strike me as synonymous.
If you haven't read the book, stop here: . . . . . . . . . . . It was a metaphor. All the Titanic imagery came from things her teacher had mentioned. It was just her brain trying to end the NDE. She probably even incorporated that guy saying "She's too far away" and "58 miles", but who knows?
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You know, since you seem to bend the laws of probability wherever you are, it's possible that you could rent your services out. Not sure to whom off the top of my head, but I can imagine that bookies would be able to make use of you, as would people wanting to hire an arsonist and such.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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quote:Originally posted by starLisa: The train I was taking home today caught fire.
Honest. It wasn't my car, but the car in question started smoking (bad for its health), and someone who was on it and later moved to my car said she heard a small explosion.
Wow, this is a REALLY REALLY Bad week for public transporation, isn't it???
Tuesday morning there was a freight derailment on the BNSF line just east of Riverside, that had the morning rush delayed and trains shifted to other tracks. Then a woman decided to go around the train stopped at Riverside and got flattened by an express. I spent THREE BLEEPING HOURS stuck on a train Tuesday morning.
Tuesday evening another Metra train was stalled at Fairview (also BNSF), but fortunately for me I was in a bar in the Loop with my coworkers so I wasn't affected.
Yesterday morning there was another freight derailment, this time on one of the Union Pacific lines.
And now you were on a train that CAUGHT FIRE?????
(edit because I've finally found out that the fire was on a CTA train, not Metra, so I had to share the misery with the rest of the area transit systems - oh and should I add the bank robber who screwed up Union Pacific trains on Thursday?)
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