Thursday, September 24, 2009

Something Funny Happened on the Way to the . . . Well, Home from Work

Although we are in the grips of Fall, the skies were perfectly blue and the temps near 80 yesterday. To top it off, I was getting off early (finished my last patient at 4 PM, where as the previous night I had a hospital consult after work that gave me a 12 hour day).

I took the tops off my Jeep doors and I would have put the top back down (I leave it down for the entire summer) but I've been having some trouble with a window zipper.

I took off my glasses, laid them on the dash and put on my prescription sunglasses and headed for home.

As I approached a very busy intersection, on this glorious day, something strange happened.

It is such a crazy intersection because all the traffic for about 8 islands must go through this bottle-neck. It is where two four lanes meet at a red light. I moved over to the left turn lane and I had a green turn arrow so I gunned it.

As I made my sharp turn to the left I could feel the "g's" pulling my clumsy top heavy four wheeler to the right. Then something caught my eye, as in slow motion. My $300 flexible tungsten eye glasses slowly floating and then moving in the opposite direction, from my dash through the air and out the open side of the door without making contact with anything.

I pulled over to the shoulder about a 100 yards up the hill, as soon as I could get out of traffic. Then I made my way back on foot, dodging cars left and right until I made it to this tiny concrete triangle with cars zooming around me in all directions.

I spotted a woman's make up compact in the road, all crushed. I keep looking. There, directly under the stop light I saw my glasses, still intact. I danced between the cars and grabbed them. People passing by thought I was a lunatic trying to commit suicide.

It was still a glorious day and it ended with a wonderful bike ride after I got home. From now on, I'll keep my glasses in the glove compartment when I'm not wearing them.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

That happened to me on a boatride in Kauai, turned my head sideways in the wind and saw my glasses head to Davy Jones locker, rest of the week was a bit fuzzy for me. The pulverization odds were really against you, glad you saved them.

MJ said...

That must have been traumatic. It has always been a fear of mine to loose or break glasses on a trip like that. I hope your photos of the trip were in focus so you see, later, what you missed.

I use to go through a pair in about 6-7 months because I was so rough on them. Once, we were camping with the kids in Kentucky. One of them stepped on mine and broke the frames in pieces. I had to duct-tape the lens to my forehead so I could see to drive home.

These glasses have lasted for about 8 years because they are flexible. However, if I dropped them in the drink (and I'm out in the kayak a lot) that would have certainly been the end.