Near Fatal Attractions…
We almost lost both kids tonight.
My wife, Kim, and our daughter, Cortney, were in the car on their way to a dance rehearsal at the San Jose Center for Performing Arts. The light was green for the left turn onto Highway 87 from Almaden Expressway. It’s a two-lane left turn and my wife was driving in the right lane heading north. A grey, old-model, solid-as-a-tank Ford- or Lincoln-like sedan barreled up the southern approach, running the red light. My wife swerved the car to the right, into potential oncoming traffic to avoid the missile, narrowly missing the broadside that would have occurred. The other driver never swerved, never slowed, never acknowledged her vehicle’s presence. Round 1 over.
In order for all of us to go to the dance rehearsal, Grandma Joyce came over to watch Sterling. When we returned from the successful recital, she complained about the inability to turn either the hall light on or the bedroom lights. It didn’t take long to realize that a circuit breaker had tripped. I went outside to check it out, find the breaker, and reset it. As I returned inside, I overheard a conversation between Kim and Joyce about a painful blister that Sterling had received when he pinched himself while playing in his play area. We put two and two together and came up with the realization that Sterling didn’t pinch himself; he inadvertently electrocuted himself and the blister was a result of an electrical burn. The current theory is that he pried off a “childproof” outlet cover, and inserted his keys into the socket. Pffzzt! Round 2.
My wife misunderstood me when I said at 11:17 p.m. that I “had 43 more minutes to go” so I could write about this and still have it count as a Saturday entry. She thought I meant that I had 43 minutes to go until I found out whether or not I was next in line to avoid some potentially fatal accident.
Kinda funny really…
