My sister came home from college one weekend, and I decided to drive her back. A small Toyota pick-up was in the right lane with me and just suddenly slammed on his breaks and put on his hazards. This is the freeway so we’re going 65+. I swerved into the left lane to avoid running into the back of him, slowed down but didn’t stop out of fear I would loose control. I wound up starring directly into a set of headlights and then swerved all the way over to the shoulder and stopped the car.
This freeway has a cement divider, so what happened is someone, presumably older, used the off-ramp as an on-ramp Instead of pulling over to the shoulder, they just kept going. I assume they older and not drunk because they were driving slow considering. I was pretty shaken up the entire rest of the drive home. We had no cellphones, and I didn’t see it in the newspaper although this was in the mountains so… had we been hit it probably take at least 30+ minutes to get up there and it would have been severe if a semi came up to it. I didn’t drive in the left lane of hwys and freeways for about a year. I was 19 at the time.
Heh. My father was working on our kitchen wall phone. He had me hold the wires together. I was like, what if I get a shock? He says, don’t worry. There’s like no dangerous voltage now. And he was right. Untill the phone rang and I was hit with 48 volts DC. I went flying. Not life threatening. But quite a shock to me.
Nothing too crazy. I’ve never been in any car accident beyond a fender bender.
I guess the occasional left or right turning car that doesn’t want to yield and is in too much of a damn hurry and almost plows into you crossing the street when you get the little cross-man.
One time I ended up walking across a river. For some reason I kept walking and the current eventually knocked me off my feet and I went under. Although I was just able to swim back to safety fairly easily. Not sure if that counts.
Wow man! I didn’t know that about the heart attack at all. I can’t imagine how much something like that would probably change my outlook on life. Kind of “wins” the thread, I’d say.
Nah. All it did was make me fear death less.
I think.
For a while, I was actually pissed off that they brought me back.
I mean, the one thing I had feared most for my entire life, and I had done it! I had gotten it over with!
And boom, hi I’m back. And suddenly in big-time debt, and eventually back to work with no free time all over again.
Very mixed feelings about the whole thing.
Yes. What time I do have, I cherish.
Alas, work gets most of my conscious (awake) time, and I’m pissed about that most of all. But necessary to keep financially afloat.
It’s funny; at the time I had great insurance, which covered over 90% of the $200,000 bill (including the later quintuple bypass surgery), but I was out of work for 8 months, and that went straight to credit cards. I had some help from relatives too (especially when my water heater, furnace, and central A/C broke down while I was awaiting surgery), which lessened the impact enough that I didn’t have to file for bankruptcy, but yeah, it turns out there are plenty of expenses other than strictly medical ones.
I guess I was responding more to “The savings go quick” part. I had no disability or STD/LTD.
But if I had to do it again, then what @Navaronegun said: Go max.
Holy cow. 8 months without disability , 3 major appliance breakdowns in the same period and no BK. You had one major miracle probably another minor one too!
Without relatives, I’d be BK for sure. So things could certainly be worse. In fact, there are people right here on this forum who have it far worse than I do right now.
