another different sort of vacation

they just keep on comin' don’t they?

one of these weeks i'll get the kind of vacation where there's an actual break from working, driving and generalized chaos.

this time, after sleeping a little bit and then working alot, i was in my trusty little Vibe barreling down I-40 towards Virginia, specifically the Richmond area.  on both ends (or thereabouts) of VBS week, both of my grandparents celebrated their 80th birthdays, and so our whole half of the family tree decided we were going to celebrate it.  by working!!!  we were going to do some MAJOR tidying up, doing all the chores and cleaning and housework that they could no longer do themselves.  and then eat and play and talk alot, too.  and eat a MASSIVE cake.

i showed up early because i could and claimed a spot in my grandparents' house to sleep, and the next day  family members came in from 4 states.  except for the older younger brother (who is studying abroad in New Zealand, the lucky guy), we were all together for the first time in almost 2 years (thanksgiving 2010).

i tried the same thing i did last time i drove up, and left Jackson around 6 pm and drove for the entire night.  most of the problems i've had driving were dealing with the other drivers who somehow sneaked through the DMV and got licenses despite their general incapability of minding basic rules of the road (like, "NO!  that's INTERSTATE 81, not SPEED LIMIT 81!!!")  or trucks deciding that they NEED to be EXACTLY where that little bitty car is RIGHT NOW.  forget blinkers- those are for the commoners.  oh look- one of its tires exploded.  super!!! how many accidents can we cause in 1 hour?  i swear i saw one grin and add a notch to his dashboard tally last year.

well at night time, 95% of those irritating road companions are not there, making it in general the most time and energy efficient way to go, especially since i'm night shift and am most alert then anyway.

this time, however, i guess i was just not alert to the things i needed to be.  i'd been going through a generally rough time for a couple weeks, and was not completely sure that spending long periods of time with family members was the right way to relax (yes, a weekend is a "long time" to some of us).

all of a sudden, i look again at the car way in front of me.  the brake lights are on.  i slow down a bit, and 2 seconds later realize that i am gaining on the car much faster than expected.  i slow down more...not enough.  one glance shows a car tailing me, with a car tailing HIM.  (see?  it's not nighttime quite yet, so the crazies are still out!!!)

basically this leads to me doing a rather spectacular 65-0 mph in a spectacularly short amount of time and space.

as it turns out, there was road work involving a 2-lane to 1-lane deal, and there was a STOPPED (not slowed) line of cars.  with no scenery and a straight flat highway, i had NO perspective, NO way to tell.  there was some chaos behind me, but no accidents like there almost was.

i recovered my breath and kept on chugging.

not more than a couple hours later- still during daylight hours, i crest the top of a gentle tennessee hill and find the majority of an exploded truck tire directly in front of me.  Reason #73 why i hate trucks (there are alot...but their tires are a major part of the list).  without blinking, thinking, breathing or looking, i swerve around it.  hitting a truck tire at 70 miles an hour is instant death.  this fact does not escape me- in fact, is causes my heart rate to shoot up, my leg muscles to cramp on that brake pedal like crazy, my vision to freeze and goosebumps to show up everywhere.  it would have made for an awesome cartoon picture, with my left side tires off the ground, giant swooshes around the car, and the fastest "save me" prayer ever prayed.  ever. 

1 am revealed a deer in my lane, trotting about just on the periphery of my vision illuminated by my headlights.  i did the same move i practiced with the truck tire and again narrowly avoided serious injury, if not worse.

pssh-the rest of the trip was smooth as can be.  i did not need the extra coffee to stay awake and was twitching with relief when i finally arrived at 8 am and stepped into the cute little house where my grandparents have lived for almost 50 of their almost 58-year marriage.

one thing i find so great about my grandparents is how they take life- one day at a time.  every day for as long as he can remember (which is a long time) he goes outside during the summer and counts how many day lilies are in bloom that day. there were only 7 today because the patch by the house was almost done for the year but the ones by the garage are only now starting to come out.  this year is about to blow last year's total right out of the water.

somehow, knowing how close last wednesday was to being my last day to bloom makes me want to make THIS wednesday different.  3 hours of it are already gone!  3 more hours that were never promised to me.

but what WAS promised was that God already knows.  and He was there on I-40 (and the dumb deer on I-81) that night.  and He used even a stupid (stupid, STUPID) truck tire to tell me so, in no uncertain terms.  i needed the diversion- to quit focusing on what's "wrong" and instead to just see what "is."  before the "is" becomes a "was." don't miss or neglect what He gave you now, even if it looks really sucky- He gave it and wants to be with you for/with/despite it.

may you never encounter a truck tire in your lane, but may you ever live like it's RIGHT THERE.  because something, anyway, IS.