Occasionally, life knocks on the window of my crazy little fatherhood reverie to remind me that it is out there. Case in point: My wife, daughter, and I were out for a family drive this weekend. We were toodling down the street, all three of us singing along to the Elmo Song as it blasted out from the CD player – “LA LA LALA LA LA LALA ELMO’S SONG..” when in my peripheral* vision I saw movement. A brand new Mercedes that had been parked along the side of the road took that moment to pull out into traffic… and our car. I swerved, but not quite far enough – LA LA LA LA LA, LA LA LA LA – THAAAAT’S ELMO’S WHATHEHELL??” *BOOOOM*
All in all, a minor incident. A banged up bumper and a few jangled nerves on our end. I honestly felt worse for the girl who hit us – since she said her dad had been waiting to buy her a mercedes until he felt she was mature enough to handle it** – you could see from the look on her face that she was dreading the conversation she was going to have with him later that night. I suppose I should be grateful that I was alert enough to see her coming, or it could have been much worse for everyone. Instead, we just had a slightly absurd hiccough in our Fourth of July family festivities. I’m glad, because I’d hate to think that I had to give up muppet karaoke because of safety concerns.
* I actually have no true peripheral vision, because I am have freaky eyes, but ‘out the side of the field of vision of the eye I happened to be using at the time.’
** Considering the great good fortune we have had, car wise, I make no judgements about this sort of thing.