It Could Have Been Much Worse

I need to remember that any week leading up to a Kairos Prison Ministry event will be full of surprises and challenges. Last Saturday was the summer celebration event.

Past Kairos inmates from any preceding Kairos weekend were invited to attend. Several of the volunteers who were at the weekend I was at joined others who wanted to come along. I got to meet many who couldn’t work the weekend I did.

All five of the inmates who were at my table and are still at the Beto Unit spoke to me. A few of them at length. I made sure I got the attention of the guy who is scheduled to get released September 27th.

I told him to find me when he gets out, especially when I learned his family lives in Plano and Garland.

I’ve never been involved in a mentoring relationship before. This will be new for both of us.

Four of the five work days leading up to the weekend ended past midnight.

Monday and Tuesday were pretty much scheduled to. So was Wednesday, but not as much as it did.

I was returning from Shreveport on I-20 just after midnight. The stretch of road I was on had fresh asphalt on the left lane. That made it 3-4 inches higher than the right lane.

The semi I drove was set to max out at 70 MPH. A Honda Civic was passing me as I sang a song I composed.

Just as the car cleared the area to my left I saw it dip off the raised left shoulder that wasn’t marked with a white line.

I lifted my foot off the accelerator to slow my rig down. Because I didn’t have cruise control I slowed slightly.

Before I could do anything else the small car’s driver over-corrected her mistake.

I steered toward the right shoulder to give her more room…it was too late.

The Civic was sideways in the road and heading into my lane.

In hindsight the impact could have been much worse. If we hadn’t hit they could have been in much worse shape.

The front left corner of my semi struck the gray car at their right front tire. When I stepped on my brake they sped off the road into the right ditch. There was extra room there because the frontage road that used to be there was now a grown over grassy area.

If I had missed them I’m pretty sure they would have flipped over who knows how many times. Because I hit them like a pool ball they continued to travel forward until they came to a stop.

If they had hit me in the side they probably would have ended up under my rig because they were going over 70 MPH.

Had I hit them in the passenger door that guy would probably have met his Maker.

When I came to a stop in front of mile marker 509 I called 911. After that I went over to check on them.

They were just getting out of the car. The passenger came around behind the car, raised both hands in the air and fell to his knees. He knew he used up one of his nine lives.

I discovered they were college kids going to Dallas to spend time with family. By the time a wrecker was winching the Civic across the muddy ditch their ride arrived to take them the remainder of their journey.

The driver gave me a big hug and apologized for the accident. I told her I’m glad nobody was hurt.

The following evening I was driving into Muskogee delivering mattresses thinking about taking advantage of my freight when a low oil pressure warning flashed on my dashboard.

For those of you who have never driven an 18-wheeler it’s very bad luck to see a low oil pressure warning on your dashboard.

The tractor had just been serviced so there shouldn’t have been such a problem…but there was.

The warning shut off so I drove to a truckstop about ten miles ahead.

I popped open the hood and discovered a puddle of oil under the oil filter. I reached down there with a gloved hand and tightened it back up. I shouldn’t have been able to do that.

I’m guessing they let the new guy take care of that part of the servicing and his mind wasn’t totally on his assignment.

The company I was driving for gave me a card to pay for fuel. I took that inside to try to buy some oil so I could continue down the road. I had about an hour to go to stay on schedule.

I discovered that card could only buy fuel…nothin else.

Long-story-short it was past one o’clock when the mobile mechanic was done fixing the other “mechanic’s” mistake.

Friday was extra long because of that fiasco.

Fortunately someone else drove the two hours down to Palestine while I slept in the backseat.

Spiritual warfare isn’t for the faint of heart. It’s for warriors.

If you didn’t think you signed up for that guess again.

I’ll see you later.  Wade