joyful2beeblogs

I have had some weird experiences while I was in my car. Fortunately none of them were injurious to me but they were kind of weird and scary!

Years ago I lived in Forest City, NC. near a lot of farms. I was driving at a safe distance behind a cattle truck. Some people don’t know what they look like. They are long trailers drawn by big trucks. These trailers often have two levels. They can carry twice as many animals to slaugther or be transported somewhere else.

So I was looking at it out of curiosity as I was driving along behind it but in the lane beside it. Suddenly I saw a mist coming out of the side of the truck. It looked like one of the steers(?) had sneezed.

But then I realized the mist kept on coming and it was landing on my car! One of the animals was urinating through the slats on the side of the truck! My car had been peed on by a steer or beef cattle! I had to get my car washed as soon as possible! No damage done. But I sure didn’t get near one of those trucks again! Has anyone else had such a weird experience?

A second weird occurrence happened in Cary, NC. I had just dropped off my recyclables at the Citizens Center and was driving my Volkswagen Beetle. I turned left out of the Center then came up behind a dump truck which had stopped at a stop light. I was a safe distance behind him.

But the truck driver decided to change lanes from the center lane, (to go straight) to the left lane (to turn left). Unfortunately he didn’t see me drive up behind him. My car was evidently not visible to him and he started to back up. As he put the truck in reverse and started slowly backing up to move over to the other lane, I thought the driver was doing what some big truckdrivers do: they drift back sometimes when they shift from neutral into first gear as the gear is engaging.

You know how sometimes you think, “Surely this is not happening. Something else is happening instead.” But the truck kept on backing up, even though I was honking my horn as soon as I realized he wasn’t stopping. But he couldn’t hear my horn over the sound of his big engine in front of him.

By the time I realized he was not stopping, I couldn’t move in time to avoid him. Finally as he felt the resistance to his truck’s movement as it bumped into the hood of my car, he realized what he had done and stopped. The poor guy was terrified that he had injured me. But I was just emotionally shaken up a bit with no injuries. His company’s insurance company was the same as mine so there was no dispute!

There was another time when I was leaving the hospital after working a twelve hour night shift at the hospital a few miles up the highway. I came down the highway and up the ramp to turn left to go to my house. I didn’t make it to the green light so I was stuck at a long red light about 4 feet behind a van. I fell asleep waiting for the light to turn green!

Next thing I knew in my stuporous condition I had moved my foot to the gas pedal instead of the brake pedal! I was jolted awake when I hit the rear end of a car dealership van. Fortunately I was close enough to the van that hardly any damage was done. And no one was injured. They were not concerned at the small dent I caused in their bumper.

The police officer was of course called or was nearby. He asked me to pull over to the filling station across the road, which I gladly did. He asked me what happened and I told him. He smiled and told me his fiance’ was a night nurse and he appreciated nurses and the work they did. Then he told me to get more sleep when I worked nights and let me go! I thanked him profusely! I was wide awake the rest of the way home!

I have had several encounters with animals. I wrote one post about an encounter with an alligator turtle from a wooded area in Cary, North Carolina on an industrial road. https://joyful2beeblogs.com/2020/03/15/i-met-an-alligator-turtle/

Twice on nearby roads at two different locations a hawk flew in front of my car. Once while I was stopped, the first one was at eye level and flew about twenty or thirty feet ahead of my car. The other one was a little higher and further away. I was so amazed. (Have any of you ever had a big bird fly in front of your car? Just curious.)

Thankfully I have only hit two animals fatally over the past 50 something years. I hit a cat in a neighborhood. He was sitting in the middle of the road. When I saw him go right to the sidewalk, I waited till he was almost there and proceeded to drive. Imagine my horror when I heard a thud when I hit him after he decided to turn around and go to the other side of the road! He died almost instantly. I felt sick!

The other animal was a squirrel. I have managed to avoid hitting many of them over the years. I don’t remember the circumstances but I think I didn’t seen him when he ran out in front of my car. I hate to kill anything let alone a cute little squirrel!

I’ve heard it said that it is a good thing to offer a prayer for the life of any animal who was killed on the road. A simple prayer to commend them onward to their future is a comforting thing for us if not for them. I like this custom.