automobile woes

This has not been a good year for my car.  During the summer, I got a pretty bad flat and it turned out all four wheels had a severe case of dry rot.  A few months ago, we had to replace my windshield.  Last week, my fan belt broke.  Today, as I was driving seventy miles an hour down the interstate, a rock hit my passenger window and it proceeded to shatter all over the place.

I may have freaked out a little bit.  Then I got the fuck off the interstate, parked, and freaked out a little bit more.

And now I can't stop thinking about how I might have reacted differently.  Because even when I was freaking out, it was all internally.  I didn't jerk the wheel.  I got out of the fast-lane, first of all, and then I called my dad and left a very panicked voicemail, but my driving itself never changed.

But what if it had been my window that shattered?  I'm pretty sure my reaction would have been more.  I probably would've jerked the wheel.  And since I was going seventy in the fast-lane, surrounded by other cars doing the same... well.  I wouldn't be sitting at home right now.  Most assuredly not.

I can't stop thinking about it.