There is a sweet little old lady who lives at the bottom of a hill, two or three blocks away. I met her for the first time today.
.
It was so cold, the wind was not blowing, it was shivering. Everything that was outside for more than five minutes had a thick glossy coat of ice. I had to scrape the windshield before taking off for work. The engine was running for a while, but it was not long enough yet for warm air to defrost the windows and thaw my fingers, cheeks and ears..
I slowed to go down the turn of an icy hill. The road turned. The wheels turned. The minivan did not. It continued straight ahead, giving no regard to its driver. It was as though we were floating in space, slowly and inescapably drawn by the mailbox's gravitational pull. If the van did not stop in time, it would hit it straight on. It turned a little, then....
(ding-dong) Hello, Ma'am. My name is Craver, and I just ran over your mailbox...
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23 comments:
Did you ask her if you could photograph her door--since you were there anyway?
p.s. you've been memed
The book meme? I did that one in August of 2006. Let's see what you wrote...
Uhoh!
Great ice picture.
Poor mailbox.
Re: Your book meme on question #6 that God does NOT love people unconditonally and does not have a wonderful plan for your life. I wonder if you still believe that?If so, please answer LadyMcYoung's post and try to contradict it (since it is obviously a blasephemous comment about God that angers and saddens me.):
This was from several years ago in 2006. She is LadyMcYoung and my screen name is something else in Bolt. I think her name is Hallie, if I am not mistaken. One of her tagbook questions really bothered me and to some extent it still does, but not as much as before because you took to the time to at listen to what I have to say and/or prayed for me and her. One of the comments she copied to her tagbook is," God is like an abusive husband, while all of humanity is the battered wife, afraid of making him angry while readily accepting his love as a secure exchange for our blatant suffering at his hands. " (Courtesy of DarkMatter362)
I am NOT to be confused with "Chosen rebel," a great friend of mine....
Oh dear, so you are enjoying the same crisp weather, are you?
And you informed the lady that you had just plowed over her mailbox? I was never so blessed by such consideration when I endured my exile there. God bless you truly.
That's one way to meet your neighbors. *chuckle*
Welcome to the conversation, Rebel. I do not know who Lady McYoung is, or what she said exactly, but yes, I still feel the same as I did in August of 2006. That is to say, that God is love, but He is also just. His love is more than we can measure, but His word does not tell us that it is "unconditional." The word "unconditional" takes this notion to contradictory extremes. Instead He says, "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated." Does that mean that God is like an abusive husband? No, his love is unfair because a Holy God withholds the wrath that our sin deserves. Jesus (God) took that wrath upon Himself for those He came to save. None of us deserves that; salvation is by grace alone.
Some things that people say and belive have more to do with pop psychology and entitlement attitudes than divine revelation.
I wish that theological books were all true, with solid foundations, but the fact is that they're not. Ideas must be measured against the Bible, and the notion that God's love is "unconditional" has been weighed and found wanting.
As far as the mailbox goes, it turns out that it was nonfunctional decoration, since she has a handicap arrangement. Her real mailbox is up at her door. She suggested that I just pay for it, but I would rather build one. Not today... it's zero degrees (fahrenheit) today, and the ground won't be good for digging. Maybe I can do something temporary, and build a real one in the spring.
She wants me to talk to her son. I'm still waiting for him to call.
good story about you meeting your down-the-hill neighbor! you said that you wanted to build her a new decoration...that is pretty cool that you know how to do that!
Yep wheres her photo LoL.
Nasty feeling that.
Man, I thought it was just Texans who can't drive on ice . . .
and in other weather-related news, it is actually 23 degrees F here!
B-b-but I can drive on ice! And I'm normally very, very good at it. Did I say that there were other tire tracks up on their snow-covered lawn? Way up on their lawn... way past my tracks!
the "ice" accidents are different from others. most car accidents just happen - wham - but i remember a few years ago, kids in the car, turning to them calmly and saying, "hold on guys, we're going to hit that wall in a few second."
poor craver!
where have you been bro - I could have used your help on this last one - it's been a long haul!
I feel your pain. No injuries, I hope.
Why don't you come over to oz for a week's R&R - I'll move my mailbox before you get here.
distressingly so
I remember those old tire commercials where they take a car out on some frozen lake and drive around like it's dry as a bone concrete.
I think they were Goodyear studded tires or something like that.
Too bad you didn't have those tires, eh Craver. No worries, just a mail box mate.
Came over from David's place.
There's little mentally worse than an ice-skidding accident. Other accidents, you just have it happen - WHAM! - before you know it. With ice, you have time to think about it, consider the inevitability, sometimes even make it worse than it would have been if you had not been cognizant. Just horrible.
Thanks for the story!
Oh. Sorry! For you and the mailbox. (Not so sorry for the lady who got the pleasure of meeting you.)
Hello there, Ed! Thanks for the comment. Yes, this was weird because we saw that our course was not changing and yet, I did not let go of the hope that we could possibly stop in time, until the moment of impact. It was a sloooooow slide into the accident.
Wow Halfmom, that was an amazingly long string of comments! I have been under exceptionally rigid time pressures lately, and haven't been very fair about dropping comments around the blogosphere. I hope you can understand and forgive me.
Having looked at the contributions on both sides of the issue, I think you did very well without me.
David, it is fifteen degrees below zero (fahrenheit) here today, and a trip to Oz would be PERFECT, except that my Mrs. doesn't like to fly over water. (sigh)
The mailbox crack gave me a great big laugh at the most opportune time. Thanks for that.
No, Sandman. Unfortunately, I left the Mach 5 in the garage, that day. But yeah, it's just a mailbox; I need to keep reminding myself of that.
LL, I'm hoping for a nice sit-down with some tea and old stories before this is through. Right now, she has all of this routing through her grown son. I hope he doesn't live far; I'd like to meet him, too.
Well, hello Suldog!! I took a peek at your blog, and I'm guessing that when you say something is "mentally worse," you really know what you're talking about. ;-)
(Folks, this guy is a certifiable lunatic. Check out his blog.)
What Jim? Oh, I was just saying, "Pleased to make your acquaintance."
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