well, life certainly has a way of revealing new truths to you when it's almost taken.  yesterday, at about 6:14 am (that's an approximation, hence the word "about"... it isn't far from the truth, though... actually, that may be right... whatever), my girlfriend and i were traveling down I-79 south, minding our own business, both fast asleep, when i heard the sultry sounds of the rumble strip on the side of the road. as i opened my eyes, i watched, and felt, as we slammed into the left guard rail.  i reacted by turning the steering wheel away from the metal object, but tried to be careful to not over correct the original trajectory of the automobile.  pushing on the brakes to slow the momentum of the car, they immediately locked up, and val, who was now awake, and i found ourselves sliding back across two lanes of highway, subsequently heading right toward the other side of the road.  approximated time for all this happening is about 3.6 seconds... about.  seeing that we were going into a donut, i did what every person who does the wrong thing when going into a donut does, and instead of turning into the spin, as i was taught by my wise uncle, who is an informal expert in the art of donut-stry (what?!), i tried to turn out of it, causing our slide to change direction... but not enough to keep us from sliding off the road.  a very small downslope was the prelude to an embankment that was not about to let us push it over.  we hit the embankment, and the car worked it's way up to being almost completely sideways, with two wheels on the ground, two up on the embankment, and the car's undercarriage being torn assunder by the jagged rocks (yes, that's right... jagged rocks) that seemed to jut out of the tiny cliff just to get a piece of us.  having enough of that, the car decided it was a better idea to get away from this vicious monstrosity of earth.  all it took was a little push off, and the car began to tilt over.  val and i both knew what was coming, and prepared ourselves for a roll.  and indeed we were correct... unfortunately.  lucky for us, my car isn't good at cartwheels, so we didn't do multiple rolls, like you see on television... we just turned upside down... whew!  not really believeing what had happened (and still don't, really), i unbuckled my seat belt, and helped val unbuckle hers, since she was hanging from the ceiling, which used to be your average, run-of-the-mill seat.  not really wanting to hang around, val and I proceeded to army crawl from the vehicle, but not before pounding a door into submission so it would let us out... crazy doors.  walking away from that car with nothing more than a few scratches was quite a blessing... God must have something planned for us.  within a minute of the time of the accident, there were three cars at the scene to help, and two of them had already called 911.  a highway courtesy truck showed up in about five minutes, and the emt and fire trucks were there within about 7 minutes... awesome.  we signed papers stating that we felt fine, and the emt's found nothing wrong with us, so we couldn't hold them legally responsible for not caring, and a police officer showed up right after that.  now, i didn't have insurance on this vehicle, and was fearing the worst... ticket for failure to control, suspended license, possible overnighter in jail... nothing.  he didn't jam me with anything... i'm glad I caught him at the beginning of his shift.  he drove us to mcdonald's as the tow truck was flipping the car over and hauling it off.  val and i lived in mcdonald's that day... we were made honorary managers (not really, but we should have been).  val's dad and her uncle mark came to pick us up, and we went to the towing place to get our stuff.  also afraid of a towing bill, i somehow got around that and got all my stuff out of the vehicle... at least, all the stuff that was salvagable.  the roof was pulverized, and with it went the front drivers side window and the windshield.  the side of the car was severely smashed by the impact to the guardrail on the left side, and the impact to the embankment on the right side.  there were fair sized rocks in the vehicle to accompany hoards of glass, and i knew we were saved by something more than a seatbelt.  i'm alive for another Christmas, and i am celebrating my Savior's life today.  what was my revelation in all of this?  here you go:

10. i don't give a crap if buckling up is or isn't the law, but it saves lives... get a life and keep it.  buckle up!

9.  don't sleep and drive

8.  guardrails are not friendly to the side of your car

7.  neither are rock faced embankments

6.  do not question or mock the person who tells you to turn into the spin

5.  if your car flips onto it's roof, you can kiss your cb antenna goodbye... magnetic or otherwise

4.  cars run better on their wheels

3.  if you think you're tired don't wait for an exit to pull off and rest... you could die!

2.  there is power in prayer!

1.  my God has a plan for me... no diggity!

more than anything, i'm so thankful that valerie is alright.  i love you, val!

that's it... I'm out!

patience is the suckiest virtue... no joke...