Driving up here yesterday, I spent a good deal of time sitting in bumper to bumper traffic on I85 and wondering what was going on. Dad and I spent some time on the phone looking for alternate routes, etc, to no avail. Between Toccoa and the boder, things were a mess. I wasn't impatient, or angry, or doing boneheaded traffic maneuvers (you people that drive up the emergency lane, I know who you are!!!), just merely resigned to another trip all cocked up due to traffic.

You know the bridge "into" South Carolina, or departing from, depending on your point of view? As you cross Lake Hartwell (which looks bad, to be honest, but it's been lower) going southbound, there is one last bridge, and on the other side is a big sign with a peach that says some kind of "Welcome to the Pray for Rain State".

Seriously, it says "Welcome to Georgia".

Well, that particular bridge has always scared me. It's narrow. It's a freaking bridge, and there is no wiggle room. I've driven over it (or ridden) and always been struck by a fear that THIS bridge would suddenly buckle and I would plunge to my death.

Anyhow...seven car pileup involving two tractor trailers. As I drove by (traffic was stopped by SLED in all directions), I noticed what looked to be a shiny new Volvo missing it's roof. I had the windows down, and as I was driving by what I'm euphemistically calling the "cleaning crew" happened to hear me say, quite loudly "holy shit!" How could anyone have survived that wreck?

And then I started to cry.

The remainder of the drive I was consumed with the thoughts of the people who were in that car. Was it a family, with two small children in the backseat on their way to Grandma's? Two friends on their way home for a weekend of free food? Mom and Dad driving to visit their daughter in college? I had decided that it was a family, with two small children, and that the parents were dead (you could excuse the flight of fancy if you'd seen the car), and how that would color their entire lives. And I asked for whomever listens to such requests to bless them.

I got here, logged on to the UNSECURE (dad, c'mon) wireless network, and immediately started Googling a Toccoa paper, an Anderson paper, the AJC...anything.

Would you believe they lived? "Stable but serious condition"

So there, people...when you complain about a traffic backup, or think about how much you hate your in laws, or get caught up in family squabbles, think about those two people. Your life doesn't suck that much.