What a day...

Today I almost got into a car accident. I was heading south on 405, driving by myself, heading home. There is a car pool lane plus 3 other lanes. I was in the middle lane (not counting the car pool one). I pass a car on my left, and then signal left and move in front of him. There is a car in the car pool lane. He wanted to move into my lane. I'm not sure, but I don't remember seeing his turn signal. He swerves into my lane, and sees me last minute. I hit my brakes and move back to the right. He steers back into his lane, but loses control. Looking over my shoulder, I see him smash the front into the center divider, then as it bounces off, smashes the rear, sending the car across all lanes of traffic into the shoulder. It took me a second to lower my heart rate, then I pulled over. Luckily, he swerved away from me, so nothing happened to the SUV. I walk back nervously, and luckily as well, nobody was hurt. I apologized to the guy (although it wasn't really anyone's fault), and he seems to think his car simply lost control. I asked the cop if he needed me for anything and he said no.

Moral of the story is to leave plenty of room when changing lanes, and sometimes you need to look 2 lanes over. Moral #2 & #3, keep your car in good shape and/or don't drive cars that are too old. Don't put yourself at risk by driving a car that may not be able to make emergency moves safely. I believe he was driving a late 80's or early 90's Japanese sedan. The 4Runner (96) was actually very stable during this incident.

So I get home around 1pm, and start to stain the fence. There's probably about 100ft of fence, and it's on top of a rock wall. To stain the top I need to use a ladder! I really missed Sean today b/c by the time I was done, it was 9pm! I practically had to bust out the flashlight to get the job done. Allyson wanted to help, so we actually propped up the canopy and put Jack's pack-n-play outside. He was happy in there for about 15 minutes, so it quickly became playtime w/ Jack and Allyson for the rest of the afternoon.

Needless to say, I'm pretty beat, and tan as well. I think I'll let Allyson drive tomorrow.