Twilight zone

Rain. Cats and dogs. That's what we've got in the Bay Area this morning. So maybe being at work all day won't be so bad.

But the real adventure was last night. I didn't get very far on the highway before there was a sea of brake lights ahead of me. There was a steady rain falling so I started to slow down early. Well, before I knew it, the car ahead of me slammed into the car ahead of them. Come on little Beetle, don't fail me now! Brake! Brake! Brake!

No problem. I stopped short of the wreck in front of me.

If you're ever in a situation like that, you'll thank your lucky stars that you're okay and didn't trade paint (or worse) with any other cars. Then, you'll glance in the rear view mirror to see what's happening behind you. It takes a split second for all of this to happen... the sigh of relief, the realization that you and your car are okay, then the glance up.

Years ago there was a comedian who described it as a 8"x2" horror movie. Yes, that's right, I looked up just in time to see a car slam into the back of me.

Great.

So I pull over and the girl (yes, girl. 18 year old girl.) abandons her car in the fast lane and walks quickly towards my car. Oh good, she's concerned and is checking to see how I am. I open the door and look at her as she runs by. Huh?

She ran right up to the folks who were in the 2 cars ahead of me. They were in a lot worse shape--airbags deployed, major front end damage, and those girls were hysterical.

I'm thinking how weird this is. The girl hit me, and she's running up to them. By now, everyone's on their cellphone (including me). So she's up with the group of girls, crying, consoling and unintellible gibberish, she runs back towards me--well, actually towards her car. I yell at her, "Hey, you hit my car!" She acknowledges it and goes about her business.

I was in the twilight zone. But, I finally figured out that she was "with" the parties in the 2 cars ahead of me. They're all friends and were probably going somewhere to celebrate Valentines Day, just like everyone else on the road. She was probably paying more attention to her friends crashing into each other than my car stopped in front of her.

To make a long story short, I'm okay. My car has some damage to the back bumper and tail light. The accident ahead of me involved 4 cars. We had 3 ambulances, 1 paramedic unit, 2 fire engines, 2 tow trucks, and 4 CHP units there. What a scene. No visible injuries to any of the parties, but 2 girls went away in ambulances, one immobiled on a backboard and one on a gurney. 2 cars were towed away. Traffic was probably backed up for miles in both directions.

Happy freakin' Valentines Day.