thoughts thunk

I can’t believe I left Austin just 28 short days ago. Aside from the ever-present absence of my dear friends, Austin seems like something from years ago. The last 28 days have been full days–indeed a sum total of appox. 5431 miles were traveled on land (though often it felt like vast sea of pavement, grass, and right-wing radio programming).

Many, many of these miles were traveled in my beloved, and soon to be salvaged, 1996 Nissan XE extended cab pickup. Tragically, my pickup was the victim of an all too natural occurrence when driving across the West: a deer hopped into the road, seemingly out of nowhere, and we hit the animal head on at 75 mph. The deer and the front end of my truck absorbed the impact, leaving my friend Aaron and I unscathed. I would have hated to have been in anything less substantial than the Nissan, which held up quite well in my opinion (West Loop Auto Body and Farmers Insurance have reached a different conclusion).

To wax philosophical for a moment, this type of event is always a good reminder of our powerlessness in the face of larger forces–specifically nature. We spend so much of our time in (seemingly) controlled environments that I, for one, sometimes forget that I cannot dictate the contours of my day, my activities, and my physical well-being. We make many efforts to separate ourselves from the natural world around us, seeing deer, hail, etc. as hassels that interrupt us, not as substantial forces who couldn’t care less about our day. Nature and worldly chaos have quite loud voices when they choose to speak.

This accident was also a reminder of just how nice people are. Every Montanan, North Dakotan, and Chicagoan who assisted Aaron and I was kind and helpful.

In any case, I would like to take a moment of silence for a truly reliable vehicle, a beautiful exemplar of sensible Japanese engineering…