Two days ago when I was driving up the Central Valley of California I saw a cloud of dust over on the other side of the freeway. It was a huge vineyard and I figured a farmer type was doing some sort of farmer job and making a lot of dust in the process. They're doing it all the time all along the freeway, so it's not all that uncommon to see a cloud of dust blow out onto the interstate.

Suddenly, a car flies out of the dust cloud and bounces up onto the pavement. I thought for a second it was going to continue across the median and crash into me or some other unlucky driver, but, no, the out of control car heads back into the shoulder for a second trying at maiming a bunch of grapes before flying back onto the pavement where it fishtails as the driver is trying to regain control. Finally the car spins around and comes to a stop in the middle of both southbound lanes.

I breathed a sigh of relief because if the fool had rolled it, I would've had to do the good citizen thing of rendering aid. The problem with rolling vehicles is unbuckled drivers or passengers being partially ejected and

having various body parts crushed between a heavy vehicle and dirt. The last thing I wanted to see was a squashed head. The car stayed upright and on the pavement, so it was the responsibility of the southbound drivers to swerve and jostle around until the dust cleared; hopefully not plowing into the fool who was probably thanking a favority diety for not allowing Death to do his nasty deed.

I bet the driver crapped in his/her pants; or, at least, pissed a bit. Something like that can be so unnerving you just never know what's going to come of it.

That stretch of road is long, straight, and very boring. If you're not careful, you to can run right off the road.

Today, I worked on my new story as I drove from Corning, CA, to Tualatin, OR.

I made myself all teary eyed from a whole lot of poignancy.

I think I'm going to do the story in different POVs with each character doing their own bit, while one character will not have anything to say until close to the very end. It's because he is developmentally disabled, kind of like a number of kids I've seen in the past few years. Sort of Forrest Gumpish, I guess.

I'm almost finished with the last chapter of Tim, so I'll be able to start on the new story soon.