What are the odds? A series of unfortunate events

Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS

09/14/2005 08:23:13 PM · #1

So, I go to my ATM today to get money for lunch and find it closed... AGAIN.... It seems every time I go there, the machine is broken, or closed or SOMETHING. Well, no big deal, I'll just drive ACROSS town to another branch and withdraw from that machine.

On my way there on a busy 3 lane road, I'm minding my own business when WHAM! A TREE falls on my truck. I'm not sitting still mind you, I'm DRIVING... about 45 miles an hour! No, it didn't fall in front of me, it fell ON me. The timing is mind boggling. I had ZERO time to react. Just hang on and drive straight through. OUCH!!! Well, after I finally came to a stop and wondered who I upset upstairs, I see the damage. Guessing it's probably about $2000 dollars US. The fortunate thing is that no one was hurt, and I drive a full size truck (a smaller car would not have been as lucky).

So I call the police (to file an accident report for insurance) and while I'm waiting, our local department of transportation showed up. They cut up the tree (that was blocking two lanes of traffic) and had it completely removed before the law enforcement ever showed up. Mind you this is in a seedy part of town and all I can do is think tomorrow's headlines read...

Local resident killed in carjacking while waiting on police to arrive after a tree fell on his moving vehicle because he couldn't get money from the ATM machine

So I go back to work (late) and start working on a graphic layout that I have to have completed by Friday morning. Things are going well, I'm making good progress and WHAM! My computer freezes... .... GO HOME!!!!

Geesh!!! I know that in the grand scheme of things I have nothing to complain about. I have a beautiful wife, a wonderful baby boy, a nice house, a good job, and a nice car. Really I'm not complaining... Just have to sit back sometimes and look at a series of unfortunate events and have a good chuckle... I've had mine.

I hope you guys get a chuckle out of this too. Cheers!

Message edited by author 2005-09-14 20:23:27.

Konador

Canon EOS-500D Rebel T1i

09/14/2005 08:25:15 PM · #2

Originally posted by ldowse:

I have a beautiful wife, a wonderful baby boy, a nice house, a good job, ~~and a nice car.~~

Canon EOS-20D

09/14/2005 08:25:20 PM · #3

Good lord. I think you'd better take tomorrow off!

Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM

09/14/2005 08:26:51 PM · #4

Originally posted by Konador:

Originally posted by ldowse:
I have a beautiful wife, a wonderful baby boy, a nice house, a good job, ~~and a nice car.~~

... Good Insurance?!?!

Message edited by author 2005-09-14 20:27:15.

wewillexplore

Canon EOS-1D Mark II

09/14/2005 08:27:32 PM · #5

Originally posted by ldowse:

Originally posted by Konador:

Originally posted by ldowse:
I have a beautiful wife, a wonderful baby boy, a nice house, a good job, ~~and a nice car.~~

... Good Insurance?!?!

they cancelled you yesterday. computer malfunction in Baton Rouge.

Mick

Canon EOS-5D

Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM

09/14/2005 08:35:24 PM · #6

You know how they say bad luck comes in 3's? Well, you better hope that all of that doesn't count as 1. 8^o

Tamron AF 28-300mm f/3.5-6.3 XR Di LD Aspherical IF for Canon

09/14/2005 08:37:08 PM · #7

Originally posted by micknewton:

You know how they say bad luck comes in 3's? Well, you better hope that all of that doesn't count as 1. 8^o

Ummm... maybe I should just stay in bed tomorrow!

Riponlady

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ35

09/14/2005 08:41:20 PM · #8

Oh yes Your update button is under a tree somewhere!

What a day, never mind better luck tomorrow!

P
:))))

Brad

Olympus OM-D E-M1

Olympus 40-150mm f/2.8 PRO M.Zuiko

09/14/2005 08:45:40 PM · #9

Shame about the timing of the Branch Challenge huh?

At least it's only a car,and you weren't hurt.
Life is odd at times - all you can do is hang on and enjoy the ride.

Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6

09/14/2005 09:11:38 PM · #10

Originally posted by BradP:

Shame about the timing of the Branch Challenge huh?

At least it's only a car,and you weren't hurt.
Life is odd at times - all you can do is hang on and enjoy the ride.

LOL... sometimes you have to hang on a little harder to the steering wheel.

loz1

Canon EOS-450D Rebel XSi

09/15/2005 04:16:41 AM · #11

Timing is a weird thing. I had the exact opposite happen to me once.

I was sitting on a park bench, stood up to leave and a huge branch fell where i was sitting. If it had happened a second earlier I would have been hurt.

Its amazing how much a small and tiny second can impact you.

Strikeslip

Canon EOS-5D

Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS

09/15/2005 08:22:06 AM · #12

Holy smokes, thankfully you're OK!

Here's my timing anecdote.

I was on my way out the office door for lunch. The boss says, "Hey, can you drop these letters in the mail for me?" So he delayed me by about five seconds. When I got downstairs, five seconds from being outside the front door, a huge rain of glass came crashing down, right where I would have been, covering a pretty large area. There was one poor guy out there near the periphery of the shower. His head got cut up & was pretty bloody, but he was OK. Apparently, the window cleaners had been wokring earlier. One of the big, plate glass windows got a small crack in it, I guess. It was a windy day and the glass let go, ten stories up.

Sony 24-70mm F4 Vario-Tessar T* FE OSS

09/15/2005 04:51:07 PM · #13

OUCH!!! That's a real pain in the Glass! Good thing you were delayed huh!

Chinabun

Canon PowerShot SD990 IS

09/15/2005 05:13:49 PM · #14

Great story! i mean sorry to hear that. Well it actually is funny now since no one got hurt. I loved the added sarcasm.

Bear_Music

Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra

09/15/2005 06:51:09 PM · #15

I used to spend a LOT of time traveling and shooting in the American west, living out of a camper van. Early one morning, on the Big Sur coast, I woke to find myself in the midst of a driving rainstorm. I thought it would be a good idea to get the heck out of there (Big Sur is notorious for landslides erasing the highway) so I packed up all my stuff and started the van. It refused to start. A couple minutes later it finally started, and I pulled out on the highway. Rounded the first bend and saw the aftermath of a landslide subsiding which has swept two automobiles off the cliff into the ocean. One of them would have been me had my van started on first crank.

Robt.

roadrunner

Canon EOS-20D

Tamron SP AF 17-35mm f/2.8-4 Di LD Aspherical IF for Canon

09/15/2005 07:10:05 PM · #16

Originally posted by bear_music:

WOW robt... this certainly sounds like you have someone watching over you.... had your van ever not started like that before?.. strange how the powers work..... i KNOW i have someone sitting on my shoulder... many many things have happened where i should be gone, but the main one was from when i was 15, at least 10 times through the school day i was and then was not going to my girlfriends house that night... then i WAS going.. and at the last lesson she got me introuble by talking in class..lol.. so i had to stay back, she couldn't wait for me to catch her bus, so off she went, she was then killed in a car accident...the passenger side ( where i would've been sitting in the back ) was totally 'gone'.. and the car was 5 meters up a telegraph pole....

Beetle

Canon EOS-5D Mark II

Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0L IS

09/15/2005 08:21:40 PM · #17

Back in 1980 I was an apprentice in an office (located about one hour away from Munich, Germany). Our company had planned an outing to the Octoberfest. We were going by train, taking the last train home, so we even knew exactly what time we'd be leaving to head back.
Something came up, and we had to go a day earlier than planned.
We had a lovely outing, enjoyed by all - until the next evening when some of us watched the late news.

A bomb that was planted in a trash can by the exit (and timed to co-incide with many people leaving to catch the last train home) killed 17 people and injured 200.

Had it not been for the change in plans, we would have been exactly at THAT spot at THAT time.

Obviously, my name wasn't on "the list" yet.

Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L USM

09/15/2005 09:44:10 PM · #18

Originally posted by bear_music:

...Rounded the first bend and saw the aftermath of a landslide subsiding which has swept two automobiles off the cliff into the ocean. One of them would have been me had my van started on first crank.

Robt.

Reminds me of a story my grandfather used to tell (forgive me I'm a little sketchy on the details). He lived in Kodiak, Alaska during the "Big earthquake" (1964 I think) and the ensuing Tsunami. Apparently he was driving along a coastal road and decided to stop and see what the heck was going on. While he was stopped watching this "huge wave" , the road got washed out in front and behind him. He was on one of the few high spots that didn't get taken out.

As a follow up note on my situation... My insurance agent laughed at me today. Seems this kind of thing is pretty rare!!!

Message edited by author 2005-09-15 21:45:22.

thatcloudthere

Canon EOS-1D

09/15/2005 09:50:50 PM · #19

Originally posted by loz1:

Timing is a weird thing. I had the exact opposite happen to me once.

Yeah, the opposite happened to me today, too! I was at work, deleting all of my files when I decided to go for a drive down the freeway to put some money into a bank machine when a tree jumped off of my trunk!

Konador

Canon EOS-500D Rebel T1i

Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS

09/15/2005 09:52:59 PM · #20

Originally posted by thatcloudthere:

I was at work, deleting all of my files when I decided to go for a drive down the freeway to put some money into a bank machine when a tree jumped off of my trunk!

Message edited by author 2005-09-15 21:58:32.