On Friday, as I was driving home from work, I nearly crashed my car. As I was getting on the Massachusetts Turnpike, just east of Exit 17 on the straightaway before the Market Street overpass and the new WGBH building, there was a large 2x12 lying in rightmost lane where I was traveling, completely across it.
I couldn’t swerve around it because there was a car to my left and the guardrail to my right. I couldn’t simply stop with traffic coming up behind me and already going 60 mph. So I had to go over it.
I braked as much as practical with slamming the pedal and braced myself. I thumped over it and waited for it, the flat tires or the sound of important pieces of the undercarriage dragging on the pavement. Thankfully, there was none of that. Guardian angel was working overtime.
Incidentally, on the big jumbotron on the side of the WGBH building overhanging the highway, it was showing “The Ecstasy of St. Teresa,” which just happens to hang in Our Lady of Victory church in Rome, which is the titular church of WGBH’s neighbor, Cardinal Sean O’Malley. It was a pleasant surprise to see while I’m trying home, even if I’m distracted by my near-car-wreck.
I am still a little shaken from a near-miss I had not too long ago where 3 meets 93 in Braintree. You know, where the roads merge and everyone slams on their brakes? Glad you’re okay.