Yesterday I had the great good fortune to have lunch with ‘T’, someone I hadn’t see in about 23 years, and hadn’t spoken with in two decades. Hard to believe that at one time we were as tight as a square knot. I won’t use any names here, ’cause if he’s an Obama supporter and stumbles into this site there won’t be another lunch. Catching up was good though. He, originally from the upper middle US and I from the lower mid-west, had our destinies collide at the Art Center in Pasadena in the early ’80s with both of us trying to become car designers. He went on to complete the program, get hired in Michigan in an auto related industry, survived some mergers and found a way to come back to SoCal and work designing personal electronics. Southern California — what a seductive place to be sure. Your ol’ Okie managed to get through five of the eight terms at the AC, at which point alimony and child support replaced tuition at such an expensive private school as my top priority — so off to the real world of work in design. I wasn’t really ready — sometimes I wonder if I’ll ever be?

It’s amazing to confront how much one forgets. Out of 30 guys I saw and got to know on a daily basis, I can now remember only the names of 5/6. It’s like my client list from the last 20 years — if I didn’t go through the old portfolios I can’t remember them either. Is this what getting older is all about? Funny, I can remember how to write < ?php do_something_here(); ?> and make a web page do something there but can’t remember the name or face of a guy I sat next to for 20 months. Weird!

‘T’ is good and having a great life. That makes me happy for him. Now, about that stayin’ alive on the freeway bit. I almost didn’t make the lunch. Anyone who drives out here has their horror stories of surviving near misses on the freeway, and I’m no exception — I’ve seen some really weird stuff happen out there. But, yesterday . . . that was way too close — I don’t think I’ve burned through the adrenaline yet!

What happened was this. I was on the 101 in the third lane from the right and came up on the back of a big bus going about 5 under the surrounding traffic. Checking right it was pretty compacted — a check left showed wide open. I hit the signal for a few seconds and started over. Half way into the lane change I caught an approaching blue-black blur in my left peripheral and realized that this guy wasn’t veering off — we were about two seconds away from testing that physics law that states two objects can’t occupy the same space at the same time. I rowed the steering wheel hard right and felt the tires bite, heard them scream, then realized that I had gone past my original lane and was drifting into the next one on the right, upon which I rowed hard left, at the same time risking a quick glance behind-right to see if I had caused any collateral damage. Lot’s of slowing going on back there, but no collisions. The guy on the left I had avoided being hit by was bookin’ and long gone up ahead.

I didn’t know a GMC Envoy with all-season tires could do moves like that. I feel very lucky that I didn’t roll it on that first maneuver, and that my 56-year-old reflexes were good enough to yank it back into the proper lane without anyone getting hurt. Might have been some folks back there needin’ to so some emergency laundry, but that’s the price you pay sometimes driving the SoCal freeways.

Most of all, thanks be to the Good Lord above — I really did enjoy that lunch. Would have hated to have missed it . . .

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