I love you all. All of you - those who e-mail me, those who comment here, those who merely lurk and read. If you were here in person next to me I would personally hug each one of you, and that's saying a lot, as I am not a hugging sort of person under ordinary circumstances.

I very nearly bought the farm this afternoon. Coming home from work. I was driving slowly down Wilson, which is a small twisty residential street with a couple of nearly-blind curves on it. I was going about 5 miles below the posted speed limit because of the nearly-blind curves.

There was a guy coming UP Wilson. Coming at, I would estimate, 45 mph (15 miles over the posted limit). He hit one of the blind curves and kind of "straightened" it - that is, swerved over into the middle of the road - as he came through.

Wilson is not a wide road, and on either side of it there is almost immediate forest.

When I saw the guy I didn't have time to think - just react - and I am grateful that my reflexes are still as fast as they are. I swerved hard right, there was just enough berm, he swerved a bit when he realized OH &$*% THERE'S ANOTHER CAR THERE. He passed within about 5 inches of my driver's side. If his mouth had been open I could have counted his teeth.

(I'm actually frankly amazed my car took no damage. I was bracing for the impact.)

I paused for a moment to let the weird prickles subside (does anyone else experience that? When you have a sudden bad scare, your hands and feet go all prickly, like pins and needles?) and very slowly, very cautiously, drove the rest of the way home.

I generally don't believe in literal guardian angels - beings whose function in life (existence? afterlife?) is to watch over one individual human and be sure they don't get taken out before their time, but sometimes I do wonder. (This is not the first close-call I've had with an inattentive driver.)

Were I a drinking woman, I probably would have poured myself a large-ish Scotch (or something) shortly after walking in the door and slowly and dazedly consumed it over the next couple hours. But, as I tend to be of the opinion that alcohol is more often the cause of, rather than the solution to, life's problems, I'm not. (And it also gives me migraines).

So instead I washed my hair, made a small tomato scallop and put it in the oven, and am going to sit down and make some granny squares and studiously try to forget the near miss of this afternoon.