Bill and I nearly got into an automobile accident today. And we were sitting still. It wouldn't have been either of our faults. Neither of us was trying to eat chili and drive at the same time. We weren't boisterously singing along to an Andy Williams CD. It wasn't raining, sleeting, hailing or snowing. We were minding our business in the left-turn lane at a stoplight.

Bill was taking me to pick my truck up from the mechanic....why don't cars run on magic and never break down, by the way?

We had been waiting to yield, and then the light turns red. Bill's talking. I'm looking straight ahead. Out of the corners of my eyes, I see the traffic waiting on either side of the intersection starting to go. Then I see the white car that's still coming straight in the opposite direction.

I think I said "Oh shit" like seven times.

The white car hit a red car in the intersection. Not too bad a wreck; definitely could have been much worse: the white car missed Bill's truck by like three inches as it recoiled from the impact. It spun around and ended up turned the wrong way in the lane.

We got to talk to a cop. He was the first person in 2003 to ask me if I was related to Roy Acuff. He won the prize. It's a a new record. He asked if we saw it. Bill was pretty high from the crack pipe, and I'm basically incoherent as a general rule, so I can't think we were much help. Somehow, I was arrested for solicitation andusury, but the charges were dropped.

Everybody was okay.

Murfreesboro, Tennessee is a town made for 40,000 people with about twice that crammed in. Add the college crowd (18 year olds who can't drive) to that mix, and you've got a volatile combination. And me being quick to anger means no driving on Fridays.

But I ramble.

Amen.