What was the situation you were in that, had you not left moments before or otherwise lucked out, would have negatively changed your life forever?


Was traveling on 55 years ago on our way to the city one night. Car in a lane to our right and slightly ahead swerves into our lane, completely out of control, hits the car in front of us, flips, and lands in the grass median. Everyone stops to get out and help the driver, who ended up dying later that evening.

I can't help but wonder had we been going 5 mph faster...

there was that time circa 1987-88 (ages 7-8) that i was in durango colorado for my aunt's wedding and i thought i could hang in the deep end of the pool at the local best western..... i couldn't. i was in the process of drowning in the deep end when out of nowhere my grandpa came running into the pool building and dove in the deep end (full suit and all) and pulled my ass out b4 i could successfully drown.

...i take care of that 100yr old grandfather now, much to the chagrin/mockery of many here. *shrug*

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Driving home from NYC late one night I zoned out and drifted out of my lane and ended up going onto the shoulder when I suddenly noticed and got back into the lane. I'm not sure if I fell asleep or not. The rush of adrenaline after something like that is a feeling I can't even explain and the rest of the drive I was fine though I didn't have long to go. I never attempted that drive late at night again.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Another example that BRick's reminded me of:

Driving home from Peoria during a snowstorm (on I-55 again, coincidentally). Friends and I were leaving for Las Vegas the next day. My Buick Century spins out of control, in front of a semi, back across the lanes and into the center median. No chance of getting out.

Amateur tow truck driver comes up to my window and offers to pull me out of the median for "$80." At that point I was so amped up on adrenaline and anxious to get back home that I do two things:

1) Agree to the $80
2) Tell the man "Wow, I'm so glad I have this envelope full of cash because I'm going to Las Vegas!"

To this day I have no idea why the guy didn't knock me over the head, take my cash, and leave me there to freeze.

Pregnancy scares. Lots of them. I was very stupid as a youth.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Sounds like it isn't just FAVRE FAN who needs to work on HIM SELF???

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Good people drink good beer - Hunter S. Thompson

<º)))><

Waiting for the time when I can finally say
That this has all been wonderful, but now I'm on my way

I was in Alaska when I was 16 and my folks changed flights for me on the way home as I was an idiot and lost a ticket on the way down there and the puddle jump company was being difficult. The puddle jumper I was supposed t be on slammed into the side of a mountain.

When I was 12 I was in door county and my brother and I were riding bikes down to the store to get a pop. My front tire hit his rear tire and I went flying head over handlebars and landed in the road. A car tire missed me by about 4-5 feet. It was my dad. I've never seen him so pissed and so happy at the same time.

here since you guys are doing traffic stories i'll do one of them. one night i was driving back home from my friend's apartment above the exedus II reggae bar on clark a couple'a blocks south of wrigley (hey at the turn of the millennium if you wanted to get a 3br apartment in that area for $1250/month you put up with reggae bass/lines from 8pm-3am ~364 days a year. at least band practice and parties weren't problems. the identical layout apartment 1 floor up [with little to no reggae bass] was like $2250-2500/month]

AHEM. so yeah i was driving back to 90/94 down irving park circa 1-3 in the morning, and as i was doing my thing some jag in a bmw was evidently drunk enough to think that i'm racing him (i was just driving quick/fast) and starts trying to race me down parts of irving park. clearly dude was somewhat inebriated cuz even tho he had the faster car (some BMW to my ~97 honda civic EX w/VTEC, a 4banger doing ~115-120hp) i was blowing him off the line and etc. i reveled in it a little bit.

i figured it would be over when i went to get on the highway, but the dude followed me on to the highway and would proceed to floor it and get ahead of me then jam on his breaks real quick, forcing me to dive out of the way and/or jam out on the brakes. he did this 2-3 times, and if i tried to punch it and just go around him and go fast he'd throw his car into the lane i was going in to "block me" like he was gonna wreck me if i didn't immediately back down to him [the whole point of this i presume].

so after 4-5 of these "get in front of me and jam on the breaks / throw your car at me to stop me from getting around you" things i decide to try and use him against himself, so noticing that there was a giant cement wall to the right of the shoulder coming, after he does his jam on the brakes thing i start to go HARD like i'm going to take him on the rightmost lane once and for all. dude ended up having to recover from the brake jamming quick so he floored it and threw his car to the right --- anticipating this, i jammed on my breaks and watched the dude promptly throw his BMW right into the concrete wall to the right as i casually drove by like "mess with the best / die like the rest!"

TLDR = if i wasn't awesome i might have had some random hypercompetitive drunk wreck me on a random drive home

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I was a teenager driving west on Nerge Road in Elk Grove coming home from my girlfriend's house in the middle of the night. I was crossing over Plum Grove Rd, which was a green light. There were two cop cars driving at least 80 MPH going south on Plum Grove apparently chasing after another car. They never slowed through the intersection, and I just caught a glimpse of them and was able to narrowly avoid an accident. At that speed, there was a good chance I would have died from the collision had I not seen them.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

Driving with a buddy at the toll booth and there was this pack of extremely wild teenagers in a convertible behind us. For some reason they just started to taunt us. So then we paid the and then they started to follow us. So we try to lose them but they were in this really suped up car. ,Suddenly, my buddy turned off the road really and the car was on two wheels and I was just screaming. Then they fired a gun up in the air, followed us into the city, and then they turned around and went home.

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Too MANY. Let's just say that I am really blessed. If not I wouldn't be here.

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Be well

GO BEARS!!!

There was one day recently where they asked Big Red if she could cover the afternoon shift updates as well as her regular morning updates. She initially agreed to do the entire 8 hour shift but had to cancel once she realized she did not have enough change for the vending machine and she might starve.


I've never been more scared in my entire life.

The hell?

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Yeah. Then when we got back, some jerk tried to steal my parking space by going in head first!

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That's pretty messed up. Were you friends with Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper, and Richie Valens?

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Power is always in the hands of the masses of men. What oppresses the masses is their own ignorance, their own short-sighted selfishness.
- Henry George

Amazing how they picked you, out of everyone, to terrorize.

I can see why.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

No.. We all thought one of the people on the trip was on the plane too. Didn't know she wasn't until I got a letter from her about 3 weeks later. Apparently she got an earlier flight or something. I don't know, thins are vague as this was 1991 so pretty much a lifetime ago these days. I still hate flying and I kind of blame this trip for it.

My wife and I were in Santa Monica walking to the farmer's market when my wife saw something in a window display that caught her eye, so we ducked into the shop to check it out. A few minutes later we heard a bunch of yelling and screaming, so we went outside to see what was going on, and it turned out some old guy plowed through the market in his car, killing nine people and injuring a bunch more.

btw, as someone who was born and raised in "the exceptional community" that is elk grove, i've got an issue with nerge road. the accepted enunciation of the word is "ner-geee" [geee like "geese"] even tho every time i see "Nerge" i just wanna call it "NERGE!" like "merge" -- i mean, come the fuck on, it's "merge" with an N in place of the M so how is it not nerge-like-merge? this is just like when the cubs wanted me to call a dude named "PIE" "pee-A" --- yeah, not til you hit .300 with some decent power you Caller Bob! until then you're [forever] PIE LIKE PIE!

i'm guessing some dipshit family from 75-125 years ago was named "nerge" and they pronounced it "ner-geeee" but you know, everytime i see that damn street i do my little [infinitesimal] part to spread the nerge-like-merge fever!

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I also am not sure it counts since no one died but I was in a subway car coming back from Yankee Stadium and the Times Square stop was two stops ahead. The train stopped and we were there for an hour not knowing what was going on. We found out the next day that there was a car with a bomb parked in Times Square but it didn't go off.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Times_Square_car_bombing_attempt

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Your being a very occasional poster, MANY of us aren't sure in which way you consider this a 'close call'.

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Power is always in the hands of the masses of men. What oppresses the masses is their own ignorance, their own short-sighted selfishness.
- Henry George

Named after Frederick Nerge, who also has an elementary school. He gave Schaumburg it's name.

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Why are only 14 percent of black CPS 11th-graders proficient in English?

I'm guessing it's German and the original pronunciation was Nair-guh.

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Freedom is our Strength.

A few ways to go here, so I'll settle on not having to go to the farmer's market was a nice win.

I have two that stick out in my mind. Heading north on 294 and just went through the last toll booth before you hit the WI border.
Guy towing a car ahead of me and I notice that the wheel on the car being towed looks awful loose. Before I knew it the wheel came
off and the car started dragging and creating sparks. The wheel meanwhile bounded across two lanes of traffic and if I wouldn't have
seen it and slowed down in time there is a good chance it would have gone through my windshield. That fact this happened at night
made it all the more surreal.

My ex-wife and I went up to Milwaukee to buy a used SUV from another couple. We made a handshake deal and decided we would
get the car the next weekend. On the way home near the Milwaukee zoo my car started accelerating and I couldn't stop it. I had
no idea what was going on. Thankfully it was a Sunday afternoon and traffic was light. The accelerator continued to floor itself and
I rode the brakes hard just to keep it down near 70mph. The smell of the brake pads was pretty awful. I wasn't sure what to do.
Fortunately I was able to get my dad on the phone and he suggested I move to the right lane, throw the car in neutral and turn off
the engine. Thankfully it worked and we coasted to a stop on the shoulder. After some investigating I noticed that somehow when
I had my car in the shop the week earlier that they must not have secured the governor on the engine very well. It had come loose
and without it the car wanted to go as fast as that engine could take it. It was a pretty scary 5 or 6 minutes, and I have no idea what
would have happened if it had been rush hour or there was a stop in traffic. I probably would have had to crash the car into the
median or something.

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

Coming home from CoD in the snow on 22nd, 6 lanes. Started swerving back and forth, eventually swerved off to right and all I did was bump my tire into a sign, rather than swerving into 3 lanes of incoming traffic if I went to the other side.

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