Life on the edge (of a mountain...)

“The Mayor is an asshole, and nobody likes him”. That was the answer I got when I asked the bartender why she was doing inventory on the liquor cabinet. Well…..Ok. I did not bother to ask why, but that did not stop her…. It appears that there is some corruption in this county and the restaurants owners are not too happy about it. That is all I really heard before I tuned out and tried not to listen to anything else she had to say. Oh, by the way – we were in a restaurant getting take out for the evening. All I wanted was a club sandwich, but I got an earful of political mumbo-jumbo from a bitter waitress that really did not like the fact that the mayor was cutting into her tip money. This was not a woman that I ever wanted to cross. She really had some serious opinions about her county, and had no problems telling total strangers.
Other than that, the only thing that really got to me today was going up dead mans hill. It was in Tennessee. To give you some idea of what it was like, imagine going up a roller coaster incline. It made that look calm. I started out by passing 3 semies. I was going at least 55mph at that time. The grade was only about 45 degrees at this point. I knew there was a problem after we reached the summit and I was doing 30mph. The car was floored and sounded as though it was straining for dear life. I relaxed and began to get up to speed again. That was the point that I saw the sign…. It read, “ trucks check your brakes”. What the hell did that mean? I went a little further and saw another sign. It read, “Cars, don’t worry about checking your brakes – check your parachute and life insurance policy…..” Ok, at that point I got a little scared - ok, really scared. I put on my brakes. Nothing. I felt a little shudder and saw little pieces of metal that used to be my brakes brake pads fly out from the sides of the van. We were now on the downside of dead mans hill, and I finally realized why the trucks were going so fast. They really had no choice. Brakes did not work. Downshifting did not work. Screaming for dear life did not work. I started to prey. I think it worked until Dianne made me open my eyes. We finally made it down dead mans hill, or drop, or death wish. I forget what the actual name of the mountain was, but I will never forget the impression it made on me or my weak heart. I had survived the ordeal, and that will be something that I will talk about for a long time, a very long time – at least until tomorrow….