I heard the dawn coming from a damaged field recording

[sovay]

After six months of reaccustoming myself to regular driving, I finally did something really dangerous while in the car: at an interminable red light in stop-and-go traffic that had been going at an average rate of trench warfare, I looked at the pulp novel lying out of my computer bag in the passenger seat with my hat and gloves and didn't notice when the light changed. Nothing happened. No one honked, revved, rear-ended me, I didn't spring forward into the crosswalk and hit a pedestrian or even have to catch up to the car in front of me. Either the change in lights subliminally registered with me or my paranoia was perfectly timed. But I have been since the age of literacy so easily absorbed into reading that I can not hear my own name spoken and it should never have crossed my mind that it was safe even to glance at a printed page while behind a wheel unless parked. I gather I have reached a level of comfort with driving where I can relax enough to do really stupid things, which feels less like an accomplishment than I suppose it should.

In other news, my doctor's appointment this afternoon yielded a pneumococcal vaccine and I am enjoying Crescent's By the Roads and the Fields (2003), which reminds me of ashlyme's writing. I am profoundly tired.

Comments

[ashlyme]

I'm so glad you're okay! It irks me to type "no book's worth the accident", but...

Thanks again for introducing me to Crescent. I'll give the whole album a listen in the morning. "Spring" feels frail but vital too - exactly the song I need tonight.

*Hugs for tiredness*

[gwynnega]

I am glad you are comfortable driving, even if it took doing something ill-advised to make that realization!

[davidgillon]

But I have been since the age of literacy so easily absorbed into reading that I can not hear my own name spoken

I resemble this statement!

[oracne]

The best part about the pneumo vaccines is they last several years.

[asakiyume]

I highly empathize with your driving experience.

I gather I have reached a level of comfort with driving where I can relax enough to do really stupid things, which feels less like an accomplishment than I suppose it should. --I'm laughing.

Hurray for a pneumococcal vaccine, and hurray for something good to read! (Boo profound tiredness, but maybe just maybe tonight will be a night when you can sleep)