Head-on

OK, here's one reason it hurts in my brain:

My daughter was in a head-on collision this afternoon. She's fine, except for a large bruise on her leg where part of the dashboard hit her as the air bag deployed. (She's waiting in anticipation for it to turn purple and green and really ugly, so she can send pictures to all her friends.) Everyone else is fine too, for which we are all grateful. The head-on collision took place at about 30 mph in a cul de sac, where one of the drivers listed a bit to port, and the other drifted a bit to starboard, as they went around the curve. Bam! The cars were a mess, but since everyone walked away, well, I feel blessed.

Surprisingly, this is not why my brain hurts. Things like this are going to happen if you let your daughter ride in cars with boys, and basically, these are good kids that made a mistake. It will be a pain for the parents, the insurance companies will lose a little money, and that's about it.

No, my brain hurts because just after the accident, some guy ran out of his house and started yelling at the young drivers: "This is not a highway," he yelled, displaying the keen grasp of the obvious that is often the hallmark of the anal retentive. "You're lucky no one was hurt!" He was genuinely angry that these people smashed their cars on his watch, I guess.

Sure am glad he was there to make a bad day worse for everyone, while accomplishing exactly nothing.