Well, it finally happened. The thing that I have been dreading most since we moved out here three years ago. I hit a hog. And I don't mean the kind that goes vroom, vroom, and has a leather clad man with a skull cap on the back of it. I mean the kind that goes grunt grunt, and tends to look up at you the moment before impact, leaving you with a visual that you'd just as soon not have in your memory bank, especially since it was a young one, only about thirty pounds or so.
I know that in time I will hit one of the big ones that weigh in at two or three hundred pounds. I see them on the road side often enough, and as many trips as I make back and forth to town, it's inevitable. Yes, this was just a small one, not as bad as it could have been, not big enough to do any damage to the truck, and I'd rather not have run it over, but in a bad kind of way, it was good practice.
I was coming back from town at about six thirty. It was already dark and I decided for a change to take the back way home. I usually avoid this road at night for just this reason, but it does cut a few minutes off on trip time, and I was late for getting dinner ready, so I decided to risk it.
There I was, all relaxed, singing along to Travis Tritt, which may have been what brought the hog out of the woods to begin with, as I long ago stopped being able to carry a tune worth a dang, so the hog may have thought I was calling him.
'Baby close that suitcase,
Let's turn this thing around
We got everybody talking all over town
But if you have to leave, well keep one thing in mind
Ahhh this one's gonna hurt yeeewww, for a long long time...'
I was really into it. 'Singing' at the top of my lungs. There was only one other vehicle on the road with me, a truck of some kind behind me, putting just enough light into the rear view mirror that I had to keep squinting.
'...There's a bottle on the table to help me understand
How love can go so wrong between a woman & a man
But just beyond the door here's what you will find
Ohhh...... this one's gonna hurt yeeewww....'
And here he came. Trotting out in the road like he had good sense. There was no time to react. If I'd slammed on my brakes, the truck behind me would have plowed into the back of me, and I have practiced this event in my mind often enough, that I remembered not to swerve to try and avoid it. That's a bad habit to get into, as hitting a hog can be bad, but hitting another vehicle head on, can be much much worse.
I just got a glimpse of him before he disappeared under the right front tire. Then it felt like I'd run over a parking curb.
Whump.
I peered into the rear view mirror just in time to see the truck behind me, some kind of big old dually, diesel-type truck, hit it for the second time.
Grimace.
Travis had stopped singing but I thought the words were appropriate, so I finished up the song.....
Ye-e-es, this one's gonna hurt you....for a long...long...time.
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