The Safe Driver

Never get caught off guard

Every now and then you may get caught off guard. You may have visitors drop by unannounced while your house is a mess. Sometimes you may find yourself invited out for dinner, but you’re short on cash. What do you do in situations like that? Is there any way you can prepare for the unexpected?

Many years ago I had bought my first new car. It was similar to my dad’s new car, but it was the base model and not the one with all the extra’s like my dad had just bought. Well, one day we were sitting in the backyard of my parent’s house and the clouds opened up and down the rain poured. My dad and I both ran to our new vehicles to roll the windows up, but my dad was out of luck. You see, my new vehicle still have the “old fashioned” crank windows while my dad’s new vehicle had the power windows. My dad had to run back into the house, find his car keys and run back outside to roll the windows up. When he finally did, the interior was completely soaked! It was raining so hard, that everyone was running for cover, even the birds. I was watching this all take place from the dry interior on my car.

I now keep my keys with me so as not to get the interior soaked if the clouds open up suddenly again. Other things I do to avoid getting caught off guard is to check my gas gauge each time I start my vehicle. I never want to get caught off guard and run out of gas, especially on a quiet country road or a busy freeway. I’ll stop off at the gas station before embarking on those “Sunday drives” with the family.

I never want to get caught off guard in the winter with a snow storm, so I keep an emergency kit in the car. It has a snow brush, shovel, extra washer fluid, flashlight, booster cables and many more items. I’d rather have that duffle bag full of items and never need to use them, as opposed to assuming that I would never need them and then getting stranded or stuck.

When I’m teaching new drivers how to drive, I will often have a spare pair of sunglasses in my vehicle. Every now and then students will come to my car on a bright day without their own sunglasses. I offer them my spare pair so they can see clearly without the glare off the snow or just the bright sun itself.

Heading out on a fishing trip with friends a couple of years ago, the route that I had planned was changed because of a closed road. I pulled out a map that I had in my glove box and planned an alternate route. It really didn’t add much to our trip, but it was a good thing I was prepared. Maybe the fact that I was a boy scout helped, because their motto is always be prepared. Maybe, but I didn’t want to get caught off guard.

During last summer one of the kids who plays baseball with my son had a cut finger and was bleeding heavily. I went to my car, got my first aid kit and cleaned it up. The next game the coach hadn’t arrived yet with the equipment, so I went to my trunk and got 3 baseballs and they could begin warming up. One of the kids forgot their baseball hat, so again I went to the trunk of my car and got a spare league baseball hat I keep there. The kids started to smile and chuckle that I had those things in my car, but again, who wants to be caught off guard? Not this guy!