dude can i take a pic of your thing for my blog

last night we're at the drive-in watching pirates 3 and the invisible

both of which we enjoyed fully but that's a story for another time

so

between movies - walking around - i'm amused to find this thing

it's a thing - the vw thing

that's what it's called - a vw thing

and it reminds me of the last time i saw a thing up close

and it reminds me of the last time i remember feeling that fierce strain of fear that accompanies a serious lack of faith in the likelihood of personal survival

i was in highschool

hurtling southward on highway 115/35 in a vw thing

like the one above except painted a bright shade of sunset orange

full of teenagers

navigated by an inexperienced and impulsive teenaged adrenaline junkie named kendal eady from kirby

kendal eady was the kind of chick that operated at humming bird speed on a slow day

and somehow despite our mistrust for this madwoman

there we were

about seven of us

with the front window down - broken speedometer - no seatbelts - no sense - no roof

headlights randomly flashing off and on

racing blindly down the highway

like being shot out of a fucking canon - a screaming laughing insane 0range glow - bouncing through the night with way more horsepower than the suspension was ever built to handle - the thing listing fore and aft with a mind of it's own - shoulder to shoulder

and i thought we were going to die

until we hit jewel road - also known as roller coaster road

at which point

i knew we were gonna die

.there would be no surviving a crash - at speed - in a vw thing

unless you're fortunate enough to fly out of it and land somwhere soft

but those are the kinda odds you don't want to have to lean on

when it comes to livin' or dyin'

nevertheless

we made it home alive and i felt invincible

even more oblivious to the precarious nature of mortality

and for reasons maybe not unrelated to this experience

i've imbibed risk like an addict most of my life

walked in many shadows

and faced many perils

but i haven't felt fear like that again

where are you now

kendal eady from kirby

we should drink some rocket fuel - fire up the thing

and take another rip down rollercoaster road

because

we all need some thing to be afraid of

and

i'm not afraid of any thing anymore

except maybe

that thing - in your thing

or this thing

doing that thing

like your thing

-

"dude can i take a picture of your thing for my blog"