The Worst 5 Seconds Of Somebody's Morning

Usually on Fridays I don't have to leave for work as early as I did this Friday. Usually I leave around 10:00. 

But this wasn't a usual Friday. 

See, due to circumstances that are really not worth the retelling I had to go to the warehouse this Friday, and I had to be there by 7:30am, as a 53' foot trailer full of the finest home furnishings available in Denver was due to arrive at 7:30am, and my presence was needed to assist with the unloading of said trailer.

So there I was driving east down the 6th avenue expressway at 7:00 in the morning. Traffic at that early hour was horrible, as it always is from 6:00am until just past 9:00am, Monday through Friday.

 And gamedays too, when the game has an early start. 

It was a herky-jerky, stop and go drive, as the 6th avenue expressway is interrupted by exits and onramps every half mile, which means the fastest one usually goes is 25 mph, and the average one goes is about 5 mph.

I was in the far left lane, which is regarded as the passing lane in Colorado, though during the morning commute it's generally recognized as the "my exit isn't for at least another two miles" lane.

Suddenly I heard the loud chirping of tires on asphalt made by a vehicle braking hard, and I turned my head toward the far right lane to see what could possibly cause someone to need to brake that hard in such bumper-to-bumper traffic.

Just as my head was pivoting toward the source of the chirping a mid-sized SUV in the far right lane (two lanes over from where I was), which was apparently the vehicle that had hit the brakes hard, was rear-ended by another very similar mid-sized SUV.

Mid-sized SUV B could not have been traveling at more than 10 mph as it hit mid-sized SUV A, but plastic seemed to fly everywhere as the two vehicles collided. I saw smoke immediately begin to spew forth from the engine compartment of SUV B as that vehicle came to a sudden halt, and as I turned my head back towards the direction I was driving I caught a glimpse of the shocked face of the driver of SUV A.

All of that happened in 5 seconds or less. 5 seconds. That's all it took to make two people's morning really crappy.

Made my morning seem bright and cheery by comparison, despite having to drive my beater truck due to the battery in my newer truck being dead, and especially despite having to drive to the warehouse so damn early in order to help unload a 53 foot trailer of some very heavy furniture.

Heck, it even almost made the work day that followed the unloading of the trailer more bearable, despite it not coming to an end until 9:30pm this evening.

Almost, but not quite.