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Question of the Day! | by kickstart | 2001-11-09 00:00:06 |
| My two instances of precognition: |
by SouthpawPL |
2001-11-09 12:53:16 |
1) When I was 18, I had a car overheat while running errands for a family friend. I got back to the (friend’s) house with steam billowing out from under the hood of the car. I was late to get home, so (after the steam subsided) I started spraying the engine with water from the garden hose. This drew a crowd of small children (3-8 yrs) from in the house. They asked me what I was doing, why, etc., and stood watching. After a while, the water stopped flashing immediately off the metal, but I kept it up for a few minutes more. When I thought that I might be able to open the radiator to fill it, so that I might limp home, I shut the water off.
I tested the metal with my hand and it didn’t seem that hot. So I put a rag over my hand and popped the radiator cap open to the first detent. Nothing. “Hmm. Must be cooler than I thought! I’ll be home in 10 minutes.”
I was just about to open the cap the rest of the way when I got a strong feeling that the kids needed to go inside. NOW.
So I shuffled the kids to the house and told them they could watch from inside. Told the baby-sitter to keep an eye on them.
Went back out to the car, got the rag, opened the cap to the second detent.
When the cap got blown out of my hand, I had just enough time to think “Big mistake!” and turn my face away. The heat had melted the gasket on the cap to the radiator. Releasing the pressure broke the seal. Live steam played across my back and shoulders as I ducked out of the way. As I rolled away from the car, I saw boiling water fountaining out of the radiator right onto the spot where the children had been standing. I ended up with second and third degree burns over 75% of my back.
It could have been worse.
2) My other experience happened a few years later. I was with some friends at McKormick Place- Chicago’s big downtown convention center- for an auto show. We had come by CTA (public trans), so we were dropped at the main entrance, where the only vehicles allowed were buses and taxis.
We were in line to go in, standing at the curb. Me, two other guys, and girl. She was the girlfriend of one of the other guys. Behind us, taxis and buses were constantly pulling in and out as they dropped people off.
Suddenly I reached back and grabbed the girl (who was behind me) by the shoulder and pulled her to in front of me. At the time, I didn’t know why. Hell, I didn’t even think about it- it just happened. Like it was someone else pulling my strings.
Well, obviously, her boyfriend (who had been behind her) wasn’t amused. Neither was she. They started yelling at me, asking me what the H*** I thought I was Doing, etc. I couldn’t answer them. He was getting ready to put my lights out when a bus pulling out hit a taxi. The taxi (which had its wheels turned) jumped up onto the curb- you guessed it- right where they had been standing.
Yelling stopped. All eyes on me. I still couldn’t tell them why I had done it. I hadn’t even been facing the curb when I grabbed her. For the rest of that day, they alternated between thanking me and staring at me funny.
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