Driving PSA
Today's paper reported that an 8-year-old girl was killed not far from my place yesterday when her mother probably swerved to avoid a kangaroo and hit a tree instead.
The police officer quoted says "braking in a straight line and hitting the animal is safer than trying to avoid it." I assume everybody knows this, but if not, and especially if you're on your way out to visit me, don't swerve to avoid hitting a kangaroo or other animal.
This is the one and only piece of advice that my mother, who's not big on advice, has ever given me and I think it's probably saved my life on several occasions. The mother of one of my 4th grade friends was killed in the suburbs when someone tried to avoid a dog, and when I started driving Mom reminded me, "Never swerve to avoid hitting an animal." I've always had that front and centre in my mind and when the situation finally arose nine years later and on several occasions since, I didn't have that moment of indecision about what to do, I just hung on to the steering wheel and ploughed right into the cat (x1) / kangaroo (x2). It's a much better outcome than killing yourself or someone else.