Life is precious….so hold me and dance!

Yesterday while cycling before dawn in the calm,  predictable (boring?) community of Leisure World, we noticed two Maricopa Sheriff deputies' SUVs, with lights flashing, just inside the main gate of our senior community.  

We didn’t think much about it, as we often see law enforcement and medical units in the early morning hours when one of our fellow old folks doesn’t wake up and has died during the night.  That’s just part of life (and death) when you live in a “community for active seniors."  We have seen these vehicles outside of people who we have been friendly with, and that's particularly sad. 

But yesterday morning, there was a unique reason that law enforcement came a calling in Leisure World.  And since we pride ourselves in not having any secrets—being an open and communicative community---a few hours later the following email was sent to all the 4,000+ residents:

Car accident? Is a car accident the definition of a drunk driver who fails to turn, guns over a curb, up onto the grass, takes a flying leap into the center of a fairly large lake, and lands just a few feet from the beautiful fountain that’s at the entrance to Leisure World?

If the driver had been Evel Knievel, he may have managed to fly completely over Manning Lake and land his vehicle on the Lawn Bowling green—and get a few points by knocking over some bowling pins.

This morning we discovered that no one in Leisure World seems to have figured out how to extricate a car from the middle of a lake.  This is probably a first.  After all, there is nothing in 40+ pages of the Leisure World rules and regulations stating that one is not allowed to drive their car into one of the ponds.  

At the entrance to Leisure World, next to the infamous clock tower, is our new lake decoration…a mostly submerged black sedan!

Here’s the grass hill that the car catapulted over before splashing into the center of the lake.  The driver had to going VERY fast to do this. 

This “accident” actually seems quite fortunate in some ways.  The inebriated individual could have driven into a home, or into another car, or into one of hundreds and hundreds of golf carts, or into one of our fellow residents who walk at nighttime, or into my dear Danny and me as we were happily cycling our nightly 34 miles together.  

We may have never made it home, where we planned to snuggle and eat breakfast in bed, put up our Christmas decorations, and hold each other close in our goofy Christmas sweaters and Santa hats so we could dance to our favorite Christmas songs…..

But luckily, the drunken fool drove straight into Manning Lake, and we, without knowing how narrowly we had escaped unscathed, rode innocently home on our bikes. 

And my Danny and I danced together all dressed up like a couple of Santa’s elves.

Life is so very precious.  A little bit of luck helps a lot.