We just tried to meet up with my friend Lila (rockbalancer) and were thwarted by other peoples' tragedy.

We were trying to meet her at a beachside place on the Pacific Coast Highway when we encountered not one but two major accidents. We waited at the site of the first one for about twenty five minutes, watching emergency vehicles and police officers and such do their important work, when a helicopter landed on the road to take away the least fortunate person involved. Once the helicopter left we drove past and saw the ruined motorcycle being cleaned up.

About a half mile down the road we were stopped by flashing lights again. We couldn't see what was going on, and probably that's just as well. A police officer was talking to the driver of the car ahead of us, so I rolled down my window and listened. I heard him say "Oh this won't be opened up again for hours" before that car did a u turn and left. We did the same and I contacted Lila to let her know we were very sad that we were going to miss her, but still pretty lucky.