120311 Prince, Ottawa, ON

On December 3rd, 2011 I almost didn’t see Prince (1958-2016).  Or anything else for that matter, and I almost took a whole lot of people out with me.

I had a full car; m’lady riding shotgun and a crew of great friends crowded into the back seat.  I might even have had the back-back seat popped up for more passengers – my ticket book lists nine names accompanying me to this concert so there were quite a few of us.

Anyway, I was in the middle lane of the Queensway (highway 417 on the maps) heading to the show.  Traffic was moving surprisingly well and I had the cruise control locked on 105km/hr or so, something nice and safe.  I was either talking to someone in the back seat or changing the radio station or something and took my attention away from the road for just a moment or two.  When I looked up I noticed that the car that was about twenty feet ahead of me was stopped dead, having caught up with the concert traffic I suppose.

But I didn’t have time to think about that at the moment.  No, at the moment I was cruising at over a hundred kilometres an hour and I was about to make direct (and obviously fatal) impact with said car.  I took the most fleeting glance in my rearview mirror and saw with quick relief that there was a car-sized space in the left lane and I took it, fast.

And just like that, in a deft and utterly lucky move that I’m sure escaped the attention of most if not all of the passengers in my car, we were safe again, and not screaming in the throes of a horrible and certain death or dismemberment, along with several other unfortunate souls who probably wouldn’t have known what hit them.

I didn’t say a word, and frankly I was quite nonchalant about the whole thing, though in retrospect I have become rather chalant about it.  In fact, nowadays I recoil in horror whenever I think of it.  I tell you, it was a really, really close one.  One of the closest I’ve come.  Top five for sure.  Well, top ten anyway…I’ve been pretty lucky over the years (not to jinx myself*).

Anyway, the show was great of course – Prince could never be anything less than great as far as I’ve experienced – but I think it was the least of the Prince concerts I’ve seen.  Which is ironic I suppose, given that I should have been sitting there relishing every moment as a man who had just cheated death and saved countless innocent people from unspeakable tragedy and grief.  

As I should be now, I guess.  Whee!

*What have I done?