Timing is everything...

Have you ever had an experience where you're left thinking "If only I'd been there 2 seconds later...", or something along those lines? Well, that's what we had today. Lexi and I were driving home from Orem on I-15, traveling at a safe speed and with an appropriate distance between us and the car ahead of us. It was by no means heavy traffic, but there were a good number of cars on the road, as can be typical in Utah county around mid-day (all us stay-at-home moms, out on the prowl). So there we were, driving along, when all of a sudden the car in front of us swerves to the left to narrowly avoid a big, well, thing, on the right side of our lane. Seeing it, I instantly think that I should avoid it too, but sadly, I hadn't noticed until that moment that there was a car driving right next to me in the lane to my left. I swerved as much as I could within my lane, but sadly I could not avoid hitting this... well, thing. Seeing as it all happened so fast, I didn't get a good look at it, but what I gathered is that it was metal and large, roughly 5' x 5', and seemed to be kind of like a square grate with all sorts of pokey parts on it. I don't know, that's a horrible description, but either way it just did not seem like something you would want to run over at a high speed, and the bump upon doing so confirmed that feeling. Nothing happened to our tire immediately, but I stayed completely alert to how the car way driving as we continued for another 5 or so miles until our exit. In fact, we made it off the exit, another couple of miles home, and I even stopped to get the mail (momentarily forgetting about the tire as I went into auto-pilot mode)! When we pulled into the garage and got out, there was, by then, a very LOUD hissing sound emitting from the visably deflating rear passenger tire. At that point it was about half full, and when I checked on it again about 10 minutes later, it was completely gone. Thank heavens we made it home safely, but it still just leaves me thinking... if only we'd come upon that stupid thing even two seconds later... there would have been no car to my left and I could have safely swerved out of the way and avoided this whole mess. Lexi and I are now stuck at home until we can get the tire replaced, which may not be until tomorrow morning. We don't have anywhere we have to go, but suddenly being unable to leave the house if I were to desire to do so has me feeling trapped and clausterphobic. Sigh, it's all about timing...