A few weeks ago I was coming home from Easter Sunday, where I had played drums.  I packed my kit and my family in the car.  On the way home we take a road which is two lanes in each direction, and it moves at a decent clip - 50 mph is normal.  I noticed a gold minivan because it was driving erratically.  It was speeding up, slowing down, and changing lanes quickly, and there weren’t too many cars on the road.  At one point the van was a few car lengths ahead of me in the left lane, and then a few moments later it was a few car lengths behind me in the right lane.  As we passed a U-Haul rental facility, I looked in the rear view to see the gold minivan braking and swerving to avoid a small donut-sized tire that appeared to have come out of the U-Haul place.  I assumed it was a spare tire from a trailer that had fallen off, and I continued driving.  I was glad that my family was not affected and that this van behind me wasn’t damaged or running itself or others off of the road.

The erratic minivan caught up to our car and the driver rolled down the window and was yelling.  We pulled up to a stop light and she told me that a wheel had fallen off of my car!  With my eyes rolling internally, I thanked her kindly and rolled up my window, because it was more than obvious that no tire had fallen off of my car, and in addition, my spare tire is in my trunk, not hanging from the bottom of my car.  We had driven at least a quarter of a mile from the U-Haul place, and of course, I would like to think I would notice if a wheel fell off of my car while driving.  I still assumed the tire had come from a stray trailer at U-Haul, and this driver was confused.  I told my wife I’d pull over and make a visual inspection, and upon noticing that all four tires of my car made my visual inspection satisfactory, I sarcastically gave a thumbs up that we were in good shape.

At home, the family took a nap, and then prepared to do some grocery shopping in the evening.  I unloaded my drums.  I use a particular drumset at home, and another for traveling, but I only have one good throne (which is the name of a drummer’s stool (haha)).  I set up the stand for my throne, and looked around for the seat top, which is round and black, and about 16 inches in diameter.

And then the realization of the truth about the preceding events came rushing into my brain.

When I had put my son into his car seat I was holding my throne seat and I had left it on top of my car!  It had stayed on our journey until the U-Haul place, had fallen off, and could have hurt someone by cars swerving to avoid it.  I felt very fortunate that nothing horrible had happened.  While I’ve owned this very comfortable and relatively expensive throne for a long time, it’s extremely replaceable.

On the way to the grocery store that evening, we looked for the prodigal throne on the side of the road.  My wife saw it first and screamed with excitement, so we pulled over, and sure enough, there it was.  It was a little wet and dirty, and had a few scratches and tears in the vinyl, and the frame of the throne was slightly bent, but I think it just adds character and a hell of a story.

The Prodigal Throne eating with the pigs and longing to come home.

Aw, man…it’s a little beat up.

Actually, who cares!  I’m happy to have it back with character marks!