Former White House press secretary Tony Snow died today at the age of 53 after a second fight with cancer:

Snow, who had been undergoing chemotherapy treatments for a recurrence of the disease, left his White House job September 14, 2007, and joined CNN in April as a conservative commentator. […]

In 2007, Chief of Staff Josh Bolten had told senior White House staffers that unless they could commit to staying until Bush leaves office in January 2009, they should leave by Labor Day 2007, so Snow resigned.

In parting comments to reporters at his final White House news conference, Snow said, “I feel great.”

He also called the job “the most fun I’ve ever had.”

Snow said he was leaving the White House position to make more money for his family. His White House salary was $168,000, and he said he had taken out a loan so he could take the job. Snow said he was leaving because the loan money ran out.

As conservative a guy as anyone I’ve ever seen, Snow had a genuineness to him that shown through, even as he repeated the Bush Administration version of the world at press conferences and even as he reported for Fox News Channel.

Its a quality rare in the political world.

Snow always seemed to bring a sense of humor to even the most serious things and he seemed to be liked by most people, regardless of their political persuasion.

I remember watching his press conferences and being entertained by his oratory prowess. While I knew not to believe what he was parroting from the White House, I couldn’t help but appreciate the give-and-take process with the press corp and I couldn’t help but notice his commitment to doing his job to the best of his ability.

Plus, he generally came across as a happy and likeable guy.

Tony Snow was really a lesson in loving what you do. And doing it with a smile. And if you suddenly don’t love it, doing something else that you will love doing.

He was a breath of fresh air in the ordinarily bland and musty political landscape and he will be missed.

On my way home from seeing Get Smart at the movies, I almost got into a car accident that probably would have killed me.

Thank God I was paying close attention. Otherwise I might not be here writing this right now. It was that close.

Minutes after leaving the movie theater, I had successfully turned onto the LIE service road and was about to signal to get on the ramp to the expressway. Just at that moment, a blue car came onto the service road in the lane next to me and started drifting over to the left.

I started getting annoyed that this guy wasn’t signaling, but before I could even finish my thought, the car drifted over directly at the front right corner of my car.

I slammed on my brakes harder than I ever had before, causing a big cloud of burning rubber and a horribly loud screeching noise.

And then it felt like everything slowed down.

I remember looking to my left to see where I could direct the car that wasn’t a tree or loose gravel. And I noticed the pickup truck behind me react to the cloud of rubber and my brake lights, immediately pulling from behind me into the right lane.

As I prepared for the noise and feeling of impact, the blue car jumped back into the right lane. The car jerked so hard that it almost ended up going right through the shoulder lane. Apparently he heard the loud screeching noise and then looked to see me my bumper right next to his window and was able to move out of the way at the very last second.

Time resumed its normal speed and I got onto the expressway and tried to calm down. I had to manually release all of my clenched muscles.

But the madness didn’t stop there.

After getting off at my exit, the guy in the red SUV next to me at the light decided he was going to try to race by me before the merge. I let him go by, still feeling a little too shaky from the near-accident minutes before.

Then all of a sudden the SUV slammed on his brakes and pulled sharply to the right. He came inches away from hitting a guy walking down the double-yellow lines in the middle of the road.

The guy was drunk and holding a beer can from what I could make out in the darkness.

I beeped at him and saw him stumble and turn around in my rearview mirror. A third car came close to hitting him as well.

As if the near-crash wasn’t bad enough, now things were just going crazy! Why the hell was there a drunk guy stumbling down the middle of the road?!?

And then, to top it all off, I came inches away from hitting an opposum that just made it onto the shoulder as I drove by down my road.

Whew, I’m still shaken a little bit. Thank God I was paying attention.