Twenty-seven Years of Accident-Free Driving Bliss...Until Now!

I got into my first real car accident last week. That's not a bad record.....27 years of accident-free driving! I did HIT my parents house when I first got my license at the ripe young age of 16, but that was just plain teenage stupidity. I got into my brother's 1946 Jeep and thought I could drive it. It didn't LOOK hard to drive. It wasn't hard to drive, but it was hard to stop. I took out two garbage cans, yard tools, and a picnic table before the Jeep came to a stop crashing into the back porch of my parents home. My dad had just finished drywalling and painting the inside of the porch (a project my mother hounded him about for a decade). The paint smell was still in the air, and I busted up the wall. UGH!

This time, I was sitting at a red light minding my ps and qs and BAM, I was hit in the behind. I will admit that I said "What the h_ _ _?" out loud, but I was the only one in the car, so I didn't have to apologize to any little ears, I just said, "Sorry, God, but what the heck?!"

This happened on one of THOSE days. I was running late from the moment I got out of bed. Adam (10 year old) had to take his science fair display board to school that day, so I had to drive him to school. Caleb (8 year old) wanted me to also pick them up from school.

I was barking my usual "HURRY UP!, LET'S GO!, GET IN THE CAR!, I'M LEAVING" etc. We piled into the car and as I opened my door, I was reminded that "someone" put a ding in the door panel on the drivers side. This is a brand new car. I've been driving a mini-van for fifteen years and I finally got into a car and one of my boys put a ding in the door with their bike handle or scooter handle. I know this because the ding is handle-high, and there was a bit of rubber scraped on the door also. The ding was barely an indentation, and I knew it could be easily repaired, but I have only had the car for three weeks and I was very upset.

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention that after Adam put his display board into the trunk, he got in the front seat passenger's side and locked Caleb out. Caleb kicked my car. He didn't hurt anything (except maybe his little foot), but the point was that he kicked my car.

I LOST IT!

I went ballistic on the boys yelling at them all the way to school that they don't take care of things, and the fighting, and the carelessness, etc...

As they got out to walk into the elementary school, Caleb asked if I would be picking them up and I snapped "NO, if you kick my car, my car won't be bringing me here to pick you up. TAKE THE BUS!"

Then I went on to a meeting I had for work that I was going to barely be on time for. After the meeting, I had to leave immediately to get back home because my computer crashed and my technical support guy was supposed to be at my house fixing it.

My son Nate (soon to be 19) was supposed to be awake at 8:30 a.m. (the time the technical guy was coming) to let him in and get him started. I had a feeling that wasn't happening and excused myself from my business meeting (with 30 other business owners). I stepped out of the building to call Mike and tell him to just go in and fix the computer and that Nate was likely sound asleep.

OK, so that worked fine. I called mike after the meeting adjourned at 9 a.m. and he was there running scans to diagnose the problem and he felt he could get me back up and running shortly. I had to exit the building parking lot where my meeting was by turning right (even though to get home, I would have to go the opposite way). The lot has a one way entrance and exit, which I think is totally stupid, but I obey the stupid signs.

So, I turned right and pulled into another lot to turn around to go back left and get home to meet up with the computer guy. As I sat at a red light, that's how I got hit. The truck behind me was stopped with me in front, and the left lane of cars got the green arrow to turn left and when he saw them move, he smashed into my back end. UGH!

So much for my NEW car and I had just gone nuts on my own flesh and blood about a tiny ding on the door, what would I do to this guy?

First of all, he was a very nice person and he did the right thing, because I was an idiot. Right after I got hit, when the light turned green, I went through the intersection intending to pull over in a parking lot to get out of the way of traffic. The guy who hit me COULD have just taken off, but he followed me into the lot and asked me if I was okay.

I told him how this was my first accident and that I didn't think about getting out at the point of the collision because it was a very busy intersection. He said he would never just take off in a case like that. I told him that some way, some day, God would bless him for what he did.

So, anyway, after totally scolding out my children for the tiny ding, I told this guy, a complete stranger that "It's okay, accidents happen." And, I said it with a nice tone and not mean at all.

I had an ugh-ly day and I learned something. I learned that things happen and cars are just things. I was happy that no one was injured badly and that we could all sleep in our comfy beds that night. Thank God for the simple things.

I hope I go another 27 years without an accident!