Thursday, June 27, 2013

Car Accidents Are Getting Lame

On Kristine's birthday, I took her to Budget and rented a 2013 Ford Escape for her for a week.  She was excited, shaking out of her shoes to be able to zip around in a brand new vehicle for seven whole days.  That night, on her way home from work, a grain truck hit his brakes in front of another car, in front of her, causing both cars to brake, and Kristine to pile into the back of the front vehicle.  The grain truck left the scene.

Kristine was okay and the Escape only incurred about $1800 in cosmetic damage, but it was enough to shake up my wife for a while.

Then Father's Day happened.  Kristine left for work after I gave her a soft peck on the lips.  Two minutes later, she called me and asked me to come to the scene of an accident.  A black SUV had hit his brakes hard, planning to turn left into the local Dairy Queen.  The three cars behind him piled into each other, Kristine being the back car.

That car was totaled.

So, Kristine dusted off her epic abilities to wheel and deal car salesmen into a deal they don't want to make and bought me a new 2010 Toyota Matrix.  She sealed the deal yesterday around 4:15 PM CST and came and picked me up at work to test drive the thing.

We dropped the car off at the dealership and jumped into our 12 passenger, 2010 Ford E-350 van.  I turned onto an unfamiliar road and came around a curve, watching a car driving about 100 yards in front of me.  I took my eyes off the road for two seconds and then looked up to see the 1998 Honda CRV three feet from my front bumper, dead stopped.

I totaled the van.

Consider how embarrassing it is to call our insurance company for the third time in just a few weeks and file two claims for totaled vehicles and another, as well.  Altogether, 7 vehicles and 10 people were involved in our carnage.  We are timid behind the wheel now.

Now, for the good news...

The Matrix Kristine bought made it home safely to our driveway, my neighbor gave me milk and cookies last night, and a co-worker lent us his 9 passenger minivan until we get the insurance squared away with a new van.

If only we could fix the stress, anxiety, timidity, and worry as easily.

2 comments:

  1. As I tell people, "it's only a machine" and as long as no one was harmed, you'll all recover. Still there's the feeling that you are a walking (or driving) disaster.

    My sister is getting major treatment for stage III cancer and last week her 27-year-old daughter was diagnosed with breast cancer. Both are nurses. My niece is about to get engaged.

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  2. I wish you both lives with less stress and more love, laughter and good news. Life is just hard sometimes. :/

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