A life-changing experience.
Yesterday, as I was driving across Indiana, I got distracted and swerved off the road. I completely lost control as I drifted into the grassy median, hitting the line of cabling that ran along the middle. (I must have blacked out when it rolled, since I don't remember feeling the sensation of flipping and yet there was considerable damage on top as well).
When the world stopped spinning, I emerged - completely unharmed. Our little car, however, had given its life for me - both mirrors broken off, left head and tail lights destroyed, top scratched immeasurably, and both left and right sides dented beyond recognition. Some passersby helped me get it back on the road and off a nearby exit to a gas station where I called my parents and the police.
I sat several hours in the corpse of the car for Mom & Dad to drive 2.5 hours to where I was. This little car, which would have been mine eventually, was utterly totaled and I felt the deepest shock, trauma, and guilt. I foodled around on my phone during that time, trying to ignore the unsafe lane movement ticket in the passenger seat.
Eventually, they arrived, knowing I had learned my lesson the hard way and just relieved that I was alive. We drove home in Dad's truck, our one remaining car, after settling everything with Geico and waiting for a tow truck. I sat quiet most of the way, staring numbly at the souvenir wheel cover in my lap.
I could have died. And yet the seatbelt held, the airbags deployed, and the rollcage kept the roof from collapsing on me. I'm Still Alive, as the song goes.
Never before, and hopefully never again will I be more grateful for that fact.
Less-depressing Acen/etc post coming, I promise!
When the world stopped spinning, I emerged - completely unharmed. Our little car, however, had given its life for me - both mirrors broken off, left head and tail lights destroyed, top scratched immeasurably, and both left and right sides dented beyond recognition. Some passersby helped me get it back on the road and off a nearby exit to a gas station where I called my parents and the police.
I sat several hours in the corpse of the car for Mom & Dad to drive 2.5 hours to where I was. This little car, which would have been mine eventually, was utterly totaled and I felt the deepest shock, trauma, and guilt. I foodled around on my phone during that time, trying to ignore the unsafe lane movement ticket in the passenger seat.
Eventually, they arrived, knowing I had learned my lesson the hard way and just relieved that I was alive. We drove home in Dad's truck, our one remaining car, after settling everything with Geico and waiting for a tow truck. I sat quiet most of the way, staring numbly at the souvenir wheel cover in my lap.
I could have died. And yet the seatbelt held, the airbags deployed, and the rollcage kept the roof from collapsing on me. I'm Still Alive, as the song goes.
Never before, and hopefully never again will I be more grateful for that fact.
Less-depressing Acen/etc post coming, I promise!