'Carma'
Last week my neighbor backed into my car when he was coming out of his driveway. Accidents suck, but to me they are no big deal as long as nobody was hurt. He was visibly shaken and was reluctant to tell me about my car. He roused me out of bed, babbled at me incoherently, and then walked over to my car and pointed.
"It's not that bad," I said.
"You're very understanding."
"It's just a car." Personally, I was more upset about be woken early than I was about the car. "Just give me your insurance info and I'll take car of it."
"You are really taking this well."
"If I got upset every time something happened to one of my cars, I'd be a mental case." That's why I go for the practical, energy-efficient cars; they get me from point A to point B. They don't need to be flashy.
I dropped the car off for the estimate on Monday, they had it fixed by Wednesday before noon. I could hardly believe it. I was out of town until the next week and I never figured in a million years that they would have it fixed before I returned.
My husband ran my car under a truck a few months back. It was only the fender, one headlight, and part of the hood that was damaged. It took the body shop 8 weeks to fix it. Then some guy hit my husband in his car (and tried to flee the scene at 2 mph!) and only the passenger door was damaged. It took them 10 weeks to fix his car. After these two rather lengthy turnarounds, I decided to go somewhere else. And the new place was great: quality work in a very short time.
Apparently the old body shop didn't realize how much business they would lose from me. I am definitely a repeat customer.
My issues with cars are a source of great amusement for my friends and family. I've had a car float away, I have had one demolished by drag racing drunk drivers, I've had one that the front driver side wheel just broke off while I was driving. I hit a deer in my first automobile, totaled some farmer's brand new truck on my 21st birthday, and ran up under a Bronco in college. My current car has been smashed by my husband, hit by my neighbor, and severely damaged in hail storm last year. Only two of the 12 incidents with my cars have been my fault.
One of my new age friends thinks I did something really bad to machinery in a past life.
The all time best car accident story was when I lost my car on the very day I finished my PhD. I had passed my dissertation defense and had gone up to the school to do some required paperwork. I still needed to make corrections on my dissertation before it was printed but decided to put it off until the next day. Later, I would terribly grateful for my procrastination.
I had not had a chance to eat lunch, so I decided to get some food and sit near the beach to eat it. It was November so it was slightly cold, but after debating the pros and cons of eating in my car, I decided to get out. I sat down on some stairs that led down to the beach below and began eating my lunch. About 5 minutes later I hear a loud crash, and a car comes flying overhead and lands on the beach below.
My first thought, "holy shit!" I stood up and realized there was glass in my mouth and my hair. Some guy was screaming at me, but I couldn't understand him. That was when I noticed my car was gone. I looked at the car on the beach below and that was when I saw Scooby Doo hanging from the rearview mirror. I had a Scooby Doo air freshener just like that in my car. Holy shit, that is my FUCKING car!
I ran down the stairs and looked in the car. It was demolished. The trunk of the car was flush with the front seats. There was no backseat any more. The hood and front lights had fallen off as well.
There was someone still yelling at the top of the stairs, so I ran back up. It was a jogger and he was pointing to a Suburban that was still driving up ahead on the sidewalk. Some guy in a truck pulled over and said get in. So I did. We drove to catch up to the Suburban, but by then the radiator had blown and he wasn't going anywhere.
This old man got out and said, "I don't know what happened." Yeah, right buddy. He was about 80 and had severe rheumatoid arthritis. It was quickly apparent that he should not have been driving for the last few years (the insurance company confirmed this when they told me he had 3 other at-fault accidents that year).
I went back over to where my car was and a bunch of people had gathered at this point. Some woman was babbling about how she saw the car was there and then it wasn't and she couldn't figure out what happened. The guy that kept screaming at me was there too. He looked more freaked out than I was. He told me that he was jogging and had to physically dodge my car so it didn't carry him to the beach below. There was no doubt that both he and I had nearly escaped death. Had he been a few feet ahead of where he was, he never would have seen my car coming. Had I been in the car, or sitting 10 feet to the left, there is no doubt I would have been dead.
Holy shit.
There was a crowd of people forming to the side that kept getting bigger and bigger. People would point at me, some would come over and touch my arm and tell me how lucky I was. They seemed astonished that I was OK. I was a little weirded out, but not to the degree that they seemed to be. The words "miracle" and "amazing" were thrown around, and I became a little perplexed. When the cop finally came over to me, that's when I understood what was going on.
The first thing he says to me is, "Last story I heard, car flips three times in the air, you walk away unscathed." I said, "No. The car flipped once and I wasn't in it."
Cop: "Everyone says they saw you walk up from the beach after it happened."
Me: "I did, but only because I ran down the stairs after I realized it was my car. See that circle on the stairs where there is no glass? That is where my ass was when the car flew over my head."
Cop: "That makes more sense."
So my boyfriend came down and met me and we scavenged the beach for my stuff. I found tiny shreds of Coke cans scattered for 100 yards, confetti from the 12 pack in my trunk. My cell phone was smashed, my purse was a knotted heap, and there were CD pieces everywhere. The only thing left of the rear of my car was about one-third of the license plate. Thank God my computer was not in my car!!!!!!!!!!!!
The only thing I found intact was my Dido CD. It has now become my lucky Dido CD because of the dozens of CDs in my car, that was the only one playable. Not only playable, but perfect. I found it laying playing side up, balanced on a rock about 50 feet away.
They got a crane and two tow trucks to get my car off the beach. They had to run a chain through the windows so the crane could move it. The remnants of the muffler fell off when they picked it up. The cop took pictures because he thought the whole thing was so funny. He wanted to run home and get his fishing pole so he could send out a "look-what-I-caught" email. I guess he settled for Photoshopping it in later.
That was the talk of the town for a bit, until a hospital physician ran himself onto the beach while he had hooked himself up to an IV bag of pain meds. Needless to say, he lost his car and both of his licenses (driving and medical).
So you can see why my friends and family think the car thing is so funny. I usually have a new story to tell them every family reunion. Now that I travel so much for my job, I have rental car disasters to include. I was nearly decapitated by a large piece of sheet metal when I was driving a convertible in Arkansas; but that is a story for another time.
My Beef This Week
I actually have no beef this week. I have a non-beef, if you will. I am grateful for insurance. I am an actuary's worst nightmare. A mathematical anomaly. No one can explain why these things keep happening to me. And although I have been quite unlucky with cars, I have been very fortunate in most of the circumstances. I have only been hurt once out of all the incidents. And how many people have a police officer witness their accident and have the cop chase down the drunk assholes that fled the scene? Talk about unlucky luck.
So my dear friends, watch out on those roads. Drive safely, and make sure your premiums are up to date!
"It's not that bad," I said.
"You're very understanding."
"It's just a car." Personally, I was more upset about be woken early than I was about the car. "Just give me your insurance info and I'll take car of it."
"You are really taking this well."
"If I got upset every time something happened to one of my cars, I'd be a mental case." That's why I go for the practical, energy-efficient cars; they get me from point A to point B. They don't need to be flashy.
I dropped the car off for the estimate on Monday, they had it fixed by Wednesday before noon. I could hardly believe it. I was out of town until the next week and I never figured in a million years that they would have it fixed before I returned.
My husband ran my car under a truck a few months back. It was only the fender, one headlight, and part of the hood that was damaged. It took the body shop 8 weeks to fix it. Then some guy hit my husband in his car (and tried to flee the scene at 2 mph!) and only the passenger door was damaged. It took them 10 weeks to fix his car. After these two rather lengthy turnarounds, I decided to go somewhere else. And the new place was great: quality work in a very short time.
Apparently the old body shop didn't realize how much business they would lose from me. I am definitely a repeat customer.
My issues with cars are a source of great amusement for my friends and family. I've had a car float away, I have had one demolished by drag racing drunk drivers, I've had one that the front driver side wheel just broke off while I was driving. I hit a deer in my first automobile, totaled some farmer's brand new truck on my 21st birthday, and ran up under a Bronco in college. My current car has been smashed by my husband, hit by my neighbor, and severely damaged in hail storm last year. Only two of the 12 incidents with my cars have been my fault.
One of my new age friends thinks I did something really bad to machinery in a past life.
The all time best car accident story was when I lost my car on the very day I finished my PhD. I had passed my dissertation defense and had gone up to the school to do some required paperwork. I still needed to make corrections on my dissertation before it was printed but decided to put it off until the next day. Later, I would terribly grateful for my procrastination.
I had not had a chance to eat lunch, so I decided to get some food and sit near the beach to eat it. It was November so it was slightly cold, but after debating the pros and cons of eating in my car, I decided to get out. I sat down on some stairs that led down to the beach below and began eating my lunch. About 5 minutes later I hear a loud crash, and a car comes flying overhead and lands on the beach below.
My first thought, "holy shit!" I stood up and realized there was glass in my mouth and my hair. Some guy was screaming at me, but I couldn't understand him. That was when I noticed my car was gone. I looked at the car on the beach below and that was when I saw Scooby Doo hanging from the rearview mirror. I had a Scooby Doo air freshener just like that in my car. Holy shit, that is my FUCKING car!
I ran down the stairs and looked in the car. It was demolished. The trunk of the car was flush with the front seats. There was no backseat any more. The hood and front lights had fallen off as well.
There was someone still yelling at the top of the stairs, so I ran back up. It was a jogger and he was pointing to a Suburban that was still driving up ahead on the sidewalk. Some guy in a truck pulled over and said get in. So I did. We drove to catch up to the Suburban, but by then the radiator had blown and he wasn't going anywhere.
This old man got out and said, "I don't know what happened." Yeah, right buddy. He was about 80 and had severe rheumatoid arthritis. It was quickly apparent that he should not have been driving for the last few years (the insurance company confirmed this when they told me he had 3 other at-fault accidents that year).
I went back over to where my car was and a bunch of people had gathered at this point. Some woman was babbling about how she saw the car was there and then it wasn't and she couldn't figure out what happened. The guy that kept screaming at me was there too. He looked more freaked out than I was. He told me that he was jogging and had to physically dodge my car so it didn't carry him to the beach below. There was no doubt that both he and I had nearly escaped death. Had he been a few feet ahead of where he was, he never would have seen my car coming. Had I been in the car, or sitting 10 feet to the left, there is no doubt I would have been dead.
Holy shit.
There was a crowd of people forming to the side that kept getting bigger and bigger. People would point at me, some would come over and touch my arm and tell me how lucky I was. They seemed astonished that I was OK. I was a little weirded out, but not to the degree that they seemed to be. The words "miracle" and "amazing" were thrown around, and I became a little perplexed. When the cop finally came over to me, that's when I understood what was going on.
The first thing he says to me is, "Last story I heard, car flips three times in the air, you walk away unscathed." I said, "No. The car flipped once and I wasn't in it."
Cop: "Everyone says they saw you walk up from the beach after it happened."
Me: "I did, but only because I ran down the stairs after I realized it was my car. See that circle on the stairs where there is no glass? That is where my ass was when the car flew over my head."
Cop: "That makes more sense."
So my boyfriend came down and met me and we scavenged the beach for my stuff. I found tiny shreds of Coke cans scattered for 100 yards, confetti from the 12 pack in my trunk. My cell phone was smashed, my purse was a knotted heap, and there were CD pieces everywhere. The only thing left of the rear of my car was about one-third of the license plate. Thank God my computer was not in my car!!!!!!!!!!!!
The only thing I found intact was my Dido CD. It has now become my lucky Dido CD because of the dozens of CDs in my car, that was the only one playable. Not only playable, but perfect. I found it laying playing side up, balanced on a rock about 50 feet away.
They got a crane and two tow trucks to get my car off the beach. They had to run a chain through the windows so the crane could move it. The remnants of the muffler fell off when they picked it up. The cop took pictures because he thought the whole thing was so funny. He wanted to run home and get his fishing pole so he could send out a "look-what-I-caught" email. I guess he settled for Photoshopping it in later.
That was the talk of the town for a bit, until a hospital physician ran himself onto the beach while he had hooked himself up to an IV bag of pain meds. Needless to say, he lost his car and both of his licenses (driving and medical).
So you can see why my friends and family think the car thing is so funny. I usually have a new story to tell them every family reunion. Now that I travel so much for my job, I have rental car disasters to include. I was nearly decapitated by a large piece of sheet metal when I was driving a convertible in Arkansas; but that is a story for another time.
My Beef This Week
I actually have no beef this week. I have a non-beef, if you will. I am grateful for insurance. I am an actuary's worst nightmare. A mathematical anomaly. No one can explain why these things keep happening to me. And although I have been quite unlucky with cars, I have been very fortunate in most of the circumstances. I have only been hurt once out of all the incidents. And how many people have a police officer witness their accident and have the cop chase down the drunk assholes that fled the scene? Talk about unlucky luck.
So my dear friends, watch out on those roads. Drive safely, and make sure your premiums are up to date!
posted by DrKNOW at 3:20 PM
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