Ah, crap

Today, I was driving downtown to pay some bills. It was five in the evening, and I was running later than I had wanted to (the places closed at six). It was warm today--right around zero--and I was enjoying the radio, the fact that the sun had set, et cetera. I guess I wasn't paying as much attention as I should have, because I noticed way too late that there was a car in front of me stopped in the lane (left lane) waiting to turn left. I hit the brakes, skidded, began fishtailing, and rear-ended the car in front of me going about 40 mph, then spun into the car to our right (thank goodness I didn't spin left into oncoming traffic).

I saw it coming and didn't honk like I guess I should've to let the lady know I was about to rear-end her. Oops. Funny enough, instead of thinking, "Oh no, this is going to hurt," I was thinking, "Oh no, this is going to mess up my car." Or maybe just, "I don't want to deal with the repercussions of this."

I've never seen air bags deploy before. Is that the right word? Deploy? Well, I definitely got a close-up view this time. I didn't even realize that was what happened at first. I guess I just thought the soft thing my face smashed into was what it felt like when you were in shock. Or dead. And I inhaled a lot of dust. Why is there so much dust in with the airbags? Blech.

You know, the Check Airbag light has been on ever since I bought that car. I'm kind of glad now that it was a faulty light instead of faulty airbags. I never got them checked because I never thought I'd need them.

So there I was, sitting in my crumpled car. I don't know how long it took me to recover from the shock of the wreck enough to open my eyes. By the time I did, there were a couple of cars--including the ones I had hit, of course--pulled into the parking lot there on the right and people were standing around talking. Genius that I am, I tried to drive my car over there. It wasn't budging. I tried restarting it. Oh yeah. Duh. Should I be able to see my front license plate from the driver's seat? Probably not. Maybe that was why my car wasn't starting.

Then I realized I was having trouble breathing because the car was so filled with the dust from the airbags. So I rolled down my window. Then it occurred to me that since my car wasn't moving, it might, maybe, be more effective to just get out of the car and walk over there. I don't think I even looked both ways before getting out and staggering over to the parking lot to where people were standing around talking on phones and exchanging information. I took one look at them, said shakily, "I'm really really really sorry..." and then darn near passed out. I was shaking so bad I could hardly stand up.

Since I know you're all wondering: no, nobody got hurt. Well, the lady I rear-ended said she "thought" she was okay, and that she didn't want to be the one to complain. She didn't seem to be in any pain or to have trouble moving around, so I expect she's probably about as shaken and generally sore as I am, but with no real injuries. As for me, well, I got a bruise on the knuckle of my left hand. No idea where that came from. The lady I side-swiped said that although I had knocked off her back bumper, she was fine--her car just got pushed to the side a bit, so nothing too bad there. She was very nice, and let me sit in her car to keep warm (it had gotten down to -10. Go figure).

It took me several minutes to stop shaking enough to call someone. Since one of the ladies had already called the police, I opted to call Jack, who was at work. He had to work a 24-hour shift today, and I had promised to bring him dinner that evening. So I called him to tell him that I wouldn't be able to make it... you know, what with no longer having a working car and all. He went straight to his commander, told him about the situation, and left work to come help me. We also called up Kitty, Fingers, and Josi, since Jack had to go back to work as soon as he made sure I was okay and got me home.

The lady I rear-ended was really frustrated. Apparently, she got rear-ended by someone just four days ago (presumably in another car).

Both the other cars will need the bumpers and lights fixed. Not too terrible, though. The rear of my car was a bit dented and battered from swiping the second lady, and the engine had folded like an accordion. I guess you could say that now the engine is "Fun Size!" The windshield cracked (looked like a bullethole right... well, right where my head would have hit it if I hadn't been wearing a seatbelt and hadn't had airbags), and there was some kind of liquid all over the road. No idea if it was coolant or oil or what. Basically, though, my car is dead. Almost the entire thing would have to be rebuilt if I wanted to put the money into it to fix it. Well, at least I don't have to fix the CV joints anymore.

Naturally, I got cited, but the officer was really nice, and gave me as few points as possible (two) since I've never had a moving violation before. He also said if I go in to court and say I want to take a defensive driving class, the two points will be taken off. Of course, there are still the problems I have to throw money and paperwork at--calling the insurance companies, getting the other two cars fixed, and of course, my ticket. Not to mention I need a vehicle for the next three months. Blah.

Oh yeah, so I was telling the officer my phone number, and he recognized 540 as a Virginia number. I was surprised, and he said, "Yeah, I'm from Lynchburg." Heh. Cool.

After an hour of standing around outside in -10 degree weather, we finally finished all the paperwork and everything, and the officer let Jack and me go. Jack took me to his apartment, where Kitty, Fingers, and Josi were waiting. Josi and Kitty pounced on me and hugged me. They pulled away, and I wordlessly held up the broken rear-view mirror, which Jack had apparently picked up from the seat of my car when he jumped in to grab whatever he thought I might need.

"Is that all that's left?" Josi asked. It doesn't seem as funny now that I'm writing it, but at the time, it was pretty much the funniest thing in the world.

So here I am, sitting at home, wishing I hadn't ever gone downtown to pay those stupid bills. I hate bills. And now I have more reason than you do to hate them.