Nice while it lasted

WARNING: Not for the soft-hearted!

Well, I've had my car about 2½ months now. I've really enjoyed all the little luxuries my last car lacked. All that came to an abrupt halt Saturday night. DS and I took a long day trip over to the ocean coast to do some birding and around midnight, the white line fever got to be too much for me, so we switched seats in Perry. Now between Perry and home, there's about a 50 mile stretch of black nothingness. I perked up a little when we started seeing deer grazing offsides. This was not unusual, but there did seem to be a lot more than we normally see out there. And there was fog. The thickest fog I've ever seen. It would roll down over us, slide back up, then cover us again. DS is a pretty good driver and I know I'm a horrible passenger, so I tried not to mention how much slower I'd be driving.

If I ever wondered how anything could 'just come out of nowhere', I won't ever again. It was like slow motion. Suddenly there was a huge deer face looking at us from the front left corner. It seemed, in that instant, that all motion stopped. Then there must have been a THUD. (My memory's a bit hazy on that point). It didn't sound or feel so bad. The deer vanished just as suddenly as he'd appeared. (I asked DS where he went, then decided I really didn't want to know). The odd thing was that each moment seemed like a separate still-life picture. DS let off the gas, then drove on as he realized the car was driveable and nothing could be done for the poor creature. There was no sense in stopping in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night. So we kept going, me in tears, knowing I'll never forget that face, the car with one lopsided bright headlight left functioning.

I couldn't bring myself to even look at the damage for three days. Before the tow truck came yesterday afternoon, I went out and took some pictures. It was worse than I imagined. The more cracks and dents I found, the more I felt like crying again. Honestly, I hope they total it. We have a $500 deductible to scrape up if they fix it. And, considering how the economy keeps going, we could do without those car payments. (Speaking of which, why on earth are gas prices rising? And why is nobody complaining?!)