Every
morning before my wife takes him to school, I tell my son weather I will be
home that night to tuck him in or if I will be out late. On Friday, as we
packed everything up and put him in the car, I told my son that I would be home
at my normal time that night so that I could play with him and tuck him into
bed. Well, I had every intention of keeping my word to my son. In fact, I was
even on the road a little earlier than usual when the accident happened.
Shortly
after leaving the office, about five miles down the road, brake lights filled
the highway causing me to come to a nearly complete halt in the left lane.
However, the 1986 pickup truck behind me didn’t stop in time and rear ended me
at about 40-50 miles per hour. The accident was limited to our two vehicles as
I had come to rest with plenty of room between me and the car in front of me. I
knew in that moment that I wasn’t going to be home before bedtime.
We
pulled off the highway onto the right shoulder, called the State Troopers, our
insurance companies, and waited. The 18 year old kid who hit me knew that it
was his fault the instant that it happened. Surprisingly, I was just happy to
still be in one piece and thankful that I wasn’t driving my old Malibu. While
the Jeep held up and kept me safe, the entire back end is a mess and it is
doing to require significant work to both the body and the frame.
By
the time everything was settled and I was back on the road (the car didn’t drive
the same but it still moved) my son was in bed and worrying about daddy. As I
would find out later, he kept tossing and turning until I got home and before
heading to bed he kept frantically reaching for the phone wanting to check in
on me. Baby was worried about me. The next morning, he wanted to spend a little
extra time with daddy frequently crawling over to me to give me hugs and
kisses. It took nearly the entire day before he fully calmed down knowing that
daddy was okay.
While
I did keep telling my son that I was okay, I remained stiff and sore throughout
the weekend. On Monday, after dropping off the car to be assessed, I did go to
the local Urgent Care to get checked out just in case. Two hours and two dozen
x-rays later and they could find nothing wrong… at least nothing related to the
accident. I still have to keep an eye on things but, for now, I am fine.
However, while I am okay, given the extent of the damage, this car is done.
Regardless
of whether it is repaired or totaled, the car is never going to be the same and
I no longer have the confidence in its ability to hold up over time. After all,
it is not just my safety that we are talking about, it has to keep my family
safe. So, expect a post or two in the future about the car search and whether
or not I decide to simply replace or changing things up a bit again. Of course,
it could take a while before I actually get a new car as the current repair
timeline is about 30 days. A lot of recovering, waiting, and looking to come.
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