When I was 15 my parents bought me a brand new Jeep Cherokee that I drove for upwards of 10 years until it literally died in the parking lot of the Honda dealership where I was purchasing a new vehicle. My Jeep was a great first car - hearty, sturdy, generally indestructible (until I drove it into a ditch while trying to wrangle a cd out of my cd player and broke the front axle). However, years of putting up with erratic teenage driving left that car banged, bruised, barely running and with brakes worn down to new levels of destruction. In 2006 I bought my first car in my name, a brand new Honda Accord. I really liked that car because, a: it ran, had AC, and all the windows stayed up without the necessity of duct tape, and b: because I was making payments on it and I felt it was really mine (until I went back to school and my dad took it over, but that's another story). However, I only got to love that car until December of 2007 when I went to a friend's house one night, in an older neighborhood that does not have driveways so street parking is mandatory, and a "slightly intoxicated" (read: shitfaced drunk) dude topped a blind hill at about 55 mph and t-boned my car so severely it turned it up on its side in the neighbor's yard. Two days before Christmas. Therefore, because of the holidays I spent from December 22 to February 17 riding around in questionable rental cars until the dude's insurance wouldn't pay anymore, then bumming rides off anyone and everyone. In the end, I got a another new Honda but being that I've always had a car at my disposal, I do not find this predicament a necessarily fun one. Yet, I'm getting to live through it currently once more...
Two weeks ago I attended a party that was held at an outdoor pavilion in a heavily wooded area of town. Upon leaving said party, I slammed my car into a tree while trying to avoid a deer that was careening towards me. I was slightly shaken up after all of this, but proceeded to back my car up and when I realized that I had not damaged it enough for it to be non-functional, I went ahead and drove it home. Probably not my best move... especially when I went out the next morning and saw this:
Because of my genius idea, my car now has taken more than 15 days to be fixed and probably will not be done until the end of this week. Thank goodness Alison has been kind enough to cart my ass all over town, but I think we're both ready for me to have my own mode of transportation back. So, basically as far as cars go, I'm 0 for 3 on having one that I have not damaged in some way. What's worse, is that I consider myself a fairly decent driver; but perhaps that is a self-proclaimed title requiring re-evaluation in near future.
