Ever get one of those calls where the caller says something like, “Everything is all right but…” Well. I had to make one of those today. This is not going to be the post I intended to write today but unfortunately, this is what you’re gonna get.

I have had one vee-hickular accident in my entire life. Well, one that I count, anyway. I was 17 and I was driving my grandma’s old 1965 Ford Fairlane 500 past the funeral home on Bingham in Sault Ste. Siberia on glare ice. Another vee-hickle coming the other way went left of center and smashed into my front end. There were no injuries and it was not my fault, but, since we all pulled into the funeral home parking lot to sort things out, it was pretty interesting when The Commander and Grandroobly drove by just a little later.

There are a few little incidents that I am not counting:

1) I am not counting the time I backed the Fairlane into the old waaaarrr fence trying to turn around down by the stream. I didn’t tell the parents about that one and they jumped through hoops trying to figure out how it happened. I can still remember The Commander asking, “Could somebody have taken a file to it?”

2) I am not [really] counting the time I was sitting in the Commie High parking lot in The Indefatigable, waiting for Mouse, when a kid driving a vee-hickle with a fake leg sticking out of its trunk swung wide for his target parking space and hit me so hard I bounced over the cement barrier.

3) I am not counting the time I got hit by a tornado.

Today. I got off the I94 18-wheel Slogway after work and I was sitting on Jackson at the left turn signal onto N. Maple. Almost home… This is a loooonnnng light and I was the first in line, having pulled up to it just as it turned yellow. Maybe the person behind me thought I shouldda run it? I sat. And I sat. And I sat. I watched the traffic as it cycled through. When the left turn signal f-i-n-a-l-l-y turned green, I put the clutch in, shifted into first and hit the gas. In that order. Or not… The Ninja stalled with a big lurch! Yiiy! I panicked just a bit and scrambled to get my vee-hickle started again. And then. I lurched again! What had I done now? Really panicked then. Finally. I got the Ninja started and took off.

It wasn’t until I was almost to the Dexter/N. Maple light that it occurred to me that the second *larger* lurch was not the result of my ham-handed shifting! I had been rear-ended. You read that right. I was rear-ended and lurched a couple feet into the intersection and DIDN’T REALIZE IT! I thought it was my problem. It was a memory of that day down at Commie High that made me realize it. Yeah, now I remember that thunk and lurch.

I have no clue who was behind me at that intersection. I didn’t stop and that person didn’t follow me or try to get my attention in any way (that I know of). On the surface, it just looks like a little dent/scratch. But I know enough about the auto body industry to know that it’ll cost, oh, about $600 or so to fix. Not something I wanted to use our tax refund for.

What hurts the most? My dignity. I love to drive and I am very alert and focused about it. Because I love it. I drive stick all the time. I can’t remember a time when I haven’t owned at least one manual transmission vee-hickle. The Ninja is a loverly six-speed manual. I can’t say I have never stalled it but it’s a rare event. I don’t think this incident was my fault but it was pretty stupid for me to stall the car and I am licking my wounds and wishing I could re-do my homeward commute today.

The other driver? Hmmm… I do not know who it was. Whoever it was is fortunate that I have been in so few accidents [knock on wood big time] that I didn’t even realize I had been hit! I hope that person watches the vee-hickle in front of them in addition to the light from now on. I would like for them to try to find me and ‘fess up but I doubt that’ll happen. In lieu of that, I hope they are sitting somewhere feeling guilty. I hope they will pay their good fortune forward.

More likely, they are sitting around laughing about the idiot that they rear-ended today who didn’t even notice it. Sigh…

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 30th, 2011 at 6:25 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.