Honey- I totaled the car!

The girls singing "The Gambler"

What a crazy month it has been up to this point!!!  My friend's wedding was fantastic---I had so much fun and got to see and talk to a lot of people that I haven't  in a long time.   The low point...because it seems that in my life there always has to be one, was this; I totaled my van on the way home that evening when the brakes finally went out.  I had been noticing that they were catching in a weird way but hey, they still stopped.  It wouldn't have been so bad had 1. I not had anything to drink. Which like right... I just came from a bar. 2. I was driving down a back road because of 1. and I'm not saying that I was drunk, because I was not. But was I over the legal drinking limit?  Oh, I'm sure I was.

 The nice officer knew that my ability to drive was not a factor in the crash so he did me a favor, and didn't ask me to blow.  The street I was on going North ends at a T road and guess what sits across the street?  Oh yes, that would be right...a house.  So, I was applying the brakes as normal, but nothing was happening and I knew inevitably I had to make some quick decisions.  Not running straight into these peoples living room was my main priority.  I mean, I'm not like Dr. House who doesn't mind driving his whole car in Cutty's because she had another man over for dinner.   It was either turn right or left which were both 90 degree turns so I thought...maybe I could go through their yard, because there is an alley to the right of their house.  But, a big boulder sits at the corner of their property so that people don't cut into their yard and then there's a tree.  On the other side of the alley is a garage and then on the left side, a fence which is enclosing their backyard.  My only quest at the moment was not hitting the house, which...I didn't, but I clipped the front porch and took out a small bush.  But the vehicle did not come to a stop at this point and kept on going.  Luckily, I had both hands on the wheel and just rode it out the rest of the way down the alley and then into an electrical box that should have been buried a long time ago. I hit that bitch straight on as I was trying to turn the wheel to the left and realizing that I wasn't in control.  So, there I was in the middle of the back alley which I think may be a road, but I'm not sure.  I tried backing up and out of the box but no, I couldn't move at all.  I tried opening the drivers side door which I guess at some point and time the air bag went off, but I didn't feel it.  No getting out the drivers side so I climbed over the seat and into the passenger side to get out and see the damage.  I walked around the front of the van and my right tire was turned in and my left was turned in too.  I started walking down the drivers side which was all dented in when I heard a voice and yelled out to him that I was alright and on my way down.

Kevin was like, "do you know that you just hit my house?"  I was like, Um...yeah and your lucky and so am I that I didn't end up in your living room.  We started walking back toward the house and I told him I wanted to go get my husband because he was just down the road at home but Kevin was afraid that if the police showed up and I wasn't there that I would get into trouble so I didn't.  He was really nice about it and I was bawling by this point.  I was in shock I think and couldn't believe what had just happened.  I still think I'm being a little effected by it because I've been having some pretty messed up dreams, but that was my first accident in 36 years.  I apologized all over myself telling him how sorry I was and how thankful I was that I only clipped the front porch, but that I was trying not to hit his house but I had no brakes.  His lovely wife came out and asked me if I was okay, which I was...just real shook up by the whole event.

 The police showed up about ten minutes after we had been standing there talking and the officer and I walked down to the van and he of course asked me what happened and I told him.  He told me he didn't know how I didn't run into the garage or take out the fence with the way it looked.  I don't know either, so I'm thanking my guardian angels as they were working overtime.  Then another officer showed up and started yelling at me, telling me that I was trying to get away. Like it was going to be a hit and run type of situation.  I looked at him I know with a crazy look because I wasn't expecting that at all.  Then he started looking at some tire tracks that were up in the grass and telling me that I had made those marks, which I knew I didn't, but he kept badgering me and telling me to tell the truth.  I don't know why but finally to get the other officer to shut up I said...okay, I don't know how I could have done that being where my vehicle is, but okay, there mine.  Though I knew that they weren't and I believe the first officer did too. There was no driving the car so I asked the officer to call a local towing company to come pick it up and then we walked back down to the house where he asked me to get in the back of the police car.  I thought, oh shit...I'm getting arrested, but he gave me a drink and told me just to sit in there and keep warm.  After the paramedics showed up and took my vitals and I signed the refused treatment paper he took me to the police station to fill out the report.  My blood pressure was really high but come on, how could it not be?

We got back to the police station and started talking while he was writing out the report and giving me 2 tickets. One for not having my insurance card and the other for failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident.  He got another call while I was there so I had to sit and wait for about twenty minutes for him to come back. He had sent the other officer on that call because he was still going on about me lying.  I finally told him that I would have the insurance company send him a damn report of the failed breaks if that would make him believe me and that I was very upset because I am not that kind of person and this guy had seen me grow up.  He's been an officer here in town for as long as I can remember and at one time I was told that he sold weed out of the back of his cop car.  I've seen him at the bars and then drive home.  I just can't stand hypocritical people and that is exactly what he was being.  After all was said and done I asked him if he wanted me to call my husband to come pick me up and he said no, that he would take me home.

I have to say that it was the scariest thing I've ever experienced and I'm a little apprehensive about driving but that will pass, I hope.  When I got home I woke up my husband to tell him everything that happened and of course he had to start being a jerk because well, I should have came home when he did.  But hell, he was out sitting in the van waiting for us for over an hour because he wasn't having fun at the reception.  Now, had there been a slot machine it would have been different.  Emily was having a great time dancing her butt off and so was the bride's daughter who ended up spending the night so that she could stay at her Mom's reception longer.  I guess, okay...I know his reaction could have been a lot worse but I have to tell ya, I get so damn tired of the double standards.  I never go out anymore. I never drink anymore.  I stay home and do nothing most of the time. I do not like to gamble as I have never won so I only see it as wasting money, but he loves to go to the boat.  Hell, he takes off sometimes and goes by himself.

Speaking of ...the whole going to the boat thing. The week before my accident he had been itching to go all weekend and I kept telling him no.  Finally on Sunday night at about 9 I told him to go...whatever, I was sick of him asking and I was busy doing something else.  Now mind you, we don't live anywhere close to a gambling boat so to get to one it is over an hour's drive.  Guess what happened to him?  On his way down he hit a deer with his car and it done some pretty significant damage to it, but he didnt' even stop to look, he just kept on going and checked it out in the parking lot when he realized that he couldn't get out of his drivers side door.  I tried to stay up and wait for him to get home, just to make sure that he got home okay but at 2:30 a.m. I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer and fell asleep with my computer on my lap.  I woke up at 4:00 a.m. and he still wasn't home.  He told me the next afternoon when he called that he got home (too late) which ended up being he said 4:30 a.m.  He didn't wake me up to tell me he had banged up the front quarter panel, the hood, the whole headlight including the encasing, the drivers side mirror, and the door being jammed in. He got home and went to bed and then got up 3 hours later and went to work in the car.  I didn't know that he had been in a fight with a deer until the next afternoon right before he came home he called and told me so that I wasn't surprised when he pulled in after work. I wasn't mad at him then or give him shit about it.

So,  when he started giving me shit about the van I threw it back in his face that he can go to the boat and stay out until wee hours of the morning, but one night I want to go out and have fun and he has to be home by midnight like he's the carriage in Cinderella getting ready to turn back into a pumpkin.  He should have been with me and he should have been driving and the same thing would have happened.  But oh no, the one night that I wanna have fun and go out and be sociable he has to go and do shit like that.

I had my friend take me by the house the next morning to see it in the daylight and I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't bad at all and he was outside burning the bush that I took out.  He told me that his son was sleeping in the living room that night and I broke down in tears.  It really could have been so much worse and I'm just thankful to be alive and that no one was injured.

I'm pleased to say that this evening we bought a vehicle.  It's actually older than the van, with a few more miles on it, but it seems to have been maintained well and is actually in better shape on the inside than our van was.  Damn kids like to break things ya know.  So in closing this one out...I just hope and pray that we don't have any problems with it. If anyone reads this and gets to the end, could you please say a little prayer for us too, I would really appreciate it.