Run-Ins With Local Wildlife

Few folks can boast the recent run-ins with local wildlife that I can.

In January, I hit a full grown deer at about 45 miles per hour on a dark country road. Three days ago a jaguar ran into our mini-van on a quiet residential street. A 2004 Jaguar X-Type, that is, at about 35 miles per hour. He was speeding, but he also had the right-of-way so I'll probably get pegged with most of the blame. I can so clearly remember my driver's ed teacher admonishing us about the most commonly given excuse after an accident, "I didn't see him." That was about it. By the time I did see him, we were T-1 second to impact.

His jag still looked better than our van when all was said and done. No one was hurt, physically. I was pretty shaken up, and then, of course, all the wheels started spinning as the numbers began dancing through my head: deductibles, increased insurance premiums, number of days without this vehicle while it's being worked on, the number of days remaining until our long-awaited family vacation to the east coast, and the difference, if any, between those last two items. Might we not even have a vehicle for our trip?

The next couple of days were a blur of phone calls to and from insurance, the body shop and our local mechanic, who took a look at our other, older van for us to see if it was okay to drive while the newer van was being fixed. This old van has been sitting on our back slab for about eight months during our half hearted attempts to sell it. My husband jumped the dead battery and I got it to the garage where they gave it a surprisingly good report. Needs a few things, but nothing grossly expensive or immediate, and is a better alternative than squishing the six of us into a Ford Taurus for a month and then paying $450 to do it. It's at times like these when you discover what's really on your auto insurance policy and what isn't. Rental car reimbursement wasn't. During one phone call yesterday, I added this benefit for only $18 a year.

After yet one more phone call to our insurance company to add coverage to the old van, and the requisite trip to the DMV to get license plates, we are once again free to purchase $3.00/gallon fossil fuels and then burn them to destroy the ozone layer like the rest of America.

So the saga continues, and we'll see what comes of it. Will the auto body guys be done with our van before our trip? Will I be slapped with total responsibility for this accident? Will our premiums skyrocket? Will we ultimately become more familiar with MCTS (a.k.a. the bus)? Will George Bush's latest tax cut help me pay for all of this?

Stay tuned.