I used to think Christmas was the season of miracles but the monopoly seems to have been broken. On Halloween morning as I was headed to work I stopped at a red light (as usual), waited about 30 seconds or so, then got rear-ended. Not hard enough to be hurt, but too hard for my car to just shrug it off. The guy who hit me could have made things so much nicer if he had bumped me directly from behind, but in his mind the logical thing to do was to split between the two lanes and scrape along the side of my car so as to do far more damage. Maybe he was actually trying to hit two cars; I didn't ask so I cannot say for sure. As it is, his black, rubber, partially biodegraded bumper left a kind of skid mark (with bent metal and plastic) which started at the corner of my rear bumper and wrapped around to just behind the rear wheel on the driver's side of my car. I guess it's possible that this may have involved some highly skilled driving, I'm just the wrong demographic to appreciate the payoff for the hours of practice it must have taken.
The only other explanation I can come up with is that guy who hit me must have some tragic form of reverse color blindness that renders all white objects invisible. Not just any white, that trademark Toyota Arctic White we see on roughly 70% of the world's Corollas. On a sunny day, I suspect I'm visible from the MIR space station, he should have seen me.
So. We pull over, get out and etc... I've been hit by a 20something kid with Kenny G hair, a '91 Chevy Cavalier, who is moving soon(he says), and his only phone number is a cell out of St Louis Missouri. My guess is that I'm badly hosed on this one. Then I saw my first miracle that day... HE HAS INSURANCE! With a card and everything. The angels must have wept at the sight. I let him know I wasn't going to sue him, I just wanted my car fixed. He agreed it was his fault, but verbal means nothing and I don't expect a written confession. I went to work and began calling around to my and his insurance companies to get repairs started, worrying he may change his story and claim I rolled back into him... people try it.
Around mid-day I called my voice mail to check my messages and behold, my second miracle! There's a message from TGWHM (the guy who hit me -no need to share his name). The message = Hi, I'm TGWHY (the guy who hit you).. sorry (admission of guilt), and maybe I could just pay you and lets not talk to any insurance people. Oh well, too late for that. Besides, having dodged one serious hosing, why double down for a second one? What a relief. That message is a keeper. Still makes me laugh.
For now I'm driving a rental. A Suzuki Forenza... I'm not angry though. In fact, after my car is fixed, if he still has the same out of state cell number, I'll offer to send him a half pound of Kona coffee to let him know I appreciate his honesty.-Steve