Ode to my gas-guzzling humongous Tahoe....

I was in an accident on Tuesday on these @#$$@#! slippery wintery roads. I had been on the highway for about 10 seconds when it got really slippery (note to self: having lived here for 10 years, you'd think I'd know that was a bridge right there, so would know it would ice up more quickly, but I never noticed until this fine day after this incident...) when I just lost control of the car and the back end starting coming around and put me into a tailspin. There was a state trooper at the side of the road stopped to help with another accident (the bridge...). The last thing I saw before I hit the state trooper's car was him running to get out of my way. Thank goodness he was fast. My driver's side his the rear of his car. My side airbags deployed on both sides so I was in a little cocoon and couldn't see anything. I just stayed in the car and started making phone calls (ok...some were frantic phone calls). The nice state trooper sargeant gave me a ride into work...after he gave me a ticket of course. As they were towing my car out of the ditch, he estimated that I could probably get my car fixed for "$1500 to $2000....now his car on the other hand will be more like $3000". We followed the car I hit as they drove it into the state garage (near my work) with the back window smashed out and the back bumper flapping in the wind.

So now we have one vehicle for the time being. Matt's Nissan Maxima. A fine car by most standards. But when you have to cram a giant car seat plus 2 goodsize boys into the back seat, plus a bag of basketballs, a backpack, etc it becomes annoying. An average trip to Champaign might consist of hearing "stop touching me!" or "he's leaning on me!" or "Reese keeps poking me!" about 97 times. Pity the boy who has to sit in the middle, between the giant carseat with a sister who pokes and the other brother. I have come to greatly appreciate my third row seat and captain's chairs. Nobody has to sit next to ANYBODY in the Tahoe. A whole lot less whining going on. I don't have to stoop to put the baby in her carseat (in fact, I have the opposite problem...on tip toes to get her put in the carseat). Just lots more room for STUFF. Plus having only one car, has greatly curtailed my ability to shop. I have to stay home now. What a pain! How did Matt and I do this for the first year we were married?? (I do remember throwing more than one temper tantrum when I had to get up to drive him to the base so early in the morning).

oh well...it's temporary. 2 weeks until I get my beloved monster truck back. And the sargeant was a little off in his estimate of cost to repair it. The estimate came back at $10,000. !!!!!! It didn't look that bad at all...but these things add up. The cost of putting the airbags back is over $1,000 by itself.

Whenever I whine about not having a car, Matt's favorite line is, "I'm not the one who hit the cop!"