Ringing in the New Year with a Bang

Literally. On Friday I went to Concord to cash my check and get groceries and chainsaw oil, plus the latest Trigun manga and other goodies. I had received a $200 Christmas bonus in addition to my normal check, and was ready to fulfill my role in keeping the economy going.

Unfortunatly, my employer pays with business checks that have his name on them and look like personal checks. My bank requires a one day wait to receive money from checks(something the regular tellers at the branch near my work waive), and instead of taking the checks to the chain they are drawn on, I decided I could wait a day.

Saturday was a nice day, and the morning was spent splitting logs. Snow began to fall, a dusting where you can see individual snowflakes on the ground. I got the grocery list and asked Ron which vehicle I should take, his SUV or Carl's Mercury. "Take Carl's car-it's insured!" Another joke about my driving. I mentioned that I drive Defensively. Carl: "Well, accidents can happen to anyone."

With this, I left the compound, stopping to pick up the mail and at the local convenience store to check that my cash was finally available. As I left the store's lot, the Mercury slid a bit out into the road. As the snow was getting worse, I slowed down to about 25MPH. Now the road to Concord is downhill most of the way, with plenty of turns.

I was driving down a steep hill that ended in a curve, riding the brakes most of the way. Near the bottom, the wheel suddenly wrenched to the right. Not following the road curving to the left, not hard enough to go down the empty road that was off to the right, but just enough to put me in line with some young trees and the remnants of an old stone wall right between the two.

As you probably guessed by the title, The brakes didn't stop me from nailing the trees and driving onto the stones. Actually, when I saw that I was going to crash, I froze up and don't know if I hit the brakes or tried to steer. I didn't hit head-on, the right side took all the damage. I was lifted up in the air and introduced to the steering wheel-with my nose.

A Deerfield volunteer fireman was just ahead of me and came back to check on me. No injuries, thankfully. I called Ron and Carl, and then made the first 911 call of my life to report the accident. The fireman called the Fire Rescue. We had some fun watching other people driving much faster than I was sliding along that corner. The Rescue guys wanted me to go to the ER to check for head trauma, but I 'refused medical treatment'. A bit later more amazement as a SUV came flying down the hill and noticed the commotion a bit too late-he ended up sliding past the rescue truck, the cop car, and cars waiting in the opposite lane like a giant slalom. His passenger had her hands over her eyes. Then he regained control and lit off at the same speed.

Now I'm about $3000 to $5000 in the hole to Carl, depending on how bad it is. That's a lot of overtime. Hopefully better news will come soon.

The now very humble Chopsy