I've been extremely fortunate to have never found myself in a vehicle versus vehicle battle to the death, which is how I tend to think of car accidents. The closest I've ever come was running into a deer going 55 mph. The poor suicidal thing leapt right out in front of me, leaving me literally no time to react. Even if I could have swerved, I wouldn't have. Huge trees on one side and a steady stream of oncoming traffic also going 55 mph makes that decision pretty easy. The deer, a fairly small specimen, crunched in the hood of my car and nearly came through my windshield. My insurance barely covered it.


If a wee little deer could cause that much damage, then what could one of those giant behemoth trucks do to my small Suzuki Esteem? This isn't something I ever really want to find out, and I find myself shooting baleful looks at the huge trucks and SUVs whenever I see them. "You constantly park in parking spaces too small for your size almost blocking me in, you're bad for the environment, AND you'd probably kill me if you rear ended me," I think viciously at them.

Never in any of my imagined scenarios of death-by-behemoth-truck did I imagine that I would be the one doing the colliding. But that was nearly what happened this morning. Nearly being the key word there - I still have never been in a car accident.

When I got up I was profoundly irritated to find that it was snowing again. I've had enough of snow this winter, and I swear if I see one more flake come down before next year, there's going to be anger terrible to behold. And possibly tears. I swore, incredulously told my kitty to look out the window, then sighed and went about my morning routine. There was barely any snow on the ground and I knew it was supposed to warm up, so I figured I would at least try to get to work.

I drove slowly down my side roads up to the main drag, and everything seemed fine. The roads weren't slick, and I didn't detect even a hint of ice. Until I got up to the main road. There was an enormous truck in front of me, his brake lights coming on just as I reached the speed limit. I pressed my brakes. Aaaaand.... as I'm sure you've guessed.... nothing happened. I kept slipping and sliding along a huge, random patch of ice, yelling "stop, fuck, stop!"

I managed to get my car over to the shoulder where there wasn't any ice right before plowing headlong into the bed of the truck. I think I've said this before, but I have no snow/ice driving skills. None. I think it's pretty amazing that I managed to stop.

I almost turned the car around and went home, but I found I was absolutely terrified of that stretch of road. Better to continue on to work than to chance something like that happening again. Which really is too bad - I totally could have squeezed an extra couple of hours in bed out of that one. "It's to icy for me to get to work. I'll be in as soon as it warms up a little." Such a wasted opportunity.

I'm still convinced that somehow it was the behemoth truck's fault. I'm not sure how yet, but I'll figure it out. Don't worry.