So I was going to write a recap of what I did today; how I went with my mom to pay my grandma a surprise visit, how I went to my grandma’s old house (which is soon to become my sister’s house) and helped tape tarps onto the floor so everything would be ready for the painters, or how I went with my parents to dinner, where we were joined by the daughter of a family friend we have from Austria (she was an au pair for the summer, and we last saw here when we went to Europe back in 2001 when she was 14 years old).

Instead, I will tell you about my drive back to Santa Barbara.

We stayed at the restaurant until almost 8pm, and I didn’t wind up leaving for SB until almost 9:45. Everythng went pretty smoothly—I already had more than enough gas to get back, and I knew traffic would be pretty good at that time of night. And indeed, I managed to go almost 80 the whole way.

When nearing my destination, I decided I wanted to pass a slowish truck that I had been stuck behind for awhile. When the lane next to me opened up, I decided to take the opportunity to go around. Right as I was doing so, at exactly 11:30pm, I see this HUGE piece of metal hurtle towards my windshield, bounce off with a great thud, and fly in a direction unknown.

I have NO idea what it was (though it was large, and I could swear resembled a car hood, and I might also swear that it had an Acura logo?), as it was dark and on a part of the highway not well lit. It was also quite unexpected. As I was in the process of switching lanes, I wasn't paying attention to the truck anymore, so I am not sure if he swerved to avoid anything, or if he in fact drove over this object and thus was responsible for sending it airborne.

After I got hit, I got back over behind the truck and contemplated what just happened. Since this happened on the unlit freeway while going 80mph, it wasn't exactly feasible to just stop and see what happened. Everyone else around me continued to drive as though nothing had happened, so that is also what I did. In what light there was (mainly illumination bounced off the truck from my headlights), I could see that the left-most side of my windshield had cracked, and that along most of my windshield there were long vertical scratches, and my left windshield wiper blade had flown up onto the glass in its uppermost position if it had been turned on.

After calling my mom to let her know I arrived safely but that I could not quite say the same for my car, I went out with a flashlight to see how bad it looks. Still hard to tell, but it's both good and bad. It doesn't look like the car got my front, top, or back, just the windshield, although it does appear that it may have lightly scratched the part of my hood near the windshield (will have to see in the morning if it's superficial and can be rubbed out). The scratches may have been caushed by the metal, but they also seem like they might have been caused by the hit windshield wiper, which is now missing its protective rubber coating, and since it was slammed against the glass, may have scratched it, as it traced a path upward.

What pisses me off even more is that, during my oil change/maintenance yesterday, I decided to FINALLY get my wipers replaced, after putting up with my old pair long after they stopped performing adequately. Why, oh why, when they needed replacing for almost 3 years, did I have to replace them one day before I'd break one?

In the morning my mom is supposed to call me with what type of places are good to go to for replacing windshields. I need to do this as soon as possible, as looking at it will just depress me, not to mention it majorly ghettofies the look of the vehicle. The scratches are also quite distracting, as they are all on the driver's side--I also have no idea what sort of impact it will have driving with the glare of the sun. Plus, if I'm going to take a monetary hit in the sum of a couple hundred bucks, I'd rather just get it over with. I will also have to go replace the windshield wipers AGAIN, since now instead of them working crappily, I can't use them at all thanks to the one having no rubber coating.

Yes, I suppose I am lucky that nothing happened to me, and that nothing happened to my car beyond a cracked windshield. I was able to talk to Steve for a few minutes from South Korea and he pointed out that it was probably good it didn't happen during the day. If it had, I might have seen it coming and tried to swerve, and that could've been worse. It's true--I didn't see it coming until it was far too late, and as a result, I didn't even react, execpt to get back into the lane I was leaving (as if that would help after the fact, when the danger was already gone, but I digress!). My car merged back over in a normal fashion, however; I didn't jerk the wheel or swerve.

But I am not so lucky that my car needs to be repaired. I need to go look at it again in the light of day to see how bad it is. I hope it doesn't make me cry (more). I also hope I can sleep, given how upset I am. I'm not shaken up, I'm just upset my car is broken in a sense. And I'm upset that I just spent a bunch of money on shopping and maintenance and will now pay for something that is only necessary thanks to a total fluke.

I just wish I knew what happened, and I wish it didn't happen to ME. I'm so sad. :(

Posted at 12:51 AM |

o my Jennifer!
I’m glad to hear you’re doing ok - but what a story!

accidents with windshields can have much worse outcomes :(

2 | Posted by: Leonieke on August 14, 2006 @ 1:28 PM