It was Tuesday morning and I loaded Jack and Ging into the car (affectionately called “blue“) for the hour+ ride to Fort Walton Beach to pick up a double jogging stroller that I purchased on craigslist. We were just about about a block from our destination, making a left turn, when a Ford Ranger slammed into the passenger side of the car. We spun 180 degrees and came to a stop in the intersection. There were 2 seconds of complete silence after the smashing of metal and breaking of glass, and then Ginger’s lip curled under and she uttered 2 sad little cries. Jack, who was inches away from the impact, and I’m sure had glass flying at him, did not seem to realize that anything out of the ordinary was happening. He had a small cosmetic scratch on his forehead that the EMT checked out. I discovered later that night a giant plum purple bruise on my thigh that I’m pretty sure was left by my camera on it’s way to the floorboard. Ginger had no injuries. I am still amazed at how lucky lucky lucky we were. I am haunted by what could have happened. There is already this vulnerability involved with being a Mom and caring for a child- there are so many unknowns- and that is magnified a hundred fold when there are cars and glass and collisions involved. I didn’t have much time to worry as the accident was over about the same time that I realized it was happening.

I called Garth and he started he hour drive to where we were and the fire engine, ambulance and police arrived in under 5 minutes (we could hear the sirens start up about 20 seconds after the call was made). There was extensive paperwork to do since the accident was deemed “major”. We were there for a few hours. The police let me hang out in the back of one of the squadcars with the kids and everyone was super helpful with watching one or the other while I filled out paperwork or had my hands full with one. Everyone was so wonderful and luckily I had just enough milk and snacks for the kiddos. We had a rental car company come pick us up and they got lost. We must have looked pretty silly there out in the middle of this rural intersection with our kids and their car seats.

We had a bite to eat at Hardee’s and talked to the insurance adjuster of the phone. She let us know that our car title would most likely be turned into a salvage title that that we might not ever be able to drive him again. It was their intent to sell him for scrap. With this in mind we went to get all of our belongings out of the car (that had been towed to a collicions repair shop) and took everything that we could carry. We assumed it was the last time that we would see blue again so we cut out the seatbelts, took the speakers and the subwoofer, pulled off all of the cool pieces of trim, and I even yanked a piece of the vinyl top off. I cried on the way home. I love my car blue.

It’s been almost a week now and the insurance company has assessed the value of the car to be low enough that Florida state does not require a salvage title and it’s not worth thier time to sell it for salvage, so I get to keep it. We’re also going to Tampa on Wednesday to pick up our new car. I am still hoping and praying that I can fix blue up, but that dream keeps getting farther and farther away. We might just sell him for parts (it’ll be like transplating organs- he can live forever all over the world!). I do feel though that when I bought him over 10 years ago, I was making a commitment to love and take care of him. I know that I am sentimentally attached, but I also feel a sort of physical responsability to not contribute further to the junkyards of the world. I rarely buy anything with the intention of throwing it away and I beleived that I would own and drive blue as long as I lived. Yes, I imagined myself as an older lady driving this car (painted plaid by them of course). I feel like blue is a part of my identity.

Here is the conversation that I had with the AAA operator right after I requested a tow truck:
me: “It might need to be a special tow truck because my front wheel fell off”
AAA lady: “oh! Then you don’t need a tow truck, I can send someone out to change your tire”
me: “well, the tire fell off the axel, so I don’t think it can just be put back on”
AAA lady: “Sometimes they just need to tighten the lug nuts”
me: “No, I’m going to need a tow truck”

And Garth after helping the tow truck operator jerry-rig something to get the car up on the platform:

I took this picture at his request, he was really proud of those dirty hands.

Blue is currently in the shop, and we look forward to a reunion soon. The official prognosis is that the ball joint popped out of place.

Later peeps.
xo elle