Life and Cars....Part 2

When I moved home, drove a vehicle my Dad had (2002 Ford Taurus) for a couple of months until it was needed by another sibling. So I went out one evening and came home with this BEAUTY, Brand spankin NEW!


Oh, how I love thee...


This is the BEST vehicle I have EVER owned. It had everything I wanted (except a moon roof) all the bells and whistles. The best thing was the space. I could flip the seats up against the wall, take them out, whatever I need basically. It worked really well for work because I carry samples often, flooring materials, and lots of other things. It got great gas mileage and it was really very comfortable. Me and my Honda Element existed in perfect harmony for 11 blissful months.

Mishaps after buying brand new vehicle:

1)I slide into a SIX foot ditch. I was in traffic, didn't realize how fast the person in front of me stopped. So I went onto the shoulder, but just a little bit. Unfortunately it was a small shoulder and the ground was REALLY wet from rain. So I just kind of sank into the ditch. Thankfully I landed on my side softly. Unfortunately the line of cars in front of me or behind me didn't seem to notice I as in a ditch. So every just kept going. The car landed on the passenger side, so my door was facing up to the sky. I could not open that HUGE door by myself, so I had to wait until my Dad got there to open the door. Thankfully he wasn't far away!

2)Sidnei ran up under my mailbox with my precious baby. Don't ask how he did it. I am not exactly sure what malfunction occured, but I can tell you that I was just OVERJOYED that my hood had a HUGE dent in it.

3)Somehow, my front bumper had a huge crack in it. I don't know where or when it happened. I am thinking someone backed into me in a parking lot or a job site, who knows. But I was NOT happy when I found that out.

4)So this is not funny now, when I look back. Sidnei and I had traveled to RVA to see my mom. Somewhere along the way I must have run over a nail. As we pack up to go, I don't know if I noticed or if Sidnei noticed, but it was brought to my attention. Well, I was really worried about driving 300 miles with a nail in my tire. Sidnei insisted it would be fine and not to worry about it since it wasn't leaking. Well, I am a worry wart by nature and it would NOT be good if we broke down in the middle of nowhere NC on a Sunday night no less. So I kept talking about it and saying "No, we really need to get that out of there." (meaning let's go get it fixed) And of course, Sidnei just kept saying, "Stephanie, It's not problem. It's fine." Back and forth. So next thing I know I hear a PSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.
At first I said, "What the..?" and then it was followed by expletives as I realized what he had done. In my Grandmother's driveway, he had PULLED OUT the NAIL. I wanted to KILL HIM. I mean KILL. So of course we got into a HUGE fight. Keep in mind it is also SUNDAY late afternoon. So I made him put on the spare while I went inside and ranted to my grandmother and cooled off. Needless to say, nothing was open so we had to stay another day until we could find a tire company with my special order tire (of course it couldn't just be a normal one everyone carried).

I am one lucky girl with vehicles right? But life goes on.

5)It was March 27th, 2008. It had been almost two weeks since I had come home from my honeymoon alone. I got into my vehicle around 7:45 heading off to work. I was about 3 miles away, when I lady pulled out directly in front of me. I was going about 45-50 miles an hour. I rolled my vehicle three times.

These are pictures from the newspaper:

The offending car



The undercarriage of my vehicle


The front view


If you look closely, you can tell that I really only clipped her with my driver's side. You can tell I was going fast because my little "clip" obliterated her front end. I swerved to try and avoid her, but it just happened to fast. So I clipped and flipped. But the integrity of my vehicle really held up. Honda has amazing saftey features in that vehicle.

Literally, the first lady that got to my car said "Oh my God, she's concious!" I was so very, very, very lucky. Let me tell you, that is one safe vehicle. It is so odd how things S-L-O-W down when you are in an accident. I remember thinking, "Oh my gosh I am going to die" and "Oh my gosh, I am never going to stop rolling." When I did stop, the first thing I did was wiggle fingers and toes, made sure everything worked. Then the lady came up and I started screaming to get me out of there. I panicked. Thank goodness it was morning traffic and all the nurses were on the way to work. It took three guys to open those HUGE doors and one guy to pull me out. The nurses immeadiately put me on the ground and held my head until the ambulance got there.

The only thing that was hurt was my mouth and nose from the impact of the airbag and my hand where I had a very bad air bag burn...that hurt worse than anything! That sucker burned for a whole week! Also I had a very bad abrasion on my neck from the seat belt (Thank God for the seat belt). Other than that, bumps and bruises. And of course soreness. Seriously though, I have no doubt that God was watching over me. I was securely protected by him and I thank Him always for keeping me safe (through it all, haha).

The other blessings that came out of it (and it is my belief that this is why it happened): Is that I no longer have a HUGE car payment to make. After I came home I had a lot of bills with Sidnei's business, final wedding bills to pay off, the honeymoon to pay off, on and on, and we had been cut down to my paycheck only. So money was tight. Not only that, but I was four thousand dollars short on the retainer for Sidnei's immigration attorney. How much did I have leftover after they finished paying the lien on my vehicle? Four thousand twelve dollars and some change. How amazing is that??

Stay Tuned for the Part 3 (and the last installment)of Life and Cars...

Life and Cars...Part 1