Maybe I haven't loved you like I should have...

(IF YOU'RE HERE FOR FUN MONDAY, IT'S BELOW THIS POST)

I've never claimed to like my car. To me it never had a personality or was particularly wonderful in any way except that it got excellent gas mileage. Putting in the miles I was putting in at the time I got it, that was a necessity and everything else came second.

I have a strange history of cars, which I will go into some day, but today I will just say that I traded in my beloved but expensive-to-fix 1988 Volvo that I bought for $400. For this. A plain-jane, four-door Ford Focus Sedan SE. And it was RED. I absolutely hate red cars.

But I got a good deal at a time when both that and the gas mileage thing were of utmost importance and who cared as long as it got me from point A to point B in a reliable manner.

Today, that stupid car went above and beyond the call of duty.

I was driving home from taking ZBoy to school. Kida was in the back seat and I was in the neighborhood. At the bottom of my street, the road takes a ninety-degree turn onto another street and I was on that street headed back towards my house.

I noticed a very large black truck coming down the hill into the turn going much faster than was warranted, so I slowed down. He'd have to slow down at the curve, right?

Um. Hello? Big black truck? Are you going to make the turn? (I am stopped on the street waiting to see.) Yes! Yes, you're making the turn!

Oh, shit! You're in my lane, still going fast, all I can see is truck grill.

I love you, Darling Man! I love you, ZBoy! I love you, family! I'm sorry, Kida - your first ride to school has to end like this....

Just before a possibly deadly (or at least very painful) head-on collision, the guy realized that I'm there (hello? I have my lights on!!!!!) and whips his steering wheel around, away from me.

Not all the way away, but enough. Our bumpers kiss. A small jolt, but less than you'd get on a bumper car ride. My cup of coffee doesn't even spill.

I must be dead. No way could my car have taken that hit so gracefully. After a minute, I get out. The other guy has backed his truck up and out of the way and is getting out too.

The first thing I notice is plastic bits of car in the road. Great. This is JUST what I need. I walk around to the front of my car. And look. It's all still there. There's a sort of smudge of rubber on my bumper and the lens on my headlight is cracked. That's it. That's all there is.

Truck driver guy is amazed. Talk about "Ford Tough"! My little crappy car is Ford tough. And his truck? Pieces in the road. We are stunned.

The sun got in his eyes and he didn't see me at all until that last second. I know how that can happen - it happens to me at that turn all the time, but I SLOW DOWN when I can't see.





Truck driver guy works at a body shop. He's going to buy me a new headlight and replace it for me. We're okay. Well, I'm okay.

He had to go home and change his pants.