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2004-08-01
Meet "Denty": I have a new car! Well, new to me, anyway. Here's the story: my mom called me up one day out of the blue and offered to give me her Durango when she pays it off. A few days later, after having talked with my brother, she offers me another option: a 1999 Mazda 626 that my brother's coworker was selling. I said "sure", they bought it for me, and I flew out to Denver to pick it up.
Now, the car was bought while I still worked at the IRS, and I had to wait to go pick it up until they were done with me. About a week after they bought it, I wrecked my Honda by rear-ending a very nice lady in a Toyota 4-Runner at a stoplight.
It was totally my fault. I was coming up behind her, slowing down. Then I looked away at a church I had never noticed before, and I thought how nice it looked. Then I looked up, and I realized I had to brake hard, immediately. However, the pavement was wet, so my brakes locked and I slid (slowly) into her. Doh! All it did was dent her bumper, however. The main thing was that she wasn't hurt. Thank goodness. I would have had a very hard time forgiving myself if she had been harmed. I ended up with a bruise on my knee from the dashboard, but it was really nothing.
I had been planning to sell the Honda, but it would have cost more to make it road-worthy (it had hardly been damaged, but I managed to bust the radiator) than I could have gotten selling it, so I ended up just signing it over to the wrecker. Alas. Here is what it looked like:
I did, however, keep the little Honda symbol from the center of the steering wheel, and I keep it in a little dash compartment in my new car. I was sad to see that car go - it served my family well for fifteen years. First my mother, then my brother, and then me. It was my first car. And it had 235k miles on it.
Anyhow, my old Honda Accord had a dent in one of the front doors (that I never fixed). My mom's Durango has a dented door. And the Mazda I was given has a dented door. So, it seems I am fated to have a car with a dented door. This doesn't bother me in the slightest. In fact, I am thinking of calling my new car "Denty". Here is what it looks like (notice how subtle the dent is):
