Going Out With A Bang

So VNB decided to make November go out with a bang. Well...let me rephrase that, the person three or four cars in front of him who jammed on his brakes today, causing a three-car pile up with VNB and my car in the middle decided to make November go out with a bang for us.

Just so you know, he's fine. In fact, he's out with the guys from our Sunday School class right now. He's a little stiff and he was obviously shaken up afterwards, but really, he's fine. I'll break out the heating pad and Motrin tonight when he gets home.

But my poor car had to be towed away.

Really, it doesn't _look_ that bad. Granted, it was dark, but the front bumper didn't look too bad at all. It just has a hole in it under the passenger-side headlight from the trailer hitch of the truck in front. And the back doesn't look _too_ bad. I mean, the passenger-side tail light was already mostly gone from an incident between me and a parking garage pole (obviously the pole won). And there were already paint marks from...ahem...another parking garage pole (hey...I was pregnant...and that's the only excuse I have...) on the rear passenger-side quarter panel. But the back bumper is obviously mushed, and the other tail light is gone now too.

The biggest thing in my mind is that the door next to where AJ's car seat usually sits won't open now. The seat's not visibly squished at all, so he would have been fine probably...but still. The best thing though is the no part of his car seat was in there. We'd sent it to TN with my mom when she came up before T-day so that I'd have one less thing to carry through the airport after Christmas. So we won't have the hassle of replacing the car seat.

We may, however, have the hassle of replacing the car. That would suck. I love that car! But there's a good bit of damage...and Kelly's blue book says that she's only worth about $7800 now. And that's in "excellent" condition. Which she's not.

Arg....but still $7000 in cash could maybe buy a decent used car.

But to end my "30 Days of Thanks," I am thankful from the bottom of my heart that VNB is ok. It could have been a whole lot worse. The airbag of the guy in the car behind him went off and that guy's hand was swelling up pretty quickly afterward. He could have been more slow in his own braking and plowed into the car in front of him rather than being pushed (or in addition to being pushed). There are a million possibilities for what could have happened. Instead, he's ok and all we need is a fixed or new car.