BAM!!!!!
Holy crap, somebody just rear-ended me.
I look in the mirror again to see a big SUV looming behind me. Lord only knows how fast it was going to not have been able to stop. I'm not hurt, just totally startled, and more than a little concerned for my horn in the trunk.
I get out; the lady from the SUV is frazzled and apologetic, calling me "sir" at every turn and making sure I'm OK. In the meantime, I'm hoping that maybe it's just a bumper-to-bumper thing where nothing gets messed up. D'oh--no luck. My back right bumper is a bit crunched in; I guess it was no match for the much-bigger vehicle. I try the trunk, which, thankfully, opens...the horn is fine (whew). We exchange information, deciding not to get the cops involved since we're blocking traffic and nobody was hurt (was this a bad idea? Seemed like they'd take forever to get there and probably had lots more important things to deal with). I learn that I can get an estimate first before filing any sort of claim, so hopefully I can make a little headway on that before Halfling's night-before-the-audition session this afternoon. If not, at least spring break is starting and I'll have time then.
The funny thing is, I might have gone for it on yellow if a few things hadn't been going through my head: One, that Garland has cameras at certain intersections that are designed to "catch" red-light runners (probably not at this particular one, but the thought was there); and two, the fact that a cop had tailed me for about a mile through Rowlett for no apparent reason just a few minutes before, so I was a bit on the self-conscious side. Oh well, I guess the real blame lies with the person herself, who "didn't see me stop," but still, something's not right when following the law turns out to be less safe than not doing so.
And the truly ironic thing might be deduced from the time-stamp of this post: Yes, I'm "Kev, Live from School" today, which means that I have a student absent right now who didn't call me in advance (UPDATE: This happened again the next period too...ugh). If I knew they weren't going to be here, I might have left my first school later, stopped by the bank, etc.; I bet I could make them feel like absolute crap if they knew that, by not contacting me, they at least indirectly caused me to be involved in a wreck. (I'm usually too nice to actually do something like that, but this person has missed so much that I might do so just to make a point.)
But all in all, I guess I should count my blessings. In a few hours, it's off to find out how much something like this is going to cost...somebody else.
Oh yeah, and to almost add
