This past Sunday was the hub's birthday luau blast, and it truly was a fete to remember. For eight solid hours I served people food, socialized, frolicked, and exhausted myself being a dutiful wife and hostess.
The following morning I hauled my carcass out of bed at 4:45 AM and headed to work.
Now, I have to say, I absolutely adore my baking job at our local theme park. We bake everything from scratch, and I am not just talking about cookies, we also make, laminate, and bake croissants, Danishes, and various types of cinnamon rolls. Being a professional baker is amazing and I adore the challenge of it.
So, even thought I was more than slightly exhausted, I still looked forward to my day of pastry and cookie crafting.
Until 5:42 struck.
Because at 5:42 AM, as I hurtled along Highway 54 at 55mph, I got smacked by a massive buck.
Now, having grown up in rural America, I am always on the lookout for wildlife, and my trip to work early in the morning is an especially precarious time, there have been many close calls, but Monday morning's incident was unfortunately one of those that was unavoidable.
Bambi's dad, the gargantuan four-point white tail behemoth that demolished my little Blue Constance Elantra, plopped out on to the opposite lane like he was being chased by the paparazzi. He hit the concrete and actually stumbled and fell before bounding right in front of my car.
I saw him enter the roadway and braked accordingly, but there was just no way to avoid him and the resounding crunch as his flintlocks hit my hood crushed my soul. I hated every second of that exchange.
A half a second earlier he would have came through the windshield into my lap, a half a second later I would have avoided him entirely. As it was, my little blue car had a big ol dent in the hood, half the bumper was ripped off, and Big White the Hyundai Eliminator was nowhere in sight.
The first thing I did after I put on my hazards was check the state of my car. Other than cosmetic damage, it didn't look to be too bad. No fluids were leaking and miracle of miracles, my passenger side lights all still worked, so I continued on to work.
After working a blistering eight hour shift, I went home and got twenty-two restorative hugs from the hubs. I have never had a claim on my insurance, so I guess it's okay to finally have one after paying premiums for twenty years, but since we are moving our daughter to college next week, having our car hurt was kinda not the greatest.
During the next forty-eight hours I talked to my adjuster, got my car assessed, and reserved a rental car for the trip south to take the girl to her new college home. It's been a heck of a whirlwind.
One minor annoyance is thanks to the massive influx of folks moving here and parts scarcity/delays, my car won't go in to be fixed until October 2nd. But my bodywork and repair guy said it was completely safe to drive, so I am going to lean into the collision thing and get some of that washable car paint and write Oh Deer in the dent on my hood. Because why not?
And that my friends explains my absence, it has been one heck of a week let me tell ya, and now I am going to go recover a bit...
And as most of the time, all of the images in this post were taken on the author's in need of an I Survived The Deer Encounter sticker iPhone.
