Careful driving. Second turn going up is slippery, you should do fine if you go slowwwww. See you all soon. I can come get you at the park and ride, Michal.
I read it to Aaron.
"Do you think I should take her up on that?"
"No," he laughed, "You can drive yourself. Do they know you wrecked the new car?" he laughed more.
"No..."
"Does Caren?"
"Oh yeah, she knew before you did."
"Oh I can't wait to tell them all," he chortled.
"I will tell them..."
So here is how I wrecked the car:
A few weeks ago Aaron bought me a new car with all wheel drive. My other car couldn't make it up our drive way if there was the slightest bit of snow on it.
After bringing the new car home, I wanted to take it for a spin and set out for a grocery run.
"Be careful..." Aaron said looking down on me.
"I will!" I answered indignantly.
But he had reason to warn me. I have a track record of blowing a tire or backing into a tree, or side swiping the mirror every time we get a new car.
My run to the store went with out incident; as did all other excursions in the car for the past few weeks. Until Monday.
Monday morning I went outside and remeasured the snow. Over the past few days we had accumulated 19.5 inches! There was still 13 remaining on the ground. I called around to see if school was closed.
All systems were a-go.
Stupid Mountain People! This is ridiculous.
I considered keeping the kids home anyway but Aaron said if school was open then they needed to go.
I checked with Caren who had already ran several errands that morning and she said the roads were fine.
"It's an accumulation of up to a foot but they have been maintaining the roads in between. They are fine. Are you asking me to take Gabe to band?"
"No. I'm taking him."
I begrudgingly got my kids out on the snow packed roads. I dropped Drew off at the bus stop to wait with Kevin (and to keep me from killing him because we had another rough morning. That is another story and is improving as Drew and I both are getting more organized) and I drove Gabriel to school for band.
All with out incident.
Caren called me when I was at the school.
"Did you make it?"
"I made it. I guess now I need to go on to my tap class."
And on I went.
With out incident.
After tap I went home and had lunch by the fire. After lunch I set to work on the house. Our bathroom is being redone and so I periodically would peek in on our contractor, Joe, to see how all was going. My day was going much better and productively. Soon it was time for the kids to return home.
One of the things Drew and I fought about that morning was wearing his snow gear. He eschewed the snow pants and boots. He only took a coat because I threw it at him as we walked out the door. The high that day was 10. I planned on letting him walk up from the bus stop with only his coat and wind pants but Aaron told me that was unacceptable. So I grabbed the car keys and bundled up.
Our driveway is long and narrow but has a couple of little nooks where one could park their car. Our contractor had tucked his truck into one such nook, truck pointed down the driveway. As I backed out I made sure to check for his truck. The last thing I needed was to back into it. The new car has a feature that beeps if you are about to back into something.
Looking out back and using the mirrors I made a careful descent down the drive. I had cleared his truck (with out even any beeping) and began to turn my car into another nook in the driveway so that I could go the rest of the way down facing forward. As I did I heard a loud SCRAPE!
"No," I moaned.
I stopped my car and looked out the front window. It appeared that I was past the truck. I got out and saw that our bumpers had hooked and my bumper was half way off! I got back in the car and headed back up to the house.
"Joe....I hit your truck..."
"Oh no! I'm so sorry!"
What a guy to apologize for where he parked when I hit the car?! Joe came out and surveyed the damage. His bumper suffered a 2 inch crack but nothing more. He reattached my bumper and had me check my lights and other things. Everything seemed to be in working order.
"What are these for?" I asked as I handed him a pile of broken plastic.
There was scolding from the kids that they had to walk up the hill in the freezing cold and Drake got out during all of this as well. It was just an awful night. Joe asked the kids to be kind to me, that I had tried to pick them up but had an accident and then he took off in his truck to round up the dog. Seriously. A very kind man.
Aaron was not to be home for dinner as his boss was in from Canada and they were out together. As I made dinner for the kids my anxiety grew. I hated not telling Aaron right away about the car. I needed to confess. I texted Caren and Shalah:
"I got in a wreck in the new car..."
They both asked if I was OK.
"Sorry, I should've started with, I'm OK."
Caren was relieved to learn that it was not due to the snow. She was worried that I had slid into a ditch and would never drive in the snow again.
"Was it because of the snow?" Shalah asked.
"I wish... I hit my contractors truck backing out of the driveway."
"Dork. Does Aaron have his paper bag to breathe into?"
"Aaron is out with his boss."
"Wine."
"Already poured."
Later Aaron's brother texted regarding Christmas plans.
"P.S. I wrecked our new car. I am dreading your brother's return from work...."
"Send the kids to bed early and answer the door naked. He'll be alright."
"Not a bad plan. Maybe I'll have a beer for him too."
And later, Shalah again:
"Well, what did Aaron say?"
"Not home yet. On his way..."
At this point I am feeling like a little girl who has to tell her parents that she lied or did some other awful thing. I just wanted to get this whole things over with.
"Matt suggested I greet him naked."
"He'll know you did something if you do that. He's been married to you too long."
"True."
"I never asked, what kind of car is it? Do you even know?"
"I do know! Sort of... It's a Volvo....of some kind. An SUV."
"Damn. A Volvo. OK yeah...take off your clothes and start praying."
Then I heard his car pull up. I heard him climb the stairs up to the front door. I heard him enter and rummage around. I knew he would soon see the broken car parts sitting out on the kitchen counter.
Time to pay the piper.
I went up stairs and found Aaron in the kitchen going through the mail. Maybe he had not seen the broken car parts.
"Hey, Babe..."
"Hey," he said as he hugged and kissed me.
Must not have seen them.
"Honey...um...I was in a bit of an accident...."
"I saw," he said and gestured to the parts. "You OK? Anyone hurt?"
"I'm fine. No one was hurt."
"Was it with an inanimate object or another car?"
"Um...kind of...both?"
Silence.
"I hit Joe's truck."
"Crap."
"I didn't damage his car at all. Well...a little...but nothing he is concerned about."
"OK. I think I know where all of this goes. I'll take a look at it in the morning."
That's it?
"I'm really sorry, Babe."
"I know," and he hugged me and sighed with disappointment.
"You're disappointed."
"Yep."
"I kind of wish you'd yell at me....I do this every time we get a new car!"
"Yep."
We shut the house up together and went to bed. He spooned me into his arms and was soon softly snoring.
What an amazing man. Thank you Lord for giving me such a good man! Thank you for his grace and Yours.
No comments:
Post a Comment