Car trouble

 So, about 2 and a half hours after hitting publish on that last post, I dropped Dorothy off at dance and headed to Target to pick up a curbside order on the way home. Thankfully, Ben was able to keep Minnie home with him. I say thankfully because a half-mile from Target, as I creeped along at under 8 miles an hour on a busy street between stop lights, a teenage drive RAMMED INTO THE BACK OF MY CAR, throwing me into the car in front of me, who was thrown into the car in front of her, who was thrown into the car in front of him. A 5-car pileup, and I was the sandwich car.

Thank God there were no kids in my car.

Thank God I was going slow enough for the air bags to not deploy and break my face, that we have good insurance, that Harry could come home from work and watch the baby so Ben could come pick me up, that the fourth car in the lineup was a security guard on the way to the medical clinic he protects-- he was so, so helpful before the (wonderful, kind, helpful) police officer arrived on the scene.

It was so scary. One minute I was driving down the street listening to a podcast and the next I was thrown forward in my seat so hard my sunglasses flew off my face and then was thrown backwards so roughly my hair came out of its top knot. I sat there for a second, stunned, watching my arm swell and bruise and wondering what just happened.

We found out midday Friday that the car is a total loss, and we immediately flew into car buying mode because WE HAVE 5 KIDS and both of us need to start going to our campuses soon and the kids need to start going to their various schools AND CARS ARE REALLY HARD TO FIND THESE DAYS. For example, the nice salesman we have worked with at Toyota for a decade on minivans told me he would order what I wanted right away and I could get it in sixteen weeks. What.

I spent all afternoon calling dealers, and Ben ran out first thing Saturday morning, starting at Honda... which is the only place he ended up visiting. He drove an Odyssey, agreed to the terms, and said he'd be back with me at nap time to make it official. And that's exactly what we did. I bought it before I even drove it.

Phew!

The driver had a tall SUV and it hit me above the bumper, causing the back of my car to crumple.

AND THE FRONT OMGGGGG.

Would I have chosen navy blue if I had my pick of all the colors? Probably not. But I really do love this van-- and so do the kids

Car wrecks are awful even when no one is seriously hurt, even when you have insurance and can replace your ride, etc. I feel very lucky to be OK and to have a new car already. It could have been so much worse.