Not Again

On December 4th of 2002 we had an ice storm. I lived in an apartment at the time, and I had to park my car (a sweet Saturn station wagon) on the street. At 9am on December 5th I was asleep and heard a giant crash. Without even checking I knew it was the Saturn.

I put on my coat and went outside and discovered a giant limb where the roof of my car used to be. All of my neighbors were outside. The back windshield was blown in, and there were glass and leaves in the hatch of my car. I quietly sobbed while I pulled the leaves and smaller branches out, uselessly, and even though at the point I had quit smoking for 3 months one of my neighbors handed me a pack of Marlboro lights. I will love her forever for that.

I called Geico, my insurance carrier at the time, still in tears. I told the lady that a tree had fallen on my car, and the first thing she said was, "You must live in North Carolina." Yep. I did. We arranged for me to take the car to a place to repair it, and ended the call. I was without my car for NINE weeks due to the heavy volume of destroyed vehicles in the area. They gave me a loaner, but it wasn't the same. And to be truthful, my car was never the same again either. I was convinced its heart had been broken.

In 2003 due to the issues with the Saturn I bought a Nissan Frontier pick up truck. I immediately loved that truck even more than the Saturn. It's my buddy. It's got a few dents in it now from being hit in parking lots, but that doesn't matter to me. I think it gives the truck character.

Today is windy. We're having 50mph wind gusts, and it's insane out there. I was sitting on my computer and suddenly heard a giant slamming sound. I knew. I just knew. I glanced out the window as I grabbed the keys to my truck and saw a giant dead pine tree supported by the power lines hanging over my truck. I ran out and threw myself into the truck, praying to everything and everyone holy that the tree wouldn't come down while I was in there. I slammed the truck into reverse and pulled forward into Rich's parking space. The truck is covered with giant pieces of scraped off bark. The tree still dangles.

I called the power company to report a downed tree and discovered that the office that handles that is open from Monday-Friday. OK then. I then called back and reported a complete power outage to get the damn asshats out here to remove the tree, because if it falls all the way we're fucked. 

In the meantime my adrenaline is so high that I smoked 4 times in one hour and am seriously considering having a drink. Seriously. I mean, how could something like this happen twice to the same person? Granted, my truck escaped unscathed, but it was a narrow miss. The tree is currently 10 feet above where the truck sat.

So. I hope everyone is having a better day than I'm now having. And please cross your fingers for me that nothing like this ever happens again. I'd have to be hospitalized.