vehicular drama

We'd been having a pretty uneventful summer. Grilling, camping with friends, family dinners. Rome started a new job but was nicely settling in. I was teaching a few young violin students. Nothing too out of the ordinary.

And then it happened. The "vehicular catastrophe week", as we fondly refer to it now.


It all started one hot Sunday afternoon as Rome and I were driving back from a few after church errands. He was driving along, sipping some iced coffee and listening to a little Tom Waits when all of a sudden the coffee was quickly shoved at me, both of his hands gripped the wheel and I heard him say quietly, "Oh no. Something's wrong with the steering."

I tried not to panic as I watched Rome struggle to get the Jeep turned off the road. He really had to work to get the "Beast" to make the sharp right hand turn down a side street, but he did it! Thankfully our brakes were still intact and when he put the car in park we both let out huge sighs of relief. What on earth happened!!??

Well. A belt had broken. Serpentine belt to be exact. So we regained our composure and made a few phone calls to car shops trying to figure out what our options were. (Is it wrong that I was secretly hoping the car was somehow unfixable so we could get rid of it and buy something more gas-efficient and less scary to drive?? Haha!)

The tow truck was on its way and we unloaded our heavy-laden trunk onto the grass beside the side of the road. Oh did I mention we had pulled off the road right in front of a psychiatric center? Yeah.... That was awkward...

Trusty brother Phil came to pick me up and Rome went along with the tow truck. Sadly the Beast was fixable and was returned to us that evening. *Sigh*

Little did I know what was in store for that poor car in the days to come!

It was Thursday morning, the wee hours. And we were peacefully sleeping to the sound of steadily falling rain. What could be better?

I was woken out of a deep sleep to a huge crash/thump and it took me a few minutes to figure out if I had been dreaming. Was our upstairs neighbor moving furniture? No, no, no it's 2am! So I got up to look out the window. Coast looked clear. Jeep looked fine. Then I saw our upstairs neighbor come from around the side of our Jeep. It had been parked on the street and she was looking at something toward the back end of it. Hmmm. Better wake Rome. Looks like maybe a car flew by and knocked off one of our side-view mirrors. Bummer. (I remember now that I had seen an ambulance with its lights on a few houses down on the opposite side of the street.)

Rome roused himself and bundled up to go and investigate just as our doorbell rang. the upstairs neighbor telling us our car had been hit...

Long story short, an ambulance had come fast around the corner and smashed into the back corner of our Jeep before scraping down the side of it and then coming to a stop a few houses away. Oy.

Back window was smashed in. Back door handle gone. It was a mess. A raining, three in the morning mess.

But let me tell you. Working with an ambulance insurance company is nice. We were well taken care of and now have a car that is MUCH better on gas. Although in these wintery days we do miss the Beast and its awesome 4 wheel drive...