Vroom...

Oh yeah... I love being a car owner.

I love the rush of shifting into 5th and cruising along a wide open road with the windows down and the volume up. The only thing missing is the flip-top and the 6th gear.

Unfortunately...

Oh Sigh...

Being a car owner, being a happy car owner (even with only five speeds), has a significant down-side. Occasionally bad things happen to good cars.

I was just zooming along, on my way to work this morning, minding my own business and being pleased by the fact that the third lane on this stretch of my commute had recently been re-opened. The next thing I know, there's a piece of concrete (recently kicked up by the Black Caddy two cars in front of me) flying at my car with insane velocity, and I had no place to go and no time to get there.

Then, Oh God!, then the sickening crunch as the concrete chunk took a couple of bites out of the front fender (passenger side) of my sweet little car.

I know, and yes, I am VERY grateful that it hit the body of the car... had it been a foot higher I would likely have had a chunk of concrete through the windshield and possibly through the passenger seat.

I pulled over, hoping beyond hope that it was just a little dent. It's not. If I had a camera with me right now, I'd post the ugly gash that runs along the fender... just at about the top of the tire, so you could see, too. The guy in the black Caddy pulled over too - his car had a flat - most likely from a sharp edge digging in to the rubber during the launch.

Can I afford to fix it? No... not really. The car is drivable - the damage is just cosmetic - a scar, a war wound, a badge of honor for a little car having lived, already, through 3 years of rough Michigan roads. I do have a call in to my insurance company... not because I want to file a claim with them - I just can't afford for my rates to go up... or the deductible for that matter - but because I hope they can provide some guidance for making the D.O.T. or the local municipality to cover the cost of repairs.

No, I'm not holding out much hope here either... but I figure it can't hurt.

Overall - I'm happy to be alive. I'm happy that my little Buddha-car still moves without screeching, squealing, or causing further damage to himself. I'm grateful beyond words that it didn't hit the windshield.

And I'm sad, too.