In December of 2004, Karen and I realized that we needed a new car since the cavalier probably wasn't going to be very baby-friendly. Hoping that I could seize my chance to get a vehicle that could pull a boat, I made my case to Karen that the best baby-mobile that we could purchase was a Jeep Cherokee. Unbelievably, she bought it. Well, we bought it.

Now, there is no doubt in either of our minds right now that the Jeep we purchased is a total lemon, or at least manufactured on a Monday. It has its share of problems, but one thing that Karen read online when we were considering buying it was that when Jeeps got in accidents, usually the other car bore more of the share of the impact energy.

So as Maddy and I were headed back from CVS getting insulin and moleskin, this strength of Jeep hypothesis was tested by a new-to-campus Materials Science and Engineering graduate student. He sailed through a red light at Springfield and Randolph while I was driving through it at 30 or 35 miles per hour. I slammed on the brakes and was close to stopping when I t-boned his rear-driver side door and rear left tire.

Needless to say, I lost a front bumper and drove away unharmed and his plastic paneled Subaru ended up getting towed to the nearest automobile boo-boo shop. I have a feeling that he was probably on the cell phone.

The Hunter Shows His Kill: Not as nice as bringing home a 5 gallon bucket of doves, but at least we are safe.

You have to feel bad for the kid (I can say that since I am 5 years older than him). He had to have his car towed: >= $150. He was probably issued a ticket for running the light: >= $75. I had a guy stop and act as a witness for the police and vouched for the greeny-ness of my traffic light. If he is like me his deductible is probably $500. So at minimum, this little indiscretion will cost him over $700.

You have to laugh it off to a point: Sometimes I think that praying every day that God would keep me and the family safe gets monotonous. But after days, weeks, and years of accident-free driving, it is a good thing that He is faithful and answers prayers.

Maddy was less shaken up than I thought she would be. Weirdly enough, we were talking about taking turns at stoplights on the way to CVS. We talked at length about how we have to wait our turn at red lights and how it is safe to take turns. So when I slammed on the breaks and the big metal/plastic banging sound happened, I told her that our new friend Andy wasn't taking his turn at the stoplight. Maddy was quite the trooper and sat nice and quietly listening to the radio in the car for 30 minutes while the policeman got our info and filled out the report.

So we have no front bumper and our license plate now has four numbers instead of seven.

That and Sammy got out of the backyard this afternoon and our neighbor brought him home after almost getting flattened by a semi on Church St.