Accidents Happen

During our usual, okay, not usual but once monthly, Sunday family dinners we ask one another what our favorite part of the weekend was. This Sunday however, Jim asked what was our least favorite part of the weekend; a question prompted by the fact that the four of us were in a car accident on Saturday. In the grand scheme of things, it wasn't a horrible accident. Everyone walked away uninjured, both cars were drivable if banged up and it appears the damage will cost a mere $5,000 or so. I say "mere" because I just spent over $3,000 on normal maintenance for the car so a bit more than that and I'm getting a brand new rear passenger door, side panel, quarter panel, wheel and alignment and probably a few other things I know nothing about. At the time of the accident, however, it seemed pretty horrible. I can't say that my life flashed in front of my eyes as Jim swerved into oncoming traffic to avoid a guy doing an illegal u-turn across four lanes of traffic but after impact and the immediate interrogating of the kids to make sure everyone was okay, it was pretty scary. The protective mom instinct kicked in and I was ready to yell at the other driver for endangering my family when I saw that they too had two children in car seats and the wife was pregnant with a third. They couldn't have been 30 years old and were new to town and lost and extremely apologetic. Apparently we were in their blind spot. Everyone was fine but by the thinest of margins. It's amazing how quickly things can go from being great to horrible or even potentially horrible. A blink of the eye.