Friday, July 23, 2010

Whole Lot of Shakin' Going On

This morning, as I often do, I was driving to work. The last leg of my commute is up a winding mountain road with a state route number. It's one lane each way, or a two lane road, however you think of it, my point is that it's a winding mountain road that goes through a residential neighborhood.

As I traversed this part of my route, I noticed a deer running hell-for-leather diagonally across the lawn to my right, headed - headed for a collision course with my car. I slammed on the brakes. I wasn't fast enough, or it was too late, because BAM! I hit the deer and it went down. Pretty sure I was yelling something like "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" while that happened. My heart beating a mile a minute, I watched the deer flounder, then stand up, shake itself off (minus some huge tufts of fur) and RUN AWAY. Jesus, deer are tough. I slowly hit the gas on my car, and everything seemed OK, driving-wise. I noticed that the car in front of me had slowed, but it took off when it saw me moving.

Shaking like a leaf, I continued the approximate 3 more miles in to my office. I looked at my car, and the frame for my license plate is broken. The plate itself is still riveted to the car, so, OK. A seriously small amount of damage, considering what could have happened.

Still shaking, I walked in to the office, headed to the ladies' room, went to the fridge to put my lunch in, and started thinking about how the car in front of me had slowed down...

The car in *front* of me.

I am now so, so glad that there wasn't a car behind me.

2 comments:

DBK said...

You were fortunate that the damage wasn't worse. A former boss of mine told me how he was driving once at night and a deer jumped through his windshield and end up dead in the passenger seat.

Yes, you read that right. It jumped through the windshield of his car and killed itself, ending up in the passenger seat. Like a suicide deer bomber. Like maybe his cousin was killed by a Porsche and as soon as it saw the Porsche it decided to try and take it out in an act of vengeance.

DBK said...

Just found this online:

The Gilmore Girls, Season 1, Episode 4: "The Deer Hunters"
Rory: Oh my God, I just got hit by a deer!
Lane: You hit a deer?
Rory: No, I got hit by a deer!
Lane: How do you get hit by a deer?
Rory: I was at a stop sign and it hit me.
Lane: Was it a 4-way stop?
Rory: What does that matter?
Lane: I don't know. I don't know what to ask after you've been hit by a deer.

My cat (this isn't Gilmore Girls dialogue anymore, just me) just jumped up on the desk, shoved an item off the desk, and laid won int he spot vacated by the item. I don't know how I can type when I am laughing this hard.