An expensive dent

Sigh. So I never claimed to be a great driver. I'm not a bad driver, but things always just seem to happen.

Like Friday. I was still at the office at 7 PM. Jodie had left already and had left the car so that Reuben and I could get home. The power had just cut out, so I just wanted to head home. I had to back the car down the driveway that leads to our office, which is a difficult task even when there are lights in the area, with people darting back and forth on the path behind the car (and I don't know why our car has tinted windows or why we haven't replaced the rear-lights, all I can say is that we clearly like a challenge--fortunately, we did replace the passenger-side side-view mirror that I took off in January).

I was moving the car as carefully as possible (staying at the 5 MPH mark) and saw that there were no people or headlights/taillights in my path, so I wanted to make as wide of a turn as possible to make this a 2 point turn rather than 4 or more (it's a rather narrow street as well). Then all of a sudden I heard that painful noise of metal against metal. If you want to know the definition of invisible, it is a black car parked on a dark street viewed through a tinted window.

I parked the car and went to survey the damage. Fortunately, my friend Phamy (a motorcycle driver who hangs out at our house a lot) happened to be right there. He brought over his motorcycle and shone the headlight onto the car. The good news was that it was a tiny dent near the driver side tire and a tiny scratch. The bad news was the Lexus logo that I saw in the hubcaps. I knew right then that this wasn't going to be cheap. We exchanged contact info and I agreed to pay for the repair. The defensive side of me was about to point out that he was the idiot who parked on a through-way when there were plenty of actual spots where he could have parked his car. I'm glad Phamy was there, since he brought out the conciliatory side of me. After all, the way it seems to me is that you can kinda park your car wherever if the road isn't paved, it's really just a question of how courteous you feel.

Anyway, the driver came back yesterday with a quote from a shop. They want 236,000 (about $160, but that still translates to a few weeks salary for me) to fix the damage. I am glad that my co-worker Philemon knows lots of people, so he's working on finding a better deal for this. I'm sure that he'll work something out. In the meantime, I'll eat more carrots and see about improving my night-vision.