Today has been quite a day! It started off well, I got to sleep in quite a bit. Then it got better …I got to use car to deliver Laura the photos from her photo session with her boyfriend. Then things continued well, I was going to watch a movie with my friend Ashley before picking dad up from work …when disaster struck. Or more precisely my now obvious lack of skill when it comes to driving in winter on extremely slippery roads. I’m going to say extremely slippery in order to make myself look better, because …here’s what happened:
Picture this: A very happy and glad Stefan, because he’s had his 8 o’clock coffee (PM that is, for you 24 hour clock people, that’s 20:00 hours), on his way to watch Matrix 2 Reloaded or Amelie, at his friend’s house, backing out of his driveway, driving around the corner and deciding to slow down as the road was a slight downhill and at the end of it an intersection with a STOP sign. Now continue imagining this Stefan innocently and naively, yet quite wrongly, thinking that in order to slow the car down on a slippery downhill slope, he should press the brakes. WRONG! In fact it was so wrong that the car ended up changing it’s angle of pointing, now pointing < begin army talk > towards 10 o’clock < / end of army talk> yet still proceeding straight on, in fact gaining speed.
Within those split seconds, the thoughts “Uh Oh, this is not good …what do I do now …” came to mind. But then rudely interrupted by a brief bump caused by a small tree in front of someone’s house that happened to be in the way of my car’s sliding. As things came to a stop, I noticed I was sitting, still in my car, the front of which was now pointing towards the neighbour’s house, completely perpendicular to the road. I got out to check the damage, awaiting to see the side of the car in pieces laying around in the snow. Instead I am surprised to strive as hard as I can to notice some damage on the car, yet unable to find any, except for half of a small tree sticking out from underneath the front of my car. Quite amazing, these Chevrolet Cavaliers are TANKS! (Here’s divine intervention nr 1)
With great reluctance I called my dad to inform him about the slight misfortune that happened to his car. Then immediately after, my friend Merv Keyes, who besides being one of the best known DJs in Kitchener/Waterloo, owner of Magic Tunes Entertainment, has also been a car mechanic in his youth and who, thank God, was not busy and agreed to come and take a look at my situation.
Long story short, Merv comes and in spite of my unsuccessful trials of getting the car out, manages to get it out of the snow and from over the tree by just reversing and me pushing. I thought it was going to need some serious towing. (Divine intervention nr 2)
Both of us happy that things went well, I knocked on the house owner’s door to let him know that I’ve killed his tree and that I would be more than willing to replace it in case the city doesn’t. The neighbour did not seem too displeased or angry or even upset, in spite of me waking him from his sleep (I think). But just when I thought I could get away, two police cars show up. “Now I’m in trouble,” I thought. Now in order to bring in Divine intervention nr 3, I will ask you, what are the odds that the random cop that ended up taking the call (I’m saying the call because I’m assuming someone in the neighbourhood noticed what happened and called 911), would be none other than the only guy working on the Kitchener/Waterloo police force that I happen to know? Indeed it was him, which made me feel way more relaxed about the situation …within the boundries of how relaxed I possibly could feel after having done such terrible act as killing someone’s innocent tree.
Thank God, in the end, I did not get charged, the car has little-to-no visible damage, the owner of the house is not upset, the police officer told me I am not likely to get in trouble with the city, I even got to meet two old friends that I haven’t seen in a long time (in spite of the dislikable situation) and dad has been successfully been picked up from work on time. PHEW! What a day!
Here’s some images that I took at the scene of the crime!
