This Has Been an Interesting Day
Entry posted by Lost_Warrior
545 views
I suppose I should count myself VERY lucky concerning today's events. And I feel quite free to laugh about them now. 
So today started out relatively normal; I got up at 5:05 or so...I have to leave at 5:30 mind you to get to work. But this is normal, and I usually wind up leaving at about 5:35 and getting there five minutes or so early.
So I'm driving to work, as usual. I am almost there, and just as I am entering New Albany (I'm slowing down, as the speed limit changes from 45 to 25 right up ahead) I go around a blind turn. And there, right in the middle of my lane is...
A deer.
Sprawled completely across my lane. Quite obviously DOA, and very much in my way. Now, I came around the turn going probably 35 mph...when I saw the unfortunate creature I slammed on my brakes. To late, of course, to stop completely. I could not swerve right, there was not enough room. If I'd swerved left, I would have had to be in the other lane. Nothing was coming, however I had no time to swerve, either. So I aimed my car directly for it, thinking if I "straddled it" I would do the least amount of damage to my 2 year old car.
Keep in mind, the bumper of my car is only about a foot off of the road. It's a small car, with a low hanging plastic bumper, and low profile tires.
So, inevitably, I hit the deer, going about 15 or 20 mph...I would guess. And drove over it. My front right tire, I think, went over the head. The rest passed under my car; scraped my undercarriage...
And left my car completely undamaged. Now, I do have a few hairs on my bumper and underneath the car. I do have a "hot dead meat" smell when I drive the car. What I don't have, is a single scratch from the incident.
In hindsight, it's pretty amazing. And pretty funny. I bet it was hilarious from an "outside" point of view; a small, sporty Ford Focus driving completely over a deer. One expects this sort of behavior from the drivers of large, tough SUV's...not small sedans. 
I'd already knew my car handled snow well. Now I know it handles deer well as well.
So, I'm at work, and it's almost lunch time. Scratch that, it IS lunch time. I'm deburring a part and the scraper slips--I slice my thumb open, and it immediately starts bleeding like crazy. Now, as soon as I finish deburring these three parts (I'm working on the first of them) I can go to lunch. Wiping the blood off on my pants doesn't work; it just keeps bleeding, so I grab a shop towel and wrap my thumb in it, and try to hold it there while I keep working. When I'm done (not an easy feat with a towel wrapped around your thumb) I ask my boss for a bandaid.
Now, I'm hungry. Have been for an hour or more. Usually, my own blood does not bother me...to badly. But I'm hungry, and the cut is deep (into the meat) I can tell by the feel. I notice the depth of it when I'm washing it off and waiting for my boss to return with the bandaid. So, while he bandages my hand, I sit on the arm of a chair, staring at the ceiling, trying not to pass out. The blood didn't bother me a bit, but the knowledge that I'd cut into the muscle, did.
As soon as he's done I grab my lunch...and sit there for a few minutes waiting till the dizziness passes. Then I get some sugar (gatorade) in me and chow down. I return to work, feeling OK and finish my shift.
I was going to wash my car on the way home, but the way this day has been (two bad incidents and two "near misses" that could have been worse), I decided to head straight home. The roads are still wet from the snow and rain, and it is salty, so washing my car today wouldn't do any good anyhow. I'll wash it sometime during the coming four day weekend.
5 Comments
Recommended Comments