SUBSCRIBE TODAY Smiley face  Get updates via email! 




We Are Flying Solo

February 21, 2012

My Precious Is Wounded

It burnsss ussssss....



No, it's not the horse.  But I still love her.

It was a stupid stoplight thing.  We were sitting in line, the light turned green and the guy in front of me went go - NOSTOP and slammed on his brakes.  You just can't stop 7,000 lbs of truck in 1 second so we went bump.  Fortunately, the universe had a little pity and it was another 3/4 ton truck (damn Dodge didn't dodge!!).  I hate to think how long I would have been stuck there had we eaten the back end of a dang Civic, even at all of the 3 mph or so I was moving.

His truck sat a little higher than mine and had a 4-way hitch on it, so it was not damaged at all (whew!).  He looked a bit worried when he got out and saw I was a girl -- perhaps he feared histrionics?  But I was wearing my wildlife agency uniform jacket and I saw him look at that and appear relieved that I may not dissolve into tears and scream.  We ascertained that both parties were fine, we looked at my bumper, I said, "Meh, I don't care about dents, that's what BUMPers are for," we shook hands, we went about our business.

Actually, the only thought I had getting out of my truck was, OMG, PLEASE DON'T HAVE BENT MY SPECIAL SOLO PLATE!!!  But it was unscathed and I could breathe again.

The dents truly don't bother me, it's just the gaps on the side where the whole bumper is twisted down.  On the plus side, the Precious now does fit in as a true NC truck.  Eventually, I suppose I will go junkyard diving, we have a good one nearby, but it's hardly an essential part.  I crawled under when I got to work and nothing on the front end is bent, tranny cooler is fine, and all is well.

But next time you see the Flying Solo rig, it will just have a bit more...character.

12 comments:

  1. I love love love your plate. It is so awesome.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Poor Precious!

    A few more dings/scratches and you'll be like, Meh, what's one more? My poor Grendel (big, green monster diesel F350, what else are you gonna call it?) has definitely seen better days on the exterior. But the important stuff under the hood is still 110% after 180K miles, so a little character is all to the good. :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. I just got into an accident too. I feel your pain. At least you were in a big truck, I unfortunately was not.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Katie May(We give our vehicles country girl names.)is Chevy 2500HD extended cab, long bed. I was unfortunately the first one to put a big dent in it. I hit a telephone pole(I swear it jumped out at the back of my truck) at the feed store and pushed the corner of the bumper in. It's ugly looking, and insurance would pick up part of the damage but only like a 1,000$ which is not enough to replace it. So Katie May has a permanent dent. Eh, it's not the worst thing in the world, and she still runs with almost 200,000 miles on her.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Miranda -- thanks, the awesome folks at Build-A-Sign printed it for me!

    Grace, I hope you are ok! I'm so sorry about your vehicle! I didn't hit it, I swear!

    EAM, check junkyards, craigslist, truck forums and eBay if and when you want a new bumper. I've had two offered to me at $50, but they are too far away for me to pick up and frieght is expensive. When I get around to the junkyard, if I find one, I'm thinking I can prolly get it for about $75. New on eBay, $160. So do some digging.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Tragedy averted! Whew. Thank goodness the awesome plate is intact. I would have felt the same way...dent? Eh. MY SPECIAL PLATE???? Replace! Replace!

    ReplyDelete
  7. EXACTLY, Jane! Horse people get it.

    ReplyDelete
  8. There you go again, scaring your readers. With the run of circumstances you've had lately, I was afraid something else truly awful had befallen you or one of the boys. I'm really glad it was "just" the truck! :-)

    Hubby's ride is a '95 F150 with 180,000 miles on her. Rusting, threadbare seats, red-faded-to-pink color and all, Big Red is a member of the family. It will be a sad day when she finally kicks it (though it might be nice to have something slightly less embarrassing sitting in my suburban driveway).

    ReplyDelete
  9. Oh the sexism... Glad the rig wasn't too bashed up! & oddly enough, my first thought was 'good thing that liscence plate's okay!'

    ReplyDelete
  10. Sorry, RW -- if one of the boys got hurt, it would definitely be a more sombre title!

    Oh and that 95 sounds awesome.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Well, at that speed, if it had been a Civic or something small, it wouldn't have been too bad. My car is about the size of a Civic (though a bit heavier... I got to compare the two since my ex had one) and I had a full size, bare bumpered Ford Econoline (one of the old, tank like ones) rear-end me at about 15mph. Guy had been tail gating me for about 20 miles, wouldn't pass. I got in heavy traffic, and he was more interested in his cigarette and his (unbuckled, pre-school aged) daughter than the car in front of him.

    Most of the real damage was to my pride (and my overly sensitive neck since I saw him about to hit me and tensed up). The exhaust system escaped unharmed, and she doesn't leak like my last car did after it was rear-ended (when my mom owned it).

    http://avenstudios.net/gallery/photos/accident2_10 It looked pretty yucky. And the repair guys just filled in that big dent around the keyhole with bondo. That's now cracking. My tail pipes are still dinged up. I wasn't happy with the repair job at all. They hadn't even reset the tail pipes to where they should have been.

    http://avenstudios.net/gallery/photos/accident2_04 My car kept part of his bumper, though. :D

    The bumper cover, as your truck has, would have spread the damage out, but it wouldn't have been any worse than what my little car went through. :)

    Loving the blog! Just found it tonight. (While looking through Pia's sidebar.) :3

    ReplyDelete
  12. Thanks, Snowhawk! Sorry your car got mashed, poor lil thing!

    ReplyDelete