It’s just stuff
I’m grateful to be writing this post, and grateful to be sitting here on this couch typing it, and grateful to have had a full day’s work done before coming home to do so. The things we own can do mighty works. This laptop is my tool to communicate, to express with the written word, and to gather information. My phone does these tasks in smaller batches, but adds greater ease of voice contact (at least for this curmudgeon–YMMV concerning Skype/Hangouts/et al.). My car gets me around far distances, farther and faster than the best bike, and hauls things in speedy fashion that I could not even carry all together at once.
Well, it did these things, until I wrecked it Thursday. 
First things first: I am alive and well (completely without injury, as best I can tell), and so is the individual who caused the accident. But my car, a 2013 Hyundai Accent, is rather the worse for wear. Commuting to work Thursday morning, someone pulled out directly into traffic and stopped in my lane instead of at the stop sign some yards back. I managed to avoid her, jerking the wheel hard right and braking like a boss, but neither momentum nor angle of attack were sufficient to avoid careening with my front left into the square’s sign on the corner. Not an insubstantial sign, let me tell you. In the disagreement of physical space that ensued, I was unable to generate a clipping error, and the car shuddered to a halt. No airbag (apparently I am to be thankful for this), and boy howdy the bumper tried to do its job. It got so excited about it that the radiator and my left wheel joined in the fun.
After the police called in the tow, I got a doctor’s appointment that day, and secured a rental by the afternoon. (This was not without some help getting around–again, for which I am eminently grateful.) I checked out of the doc with no neuropathy evident & no muscles spasming, and a weekend’s rest has seen the tension that built up Friday melt away. (I am to call the doctor if anything comes up.) So, now all to be done is to ensure the process of insurance goes smoothly.
I keep thinking about how I could have just T-boned that car. I don’t think the driver would have lived. I keep thinking about how the sign crunched as my car hit, and my seatbelt did its job without me even noticing. (I found my glasses down by the accelerator–they had flown off my face, unsecured by the same.) Had I struck the windshield or steering column, I would be in a much greater world of hurt.
I felt a great deal of anger this weekend, thinking about the various things that should not have happened. But as the days pass, I am realizing that that was more of a physical process than any real substantial reasoning. It was an accident, in the strictest sense of the word. And all I can do is breathe a sigh of relief that my only worries are how much it will cost to fix, who’s going to pay for it, and what about the loan that I still owe a fat chunk on. Seriously, it’s just stuff. Neither I nor the other driver need to pick up the broken pieces of our livelihoods.
[Update: her insurance is accepting responsibility. I'm glad, because while it's just stuff, the initial estimate alone is $5000 worth of damage to my car. Everything is proceeding smoothly, knock on wood.]