Last weekend we went on a family ski trip up to Vermont with Nick and some friends of his. It was mostly great. The skiing itself was awesome. The snow and the mountain were perfect and we all had a great time with the skiing. Michelle is really coming along, and Lizzy is doing good too. We stayed in a condo right on the mountain with Nick and his family, and that was a good time. Watched The Empire Strikes Back, Jeannie’s favorite movie of all time. On the other hand it was really cold the whole time, especially sitting on the lift as it approached the summit.
The big downer is we got into a bit of a road accident on the trip up. We got caught in a pileup on an off ramp. Luckily no one was hurt, but once we were done feeling relieved over that, the hassle factor set in. We had to wait an hour and half for the police to show up and get everyone’s statements. So we got up there pretty late on Friday. And we’ve been dealing with insurance and paperwork ever since. At first I thought the Jeep had only minimal damage; I just lost my license plate and maybe the fan was a bit noisy. The car in the middle, a Mini, seemed to fare the worst, with both bumpers (the flimsy plastic kind) cracked. The car in front, the cause of al of it, was another SUV and looked to be totally intact.
Close inspection later revealed a piece of framing behind my bumper was bowed. It did its job and bore the brunt of the impact. There’s other assorted minor damage, probably mostly not worth fixing on account of the car being so old. It’s safe and drives okay. I’ll take it to my local mechanic and get his opinion on the minimum necessary repairs, put the license plate back on myself and be done with it.
I guess I’ll start looking to replace the car this spring. I had hoped to keep it another year or so, since we just got a new car for Jeannie. It’s certainly good enough to get to the train station and back for a while, but longer term it’s transitioning to the beater category. Luckily time is on my side and I can research cars and wait for sales. Too bad cash for clunkers in no longer in effect!
Did I mention that the skiing part of the trip was really great? An since we’ve been back in town, it’s gotten really warm, like spring and almost half the snow from January has melted. On the way home from Vermont we saw another car crash at the exact same spot. I’m sure the police keep statistics as to how many accidents occur at the ramp. It’s be interesting to know.