There are no accidents, only encounters in history

I was driving to Rehoboth late one Friday night just before Christmas. The trailers and houses along Delaware Route 16 were highly decorated. Big blow-up Santas and snowmen were all the rage this holiday season.

It was a cold night. We’d had our first snow and the deer were running. I’d seen them all along the highway that night and had watched people swerving and honking to avoid them. I was on notice and on the lookout, so you can just imagine how startled I was when the big doe dashed out in front of my car. I swear she looked right at me with her big brown eyes and her own startled expression just before the thud and the crunch. Then she went airborne over the roof and into a ditch.

People tell me I was lucky she didn’t break the windshield. They say I’m lucky I wasn’t hurt. People have died when they hit a deer. But I was safe thanks to my solid tank of a Volvo station wagon.

I looked behind me for the deer. It was a dark night and there was no traffic on the road. I saw what looked like a geyser of water and all I could think was it must be blood and fluid shooting out from the deer. Egads. But when I found the deer she was laying on her side, hit side down and looking very peaceful. So what about this geyser? At that very moment of contemplation, the sky exploded with five or six shooting stars. Was it the deer spirit ascending? Frankly, I don’t believe in God or Heaven and all that mumbo jumbo, so I’m not sure what happened. But I took it as a sign for something.

The Volvo was leaking fluids. The hood was crumpled, the grill was crushed, and the front left lights were smashed out and smoking. There was deer fur in the lights and ground into the bumper. Yet despite an odd humming noise, I was able to drive the old girl the ten miles to my house.

Two days later, the insurance company examined the car, declared it totaled, and offered $6,000 to haul it away. Not too bad for a ten-year old car with 180,000 miles.

But, now I had to buy a new car. I’d been out of the market for a decade. How do you buy a car in 2006? Should I look on the Internet? Buy a used car? Another Volvo? How about a hybrid? And just what the hell was Carmaxx?