Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Rear Ended

My lunch routine is fairly boring. I usually heat up one of those microwave dishes, drive over to Barnes and Nobles, eat in the car, go in the bookstore and get a coffee. If I have brought my laptop, I find a place to sit and watch something that I pulled down off of BT. Lately, I've been watching a programming screen cast, "Summer of NHibernate." Then, I travel the few miles back to my place of work.

The routine was broken up when I was rear ended.

I had come to a stop, waiting for the light behind several cars. It was a few seconds when I felt a push. I've had these happened before, and trusted that the bumpers did their job and the worst that could have happened was some messed up paint.

I got out of the car and looked over at the woman getting out of her white VW Beetle (the new kind, not the cool kind). I asked her if she was ok. No response. She immediately started looking at the front of her car. I glanced at my bumper and did not note any damage. The lady mumbled that she had just bought the car all the while rubbing her hand on her bumper until she discerned some chipped paint.

"Well," she stated, "What do you want to do?"

I thought this was a underhanded meatball. Obviously, there was no damage to my car, so I certainly thought she did not want to get her insurance involved since she hit me. So, I just said "Well, you hit me." This triggered a response from her that I was not expecting.

"No sir, I most certainly did not. You hit me."

I could not believe that. "Are you serious?"

"Yes, you hit me and my head went back."

"How could I have hit you?"

And then, she dropped it and said "So we just let this go?"

It is amazing how we go around this world with our own versions of what happens in life. Absolutely Amazing.

5 comments:

George said...

Wow! Did you punch her in the nose? (not that that's your first instinct ;) ) I would have been ticked and either punched her or called the cops, just to teach her a lesson.

Ferdlings said...

I rear ended a guy once. And when the cop said he'd have to contact insurance and maybe go to court he said forget it and got in his car and left. The cop thought it odd too.

Chuck said...

@George - classic reference...one that I still feel bad about.

However...had she kissed me on the forehead, we might have come to fisticuffs.

But I tell you what (I love that expression), I was starting to get pretty mad at the lady. I was able to focus that energy into a 3 hour meeting back at work.

Sounds Real Good. Sorry, that had nothing to do with my comment. It was just a random "Dee's Tires" commercial that popped in my head.

Rick said...

She said her head went back - was there someone else behind her? Was she rear-ended? Just getting all geeky about the physics of it all and how her head would go forward if she rolled up on you or even if you had rolled back into her. Head going back is a hit from behind.

Was her head facing forward like most humans?

My word verification is "ballsit" - just had to let you know.

James said...

The last time I was rear ended was by a young girl in her mom's Audi. She cried and cried and since she had insurance I and the cop gave her a break and the cop tore up the ticket. Then her insurance company contacted me and reported that she said that I had backed into her! When will people start taking responsibility for their rear ends?