Welcome to rural America
I went through an initiation rite of sorts tonight: I hit my first deer.
Sarah and I were on the way back from Lucinda's where we'd taken in "Survivor." There's nothing overtly theological about the show... we clergy-types just enjoy letting our hair down and watching some light TV. Survivor Night fits the bill for us.
We were halfway between Litchville and Marion when we hit the deer. Or, as Sarah pointed out, the deer hit us. He (she?) was in the ditch on the right side of the road, and both Sarah and I saw him. It was clear he intended to run across the road. There was no one coming in the other lane, and I swerved to the left, hoping to avoid the deer. I slowed down, but didn't slam on the brakes... didn't want to lose control of the car.
Unfortunately, the deer came too fast for me to avoid, and it ran into the side of my car.
In retrospect, that's pretty scary to me. Sarah was sitting on that side, with no big hood and engine block to protect her. If it had been a buck with big antlers, that could have been really, really bad. Yeah. I don't even want to go there.
As it turned out, the deer must have hit the side view mirror, because the mirror was a little less dusty on its tip than elsewhere. Otherwise, there were only two scratches about an inch in length on Sarah's door, about midway down. No dents, no blood, nothing broken. Nothing worth reporting to the police. I was relieved and amazed that the damage was so minimal; I'm afraid the deer was much worse for the wear than my car is. =(
But, by God's grace, Sarah and I were able to continue our conversation more or less uninterrupted all the way back to Litchville. Minimal damage to the car. More important, absolutely no damage to her whatsoever, aside from our shared regret at having just killed a deer, however unintentionally.
I expect this won't be the last time I hit a deer. I can only hope any future incidents turn out as "well" as this one did.
Sarah and I were on the way back from Lucinda's where we'd taken in "Survivor." There's nothing overtly theological about the show... we clergy-types just enjoy letting our hair down and watching some light TV. Survivor Night fits the bill for us.
We were halfway between Litchville and Marion when we hit the deer. Or, as Sarah pointed out, the deer hit us. He (she?) was in the ditch on the right side of the road, and both Sarah and I saw him. It was clear he intended to run across the road. There was no one coming in the other lane, and I swerved to the left, hoping to avoid the deer. I slowed down, but didn't slam on the brakes... didn't want to lose control of the car.
Unfortunately, the deer came too fast for me to avoid, and it ran into the side of my car.
In retrospect, that's pretty scary to me. Sarah was sitting on that side, with no big hood and engine block to protect her. If it had been a buck with big antlers, that could have been really, really bad. Yeah. I don't even want to go there.
As it turned out, the deer must have hit the side view mirror, because the mirror was a little less dusty on its tip than elsewhere. Otherwise, there were only two scratches about an inch in length on Sarah's door, about midway down. No dents, no blood, nothing broken. Nothing worth reporting to the police. I was relieved and amazed that the damage was so minimal; I'm afraid the deer was much worse for the wear than my car is. =(
But, by God's grace, Sarah and I were able to continue our conversation more or less uninterrupted all the way back to Litchville. Minimal damage to the car. More important, absolutely no damage to her whatsoever, aside from our shared regret at having just killed a deer, however unintentionally.
I expect this won't be the last time I hit a deer. I can only hope any future incidents turn out as "well" as this one did.
posted by Bob at
8:43 PM
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