Objects in mirror are closer than they appear

I have no luck when it comes to cars. Scratch that, my cars have no luck.

Last night my Mom backed her car into mine. In the driveway! The result of being backed into was scrapes on the passenger side going from the wheel to the back of the car.

I’ve been concerned about bumping into one of the other cars in the mornings because our driveway is so dark, the black mini-van is usually behind me, down the driveway, and the back window is usually fogged or icy. The driveway also narrows toward the end which barely allows for two cars to fit. Oh, and its 6am, so I’m wide awake.

It wasn’t even the first time that this has happened. My Freshman year of college my car stayed at home and my sister backed into it. Completely dented all around one of the front wheels. The car was older and wasn’t worth fixing. Still, my sister was so scared of my reaction I wasn’t told until right before the next time I was coming home. Try and imagine the different in anger level when your 8 year old car is hit compared to an 8 month old car.

Only one of my cars has ever been totaled. I wasn’t even in it at the time. My sister, only having had her permit for a few days took our car (it was both of ours) out with my step-dad to practice. In the neighborhood across the street a bus ran a stop sign and turned right into the car. It was entirely the bus driver’s fault (crazy side note: the bus driver was related to my dad). I wound up running to the other neighborhood only to see them attempting to drive it back. One of the saddest sights I’ve ever seen. The only bright spot was that my sister said the CD didn’t skip. It was Green Day’s Warning. From then on the car that replaced that one I referred to as mine, my sister had half and car and she broke it.

While the worst damage seems to occur when I’m not in the car I haven’t entirely avoided car trouble. Just a few weeks ago my car got a flat. That was somewhat stressful but I bought extra warranty for my tires so it didn’t cost me a dime. My real bad day happened back in high school. My car was sounding funny on the way to work. I decided to go back home and borrow one of the other cars. Something seemed wrong with that car as well on the way, but I was out of options. When I made it to work I found it had a flat tire. Fantastic. The day I broke two cars is still discussed to this day. Hey, at least I didn’t back into a parked car.