It was totally my fault, as I hit a fairly stationary curb.

NO – this isn’t a picture of my wreck. I put this one in so that the owner of the Ford I did wreck would maybe think, “Hey, at least it wasn’t that bad.”

Today HAD to be perfect. It was our first day bringing kids to Glorieta Camp for our first year. I was chosen to drive someone else’s car – as it sat more kids – to help bring the kids to camp.

I was on my way to the office to pick the kids up, adjusting the mirrors, the seat, the radio, getting use to things.

Somehow, I’ve no idea how, the curb jumped out of the right hand lane and hit the front passenger’s side tire.

Ugh! I felt sick. I figured it must have blown the tire, as the steering wheel went weird. It would be embarrassing to call and let everyone know why I was going to be late, so I was hoping to jump out and change the tire ASAP. I’d have to buy a tire and talk to the owners later, but that was doable. Unfortunately, it was worse than I thought.

When I tried to get off to the side of the road the Ford Explorer wouldn’t move.

I got out. The tire looked fine.

I looked closer. The wheel looked fine.

All I knew was that things must be worse than I thought.

Upon looking closer yet, I saw that the axle had popped out of the transmission. Double Ugh. I asked myself, “myself” I asked, How could the axle fall out from hitting a curb?”

It was worse than I thought.

The lower control arm had broken. If you don’t know what that is, it’s bad. But it was about to get worse.

I had to call Sue, our Children’s Director and let her know that the kids waiting for me weren’t getting their ride. She wanted to know why. I wanted to answer. “You see Sue, there was this semi that ran me off the road into a curb.” I so wanted to lie. Thankfully, Sue had an emergency list of other drivers and cars. Go Sue! But for me it was only going to get worse.

I was hopelessly stuck in the middle lane, with speeding cars on Southern Blvd weaving around me. A passer-by called the cops to help direct traffic. I called AAA. No one hit me. But I had another call to make. To the owner of the car.

Clay the owner was more understanding than I might have been, and it was great to have that call behind me. But, I still had an hour to wait for the wrecker. Plenty of time for things to get worse.

When you do something exceedingly stupid, wouldn’t you like to do it in solitude? Southern Blvd is not a street of solitude.

Enough neighbors and church folks either saw me and/or stopped to try to help that I figured I’d better get this out there. People are starting to call. Ugh.

I’m not sure what was hurt more. The Ford or my pride.

Sure hope this doesn’t get worse.

Humbly, Dan