Honda vs the racoon on steroids and the outcome.....

For those of you who don't know, I now drive a 2005 Honda Accord EX (with butt warmers!!). She's a real beauty and my first "real" car. Now don't get me wrong all my cars up until this point have been very faithful. Hmmmm maybe I should fill you in on my car history....

My "first" car, an Eagle Summit aka the "Tootsie Mobile" (a hand me down from my parents), was a great run around car, until the crank shaft bolt fell off and she sounded like she'd explode at any minute. This little factor caused my parents and I to get my VERY FIRST brand new car! My 1999 Dodge Neon was my first car and the love of my life for a while...until I was in an accident and didn't "feel" safe in her anymore. Then came the 2001 Kia Sephia (my next brand new car), the "Lemon" model of the Kia's...need I say more (they stopped making them the year after I got mine)? In all actuality, she was a good car. She got a new transmission the 1st week I had her (I later found out that it was a rebuilt one) and after 7 years of faithful performance, the transmission locked up. Now, had I had the transmission flushed and taken care of her with routine maintenance, I'm sure I'd still have her. But alas I didn't have the $2800 to put into getting her fixed and sold her to someone who did. Luckily for me, I had my Father's 1999 Plymouth Breeze to fall back on. Now, Dad's car (I acquired her after he passed away. I had a lot of his personal belongings to tote home and couldn't afford to rent my own personal jet) had over 123,000 miles on her and I noticed on my way home from PA that even with the petal to the metal I was only going 60 MPH (that wasn't a real comfort to me). In May I needed to make another trip to PA to get more of Dad's things and figured that the Breeze probably wouldn't make it. So I started car hunting. After changing my mind a million times and probably driving my friends up the wall (I had to keep them informed of every car I was looking at and all the goodies it had), I finally found my 2005 Honda Accord at Priority Honda in Chesapeake, VA. I LOVE my car. She's silver with a V6 engine, leather interior, and a 6 CD changer. Praise the Lord, she's dependable!!

Now that I've got my history of automobiles I've owned, I can get to the heart of the story. So anyways, it was last Wednesday night. I hadn't had a great day, not at all. I was feeling pretty lousy, crying, and to boot, it was raining. I was about 3 miles from my house when all of a sudden this raccoon ran out in front of me. Now I thought to myself "Praise You Lord, look at that raccoon" (I've lived out in the "country" for 3.5 yrs now and this is the second raccoon I've seen alive...). Mr. Raccoon decided to turn around in front of the other car beside me and run back my way and stop.... Well, you pretty much know what happened, I heard "whack" and then felt my back tire go "bump"... Seeing my 2ND raccoon alive was pretty short lived. So by that time, I was feeling even crappier.

I pulled into my drive way and got my mail. I decided I'd check to see the "ding" the raccoon left in my bumper. If ONLY it had been a ding!! Oh no!! Let me tell you what Mr. Raccoon did to my bumper. He put about a 5 in tear in it, pushed it in and down, and caused part of it to scrape the ground (luckily my friend pulled that part off for me or it would have driven me up the wall). The raccoon on STEROIDS had decided to hit MY car!!! I calmly got back into my car, thinking "God, You've got to be kidding me", and pulled up about 5 ft and parked. I then proceeded to get out of the car and check the damage again (I thought maybe I was hallucinating the first time...I wasn't).

I called my friend and let her know I was home safely and about my run in with the coon (at this point I wasn't mourning his loss as much) and realized I'd have to file an accident report for insurance reasons (being a dispatcher is very helpful at times). So I called my local sheriff's office and was told a trooper would call me soon. The trooper called, told me to meet him at the sheriffs office in a half hr, and he'd fill out the report. The report took all of 10 minutes to complete and I was on my way home again.

By the time I pulled into my drive way I was chuckling. It was kinda like my "too stressed to be blessed or too stressed to be blessed" blog day. I thanked God that I was safe and that I hadn't hit a deer or a bear. I wasn't hurt, my car still ran, and I was thankful. I was a little concerned about what this would set me back cost wise. I couldn't remember what my deductible was and I had just put one on my insurance due to the new car (full coverage). I figured I'd deal with that when the time came.

Fast forward to Friday morning (my in between day. I don't have to go to work until 7:30 pm that evening). I went to Farm Bureau and filed a claim. They took pictures and gave me the greatest news possible at that moment....I DIDN'T have a DEDUCTIBLE on my comprehensive insurance. Praise the Lord! It wasn't going to cost me anything. I could have cried. I couldn't have been more thankful to Him. Just when I think it's going to get bad, He's there helping me. Thank You God! So the good news is, I'm in good health, I have the check from Farm Bureau and I'll have my new bumper next Thursday (there was a mix up in translation. The auto body shop thought I still hadn't talked to my insurance agent). And a little piece of advice...avoid raccoons on steroids! Until next time, FROG....