Erin O'Honda: Bashed in Back

Tonight poor Erin Caitlyn O'Honda got rear-ended by a big old Ford F150.  This is how it went down:  I had my Date Night with Jesus as usual for a Tuesday evening, and then I planned to stop by Richard Bonomo's house to start a new rave song on Aquinas.  So I was turning left from one main drag to another right in the heart of campus, and as anyone knows who has driven through a campus area, they are full of hazards like pedestrians and bicyclists who pay absolutely no attention to you.  A couple of pedestrians crossed the road, and then I was about to turn when a bicyclist appeared, so I stopped and BOMP suddenly I was sailing through the intersection anyway.  Luckily the bicyclist stopped, and I turned the wheel further left to avoid him and the light post and pedestrians waiting to cross in the other direction.  The dude who hit me was some white guy who looked to be not quite 30, and while I have never been in an accident before, he seemed to know exactly what to do.  We pulled over and exchanged information, and he made some comment about how he had just gotten his bumper fixed.  I looked at his bumper, which appeared completely undamaged, and then at mine, which was about to fall off, and he said, "Well, it's not as bad as yours."  I am thinking this is not the first time Mr. F150 has rear-ended someone.  Poor little Erin - what chance did she ever have against a big, mean pickup truck?  So I continued on to Rich's house, and just to add to my gloomy mood a cop followed me all the way until I turned onto Rich's street.  Usually Rich works late on Tuesdays, so I was still all set to start my rave song, but he was actually home so we ended up driving Erin to the shop, and he brought me back in the Bonomobile and will have to take me all the way home too. 

The only good thing is that Erin's maintenance light had come on recently, and I kept meaning to clean her out before taking her in, but now I was forced to take her in, messy interior and all.  She was past due for her 90,000 mile checkup, since she's almost at 100,000 miles.  She is only eleven, and my previous Honda Sydney lived to be seventeen before my friends forced me to donate her to some place that fixes up old cars.  (She was kind of being held together with duct tape at that point.) And guess what?  They couldn't fix her up so they sold her for parts, but she still got me a sweet little tax write-off.  Good old Syd, a reliable friend to the end.  (I bought her from Tiffy.)  And Sydney had to live outside in the elements, but Erin has her own underground parking space so I figured she would live even longer.  (True story:  the first time I got a property tax bill, I did not realize they would send a separate one for the parking space, which I opened first.  Then I thought, "How can people complain about property taxes?  $33 a year sounds awfully cheap to me.")  So Erin is now at the shop for her 90,000 checkup billed to me and some body work to be billed to Mr. F150.  Fortunately I take the bus to work, so this won't affect my life too much.  Not as much as the fact that they are digging up the pedestrian/bike path I use to walk home on these beautiful spring days, but that is another story. 

Famous Hat