semperfiona | (no subject)

Scheisse, what a morning.

I was all excited to see snow on the ground when I got up. Rosa and I threw a few snowballs at each other before getting in the car to go to school and work respectively.

Hampton Ave was so badly jammed with traffic that it took an hour to get from my house to the intersection at Fyler (about two miles, for those not conversant with St Louis' geography). Normally I'd go another block to Scanlan before turning, but at over five minutes a block I decided to turn early and take the side streets.

At the very next corner (Clifton), I tried to stop for the four-way stop sign. Despite the anti-lock brakes (or maybe because I'm not used to them yet--never had ABS before), I started to slide through the intersection. I decided to try to turn the slide into a right turn, since that's where I wanted to go anyway. It almost worked. But instead, my momentum carried me too far forward, and I slid into the stop sign on the opposite corner. One wheel went up over the curb. I backed off, got out and looked at the car.

Everything looked fine at first glance, so I got back in and continued in the direction I had originally wanted to go. After a few feet, though, I realized there was a scraping sound coming from the front. I stopped again, got out again, and looked harder. The driver's side tire was scraping against the rear portion of its wheel well. Immediately I thought, broken axle (I'd had one in 1994).

I got back in the car and thought for a moment. Rosa still needed to go to school--only three blocks away now--and I obviously could drive the car, at least a little. I took her to her school, dropped her off with a kiss (after she got out and looked at the damage herself--curious little beggar) and borrowed the school phone to call AAA.

Waited about an hour for the tow truck, during which time the school secretary started telling me all sorts of gossip. First I asked her about Rosa's teachers, because she has had several changes in the last couple months. That led to a conversation about a new teacher who just joined. Secretary was very thrilled with this new teacher and told me several stories about how she handles the kids. "[And to think] we almost didn't hire her...a few things. One was that she has a tattoo. Gary [the pastor in charge] didn't like it." I chuckled, as you might expect. Considered showing her mine, decided against it.

Then for some reason she told me about her troubles with her daughter who got pregnant at some point. The baby was just about to be born when I noticed the tow truck drive up and dashed out apologetically to meet him.

Car was loaded up, not without a minor bit of excitement: the tow truck tried to slide down the hill! But in the end it was delivered to the body shop, and the driver took me home. I called Prudential to file the claim, talked to Ray for a little, posted a primal scream here, was IM'd by

computerchix to check on me (thanks, hon).

Still a bit stressed out, I decided to play the piano for a while. Just now I was playing a little, and the phone rang. I got up to answer it, and slid on the floor in my socks and fell down. Meh.

So *that* was the injury from my accident this morning. I bruised my foot answering a phone call from the claims agent.