My tenant decided to rent a car and take a pre-Christmas holiday to Boston and New York with a friend. Great, he’s 23 and intelligent and very independent, he can take care of himself. Since he’s from central France and not very used to snow I warned him to be extremely careful on the roads and watch out for black ice and left it at that.
The weather threw everything it could at us the past five days, from
-28C/-18F, to thaw and heavy rain to refreezing ice, but hey, this is winter and he’s an adult.
Yesterday came an email saying he would return today, a day later than planned; very nice to keep me informed, I figured he was waiting out the storm. I was taking advantage of the time alone and the weird warm spell, happily re-insulating the laundry room, when he appeared at the door. First thing he said was accident. Oh no, I said, ice? No, moose.
He is well, was wearing his seatbelt and has only surface cuts to his face and hands, he had paid for insurance with the car rental so that is OK; unfortunately the moose didn’t survive but I hope the Vermont highway patrol will donate the meat to a needy family.
And he is happy to get back to my home cooking after five days, swears he’ll never eat another hamburger.
Just tell me why it is always me and my friends that find the moose.
Re: (off topic) Life careens on in its usual (never normal) way
Lol! Uninsured motorist! That is a riot!
Well, we hit a deer going 70 mph on an interstate in SC a few years ago returning home from vacation. Those animals practically fly, they are so fast. There is no avoiding them. We only saw him as he hit the front, righthand corner of the car. There was a lot of traffic, and I’ll just have to say it was the grace of God that kept us safe. We also did not have airbags at that time, and I think that also saved us. Bob would have lost control of the car for sure if an airbag had hit him in the face going 70 mph. As it was, he was able to pull off the interstate. I also felt sad about the deer, but we were too much in shock to think about trying to take it with us…it was huge (it bounced off the car and landed on the side of the road so it was not causing other cars to be at risk).
I was going to school just the other day and two deer slowly crossed an in town road near where we live. Developments have encroached on the land they used to have and you do see them from time to time. It was neat for Anna to see them, and I was traveling slowly enough to allow them to leisurely cross. That’s the way I like it!
Janis
Re: (off topic) Life careens on in its usual (never normal) way
Yep, me and my friends here too who find the deer. :D
But a moose is a *lot* bigger than a deer — the size of a cow or even a large bull. I haven’t asked him yet if the car was totalled; moose often win over cars.
True fact: Volvo in Sweden pioneered safety tests with the “moose test” — does a car remain stable on a slippery road at high speed when making a very sudden swerve to avoid the moose; this predated the present rollover tests.
So, seeing if he is well enough to go downtown to the old cathedral for the choral service tonight. Us Anglicans got the best Christmas and Easter music.
on a cold February night on his way to go snow skiing in Utah. In his words…he thought it was a dog crossing the freeway. Yeah right…I was in Mississippi at an Art show at the time and we didn’t have cell phones back then. But I flew in to be with the family and when he picked me up from the airport , he told me he had a slight problem with the van. I said..”Don’t tell me you hit a deer!” He said…”Yeah, how did you know?” I said…”Don’t ask” I had an uneasy feeling the other night that you were in trouble…I didn’t know what it was but chalk it up to mom’s intuition…
The funniest thing was the deer was considered an uninsured motorist so we didn’t have to pay for our $1000 deductible to get the van fixed…LOL