A Totalled Car, A Near-Kiss With a Deer, and New Parakeets

Well, I wish I had pics to post here but I need batteries for the camera first...





Friday night, after a late night discussion with my husband, I decided to go for a quick drive to a neighboring town down the freeway. I was cruising along right around 70 mph, when suddenly, right in the left lane was a deer running full tilt, not slowing down, not even noticing me cruising along full tilt. It was just there suddenly, running out of the ditch and straight into my path. I hit the brakes as hard as I could, knowing instantly that I would never avoid hitting it but just hoping to slow down the best I could so I could minimize damage to our car and me.





It was such of a scary feeling to in one instant see this huge deer coming right at me, then in a split second hitting it with such of an impact, the entire car slammed and lurched with tremendous force. I could see this huge deer airborne...imagine, going nearly 70 mph in a pretty small car...and then imagine the speed at which that deer was coming at my rider's side of the windshield. It was coming with lightning speed. It had hit the car pretty high up on the front right corner so it came slamming at the windshield extremely fast...I could see it coming through the glass....instantly following the slamming force of the car being impacted, glass was shattering in a fine shower all over me, and I could hear a howling wind and feel cold air swirling around in the car. I was in a panic because I could see the deer coming into the car! I pulled over to the shoulder, thinking, "How am I going to get this thing out of my car? I have to get to the shoulder and get out before I begin to get thrashed with the hooves!" I was looking over at the windshield, in the sudden darkness after impact, trying to see the gaping hole and see where the deer was lodged. I then noticed, as my eyes adjusted to the darkness, that the windshield was intact but the rider's side window was gone...the deer had flown into that window (I think it's head maybe) and then was gone!





I had left the house without my cell phone...something that is entirely against my grain. I had been up north Wednesday and Thursday and had lost my charger in the van and hadn't gotten around to finding it so that I could recharge my phone, so my phone was dead. I remember thinking, "Oh, I'll be fine without it!" Another thing I usually don't do when going to Walmart in this particular town is go down the freeway. There is a back road that goes directly to Walmart but this time I wanted the peaceful drive down the freeway, since it was pretty late and I knew traffic would be light. I also had this thought pass through my head as I turned in the direction of the freeway instead of the county road, "I hope I don't regret this turn..." thinking more down the line of hoping I don't get too relaxed and start speeding and get pulled over. I kept my speed at 68-70 the whole time.





After hitting the deer, I was totally in a daze, pulling onto the first exit I could, then slowly driving to the first gas station I could think of...Holiday....wondering what I do next. The whole time the wind was swirling throughout the car and I kept hearing glass shifting and settling into the door.





As I pulled into the Holiday parking lot, I saw the attendant in the gas station glance in my direction and do a double-take, staring at the car until I parked. I just sat there for a few seconds, looking at my lap full of tiny pieces of glass. I looked on the seat next to me and saw the same, my purse, which had been unzipped was full of glass, as well as the seat, the dash, the floor, the cup holders.... I tried to brush some of the glass off me, only to succeed in cutting my finger. I got out of the car and shook my pj pants off...I had taken off on a whim in my pj's (they weren't too bad though...just a long-sleeved black t--shirt and plaid cotton pants)!





I got into the gas station and asked the guy what one is supposed to do after hitting deer on a freeway..thinking that it may be still in the roadway. He went back and asked his manager, who said to call the non-emergency police to ask them. I told the guy, "The weird thing is, I think that deer ended up in my car (partially) for a moment. He said, "Yeah, I noticed it really got the side of your car too!" I hadn't even looked at the side of the car but when I went out later, I saw the whole passenger side door dented in with deer hair stuck on it. What happened is when I hit the deer on the front right corner, it was just high enough it came flying at the windshield but, I think, just as I was hitting it, I may have swerved to miss it and it was, as a result, spun around and then the front of it hit the rider's side door, bursting the window, then continued on its journey onto the freeway or shoulder. I think that deer was dead right away...there was blood and poop all over the front and side of my car.

Friday, June 11, 2010

Well, almost a week later and not even having the time or energy to recheck my writing above, I'm going to finish up and post, so pardon the mistakes or repetition of details if there are any. :)

About the parakeets:

After we posted on Craigslist that our parakeet was missing, we got many nice texts and emails, giving tips on how to find him. One email we got, though, was one woman from a town quite a ways away from here that offered to give Viva two of her parakeets because she had five and didn't have the time anymore to spend with them.

Long story short: after much communication with her, we met her in a neighboring town and she gave us two parakeets, one mainly blue and one mainly green. She also gave a small cage, many parakeet toys, a huge container of bird food, a cuttle bone, and so on. What a very nice person.

After that, Viva has been communicating with a vet tech who is going to vet school specializing in birds. She has been giving many very helpful tips (some of which have undoubtedly spared the poor newcomers much trauma and stress...maybe even their lives) on integrating them into the household. They aren't very tame yet but Viva is patiently working with them. I don't doubt a bit that they will soon be as tame as Reggie was. Something tells me this girl may very well become a vet someday.