So it turns out material possessions don’t last. Somewhere between completely gutting and remodeling our bathroom and taking a 5 day road trip across the country this week, the Volvo got totaled because, well, we all know there wasn’t enough on the Olfelt’s plate already.
This car started out as a “we don’t care what it looks like – it just needs to drive one of us to work” investment, and we ended up getting much more for our dollar than we were ever expecting. Did it go to our heads a little bit to not be driving a trashed Kia, but rather a high mileage (which no one can see) import car? Sadly, yes. But that small moment of lying to ourselves that car brand = importance of driver was over in a flash yesterday afternoon.
Going our usual million miles an hour pace through life, Dan and I were in a hurry to get home and lay the tile on our going-to-be-beautiful bathroom floor. We didn’t get that far before a semi truck slammed on it’s brakes and Dan went barreling into the back of it, crumpling up our car’s hood while nary a scratch was left on the tractor trailer truck. Dan is fine, the airbags didn’t deploy, and I was safely in my office building at the time, waiting for Dan’s “I’m almost there” call to shut down my computer and go to the lobby.
Instead I got a “I just got in an accident” call and the night spun out of control from there. Thankfully, the car safely drove from the scene of the accident (that the semi just sped away from, by the way) to my office building where we assessed that a number of fluids were spilling from the car at alarming rates. We decided to not drive it any further, and the wait began for a tow truck (God bless you, AAA).
We got home at 7:15 (3 hours later than usual) and didn’t lay a single tile. We just heated up a frozen pizza (for times such as these) and stared at the wall thinking about the shoulda coulda wouldas of the evening. We’ll hear from the auto body shop today on how bad the damage is, but based on the price we paid for it, chances are very good that it is totaled.
It was fun while it lasted, Volvo, and your leather heated seats and side mirror defrosters were fabulous, but let’s be honest: you were too good for us all along.
So, Dan is a speed demon now? Goodness gracious. Well, I hope it all works out well and to (somewhat) empathize with you one of the windows on my car was smashed in the other day or night rather. Nothing was stolen so I’m thinking it was a random act of vandalism by the spray of glass inside the car. Thankfully, insurance covered 100% because it is glass. I hope you guys get a new auto soon.
p.s. 1 week to go. =)
So sad to hear about such a travesty! Poor Volvo. Glad that Dan is okay, and you were not in the car. I hope things work out rather easily with the insurance and with finding another vehicle. I sympathize with you on the loss of a wonderful car.
NOOOOOOOOOO!!!! I morn the loss of Scandinavian engineering in your life, but I rejoice in its safety.
[...] background: Dan’s cousin, J, happens to be a car fixing guru. We happen to have a car that needs fixing. J and his wife happen to live a little over an hour away. We offered to feed and house them for a [...]