I want to blog on Code Camp and my presentation, but need to get my car accident out of the way first.
It started snowing mid-day here in Vermont on Friday, just about the time I planned to head out. The weather forecast looked no better toward Boston, plus there were the mountains to contend with on the way. When it snows here it always snows more heavily in the mountains to the east and south. I wanted to get an early start, but you know how it goes when you plan to leave early on a workday; something always comes up out of the blue and screws up your plans. So I got a later start than I planned.
About 70 miles outside of Boston I was in the mountains of New Hampshire on I-89 with my PocketPC in my hand, going through my presentation as
I blogged I would do. Then suddenly I was experiencing one of those moments in time as I was spinning out of control at 60 miles per hour. I don't know how much distance I covered during those seconds, but the guy who immediately stopped to check on me said, "it was scary as hell watching you spin around like that."
Funny, inside of that spinning Passport I remember the sense of calm, complete calm really, waiting for the inevitable. Then the shock of hitting the 4 foot snow bank brought me back to reality, at which point I was grateful to be able to get out of the car and survey the damage: a crumpled front fender and rear panel on the driver's side of the car. The tail light was hanging by a wire and steam was rising from the front of the car where the impacted snow was melting against the engine block.
Procedures kicked in. A tow truck stopped and after a lot of radio chatter with base camp pulls me out of the snow. I hand him my AAA card and sign a form in the cab of his truck. Then the New Hampshire cop arrives. "Just think how much farther down the road you would've been if you weren't going so fast?" he says as he looks at the damage. "Gee, I don't know. How far do you think, asshole?"
An hour later I was on my way, amazed the car was still driveable. Considering the force of the impact I never would have thought it to be. My objective was to make it back to Vermont, even though I was closer to Boston than to Burlington. I needed to get my ass and my busted-up Honda back home. Three hours later I pulled into the garage, had a couple of bourbons and hoped for a fresh perspective in the morning.
Around 11:00 AM I knew I was going back to Boston. My car got me home the night before, so after I looked it over, attached the tail light with a bungee cord, I figured it was good to go. I stayed around to watch the University of Vermont beat Northeastern in the America East Championship basketball game and I was off to try again. The snow was still falling and the roads were worse than the night before, but I was driving twenty miles an hour slower this time and driving during daylight hours rather than at night.
Its Monday now with the weekend behind us. My presentation seemed well received and it was a very positive experience. My Passport came through, got me down and back. Here it is resting outside of the Microsoft New England office building in Waltham. You can click on the photo to see an enlarged version.
