Inexplicable

Have you ever done something completely stupid and not had a good reason at all to explain it? It does not happen to me that often (thankfully); however, on July 5th it did. We had a wonderful day of being out on a boat with some friends and we all got sunburned (oh no - that is not it!!). We had fun on this banana tube that we took out. It was pretty awesome. Of the guys, I think I fell off the least frequently (brief moment of bragging). We had a lot of good laughs during the day as our children and wives also rode the tube. Good company and good times.

We were just about to leave, but we pulled into one of the parking lots to wait for the boat to be all ready to take off. We would be going to a nice quiet dinner on the way home and laughing about all of the fun we had just had. I found an appropriate parking place and started pulling in. Somehow, I got my pedals confused (you totally see where this is going) and pressed on the gas when I thought it was the brake. Basically, I rammed the car that was parked perpindicular to the spot I was pulling into. I was in shock. That certainly had never happened before. I hardly believed it was really happening. I had never been in an accident before.

Luckily, no one was in the car. However, the extremely sun burned and angry fellow who owned the vehicle popped out from the other side of the vehicle and said some things I have not heard since my R rated movie watching days (I gave up that nasty habit when I was about 16). I knew I may be in for a fight so I had my kids get out of the car and beg the angry man for mercy......just kidding. Not like it didn't cross my mind though.

I figured I better get out of the car calmly and immediately let him know I was sorry and what had happened. Luckily, that did calm him down a bit and I was not planning my funeral anymore. I was trying to make conversation and asked him where he was from. For some reason I just knew he was going to say Concord, and....he did. We were 84 miles from home and hit someone from my city. I am awesome.

So, we exchanged the usual information. My writing resembled that of an extremely crippled and arthritic doctor because I was so shell shocked. I think he actually started feeling really sorry for me by the end. We left the scene and did enjoy an enjoyale dinner thanks to some good friends.

I cannot park now without that incident (accident) coming to mind. I mentally think very hard about which pedal my foot is on. It was very fun explaining the circumstances to my insurance company. They were nice and said it happens all of the time. How nice are they?? I also loved receiving the letters from both insurance companies saying I was at fault for the accident. I hope they did not spend too many man hours on that investigation!?

I learned a lot from that experience:

1. Don't be an idiot.
2. Don't be stupid.
3. Don't hit angry sunburned people.
4. Brake is on the left and gas is on the right.

That's all for now - enjoy your day knowing you're not as dumb as me!