A few weeks ago, in the morning, I was on my way to work, RR Pkwy for those of you in the know and the person in front of me stopped, I did not stop in time, engaged the brakes, but still rear-ended him. The airbags deployed and then there were flames.

I got out of the car in plenty of time, grabbed my laptop bag, but my phone, my poor wonderful Droid, was not so lucky. I exited the car and watched the flames get higher and higher and higher and eventually… a big ball of orange with black flames that climbed high into the sky.

Captain C or H, my apologies to the traffic dude… announced there was a Car-B-Q on RR Pkwy that morning [and I thought I had coined a phrase of my own] and to take an alternate route.

I watched the fire fighters put out the fire and the tow truck operator load what was left of my be-be onto his flatbed and shovel the charred remnants onto the truck, then drive away.

I was able to call someone by searching my work e-mails for auto-signatures with cell phone numbers, realizing just how dependent we are on our cell phones!

I got to work eventually and heard about a lot of people who were late to work because of me, I was famous. When they found out it was me, I think they took back the things they grumbled about having to detour. I publicly apologize to anyone who I knew I’d made late, I felt really bad!

So…I have MILD whiplash, which is getting better every day, I only took a muscle relaxer the first night, was not fully functional the next day, so no more of those.

The next day, while speaking with the adjuster, he asked me if she, the car, had heated seats, I said “well, yesterday she did”. I get to make jokes.

So, in closing, I am 100% fine, my car, sadly is not. Annie was such a great car, many happy memories, I still remember the day I brought her home, August 18, 2003, they opened the J E show room doors and we drove out. She had just passed 116,000 miles and had had a service completed. Those who know me, know how particular I am about where I park, even one of the firefighters said she looked brand new, as she was going up in flames. I got at least two complements on her condition every month, a very proud momma!

Goodbye Annie. I will treasure you forever.