Let’s take a trip, you and me. A little trip down a stretch of I-74 between Morton and the 474 interchange. We’ll go west at about 66 miles an hour. It’s rush hour, around 740 in the morning. All of a sudden, during our nice, relaxing drive, a giant cardboard box appears in the middle of the lane in front of us. I swerve to avoid it, then attempt to swerve back into my lane to avoid hitting the nice man in the middle lane over my right shoulder. The car begins to fishtail, and eventually does a complete clockwise 180 across all three lanes of traffic. It straightens out facing traffic just in time to see the Chevy Cobalt bearing down on the front of the car, tires billowing smoke from hard braking. It’s not enough braking. The Cobalt hits the front of the car, reversing the spin from clockwise to counterclockwise, and the back end of my Focus makes contact with the other side of the Cobalt’s front bumper. The car comes to a stop facing the correct direction in the right lane.

Welcome to my Wednesday morning. And yes, both the girl in the Cobalt (though she was crying because she was scared to death) and I are absolutely fine. I may have hurt my wrist cranking the wheel while I was trying to correct the fishtail, but that’s about it.

Update: Come to find out, I don’t have rental coverage on my insurance. I never had it before I turned 25 because it was unbelievably expensive, and even though I turned 25 over two years ago, we never bothered to put it on my policy. It’s $10 every 6 months. DOH! The Hertz at the Mark Twain has a deal with State Farm, so if I absolutely have to rent a car, it will only be $25/day instead of $60. I’ve got family members everywhere with extra cars, so I should be fine.

Update #2: Good news! My car will be drivable as soon as Troy at 150 Autobody puts a new tie rod in today. The old one got bent during the wreck. Sooo, I don’t have to worry about getting a rental or borrowing a car or getting rides! Hooray! Oh, and in case anyone was wondering, the estimate is already over $3000, and he hasn’t even pulled the bumper and fender off to see the damage underneath yet.