September 23, 2021- At 7 a.m., this morning, I was three blocks from the place of my work assignment. Stopping at a country intersection, I found the sun glaring intensely as it came up over the horizon. I counted to five, and having looked once in each direction, proceeded northward. The screech of the tires was followed all too swiftly by the crash of the large red truck into Elantra’s rear driver’s side door. It missed me, and missed the gas tank, but airbags deployed and I crawled out the passenger side door. Elantra had met its end.

Five years ago, when my Nissan Altima, already on borrowed time, fizzled and died in front of a gas station in Newtown, CT, I was able with family help to buy a 2013 Hyundai Elantra. The intrepid little car took me across the country and back, five times. Its windows were broken out, in 2018, when someone who had been tracking me, in Montreal, wanted my nearly dead computer. Quick action by my insurance carrier got the windows fixed, and I was able to get back back into the United States with no trouble and go on to attend a major family wedding.

Elantra took me back and forth, twice, this summer alone. I may well seek to replace it with another Hyundai, once the insurance paperwork is done and the money part is settled. There was nothing more than a slightly bent bumper on the truck and the police noted the sun factor, though we all concurred that I should, somehow, have been able to see the truck coming, before entering the intersection.

Stuff happens, and each time, another lesson is registered. From now on, I will count to ten and look right and left twice, on even the most countrified of roads, as is already the practice in the city.

As for me, I am home and feeling a bit sore, but better than I was before the chiropractor treated me, this afternoon. Elantra will be missed, but it was time.