gerisullivan | Learning something new every day

AKA "I love my car, chapter the manyeth"

I'm fine. I'm bemused and bewildered to report that my car is fine, too. I can't speak for the deer.

I hit a deer, or rather, a deer moved into the side of my car as I was driving along Hwy 20 toward Sturbridge tonight. I saw the doe just before impact and had my foot on the brake pedal; I was probably going 40-45 mph at that point.

There was a loud bam-thud sound upon impact, but that and having seen the deer is the only evidence I can cite. I'll look again in daylight, but I've looked 4 times under various lights already and my car shows no sign whatsoever that it came into contact with anything, let alone an adult doe. There's no difference in how it drives or handles, either. Not that I could tell tonight, anyway.

I grew up in Michigan and lived in Minnesota for 25 years. The possibility of hitting a deer is never far from my mind. Before hitting one at interstate speed in November '97, I always thought the first thing I'd have to do was to regain control of the car. The surprise that time was that I never lost control. I loved my car then, too, and was ever so thankful that the destroyed windshield held together under the impact of the deer hitting full-body directly in front of my face. Still, there was no question that I'd hit a deer, and a couple thousand dollars worth of damage came with the experience.

I didn't lose control tonight, either. But it never occurred to me that my car could sustain that kind of collision without showing a single sign of it. Color me surprised...and grateful.