Intersection of Linden St. & Wyoming Ave. in Scranton, PA, January 5th 2005
On Wednesday evening, I picked up my pal Kim in Scranton, & met my pal Erick in the parking lot of Thomas' Market in Shavertown. I was leaving my car there in the parking lot, because we were going with Erick. After I parked, since it was snowing, I decided to move my car... and I parked it next to a pole, thinking nobody would be going near the pole and accidentally hit my car, since most people would avoid poles during a snow storm.
We returned about 2½ hours later, at about 9:15pm or 9:30pm, to find that my car had been hit on the driver's side, which was only about 3 feet from the pole!
There was no way anybody could've thought they could fit to pass their vehicle between my car and the pole. The grocery store cart return was on the other side of the pole, so they couldn't have been aiming to pass the pole on the other side either. The tracks in the snow showed that the car had turned to head towards my car & the pole! There were no other visible tracks in the snow to explain why they would've turned to head toward the pole and my car. No sign of another car being involved.
The dent in the driver's side back door of my car was not all that bad actually. But the impact of the hit caused both windows on the passenger side of my car to shatter & blow out! I'd never heard of such a thing. An impact on one side causing the windows on the other side to break. Though the Kingston Township police officer who filed the report didn't seem to think it all that strange.
But I find it a very unfortunate coincidence that a vandal had smashed out my back window just 7 months ago. (That happened in Scranton.)
Worse yet, the bastards didn't even leave a note or anything. Hit & run. The grocery store was closed at that point, so there were no witnesses to be found. I wonder if the guilty party must've hit the pole & messed up their own car. If they did, I have not one ounce of sympathy for them.
By this time the snow storm was in full swing. So I took my car to Erick's place, and we were trying to figure out some way to block the open smashed out windows for the drive back to Scranton, since it was cold, and the snow was still coming down.
My car had no window frame (the windows shut up into the car). Erick, with his hunting season beard quite full, in my opinion, should have had a roll of duct tape at least. But he didn't. And nothing was going to stick to the outside of the car. So it being an old car with a pretty messed up interior anyway, I suggested stapling the plastic bags into the window openings on the inside.
Erick & Chloe, June 2004
Erick, upon getting out his staple gun, proceeded to accidentally staple the palm of his hand! So there we were in the middle of a snow storm, Erick with a bleeding hand... It took forever to get the windows blocked.
(Note: Erick had just been in a motorcycle accident a few days before this. Earlier in the evening Erick spent 15 minutes looking for his keys before realizing they were hooked to the belt loop of his jeans. So stapling his hand just seemed a natural turn of events really. And I did insist that he should get a tetanus shot as soon as possible, but I doubt he has. So if he gets tetanus or whatever, it's not my fault.)
Intersection of Linden St. & Adams Ave. in Scranton, PA, January 5th 2005
The drive back to Scranton was rather uneventful, though very long and arduous in the snow storm, of course. My car was very good in snow, actually, and I've become quite proficient at driving in snow. Which makes it all the more irritating that my car was messed up by someone else who obviously could not drive in snow, and had a vehicle that is particularly bad in snow.
Though I have a suspicion it was someone who willfully drove toward the pole, fooling around and then lost control. As I've said, there's really no other reasonable explanation why they turned & headed towards my car. I hope this will be a warning to those people who fool around in parking lots during snow storms trying to scare their passengers by aiming towards a pole, thinking they won't lose control. I've seen people doing this, and it's plain stupid. And the fact is, most accidents in the snow happen because of carelessness & speeding of motorists in snowy conditions, and most are avoidable.
And now because of someone else's stupidity and carelessness, and deliberately & criminally leaving the scene, I'm out a great deal of money which I don't really have to spare.
Luckily my garage, Sokolowsky Bros. in Pittston, happened to have just aquired a car they'd sold 4 years ago, (same time as they sold me mine - I think I recall looking at it back then), that the woman who owned it could no longer drive, sadly because of health issues. Her misfortune was lucky for me. The car probably cost about the same amount as all the repairs my car needed (including things I was meaning to get fixed, but mostly the damage done to the car in the hit & run).
I'm still sad and pissed about my old car, since it was a good car - never had any internal organ mechanical issues at all in the 4 years I owned it, and was great in snow despite being 2 wheel drive, and fit me like a glove.
(I highly recommend Subarus. And I also recommend Sokolowsky Bros., who sell & fix used Subarus. I decided to purchase the car sight unseen, so you can imagine I have some faith in these guys.)
So I now have an almost identical car - same year, same make & model... But it has less mileage on it, is in better overall condition, obviously in better shape generally, and has ABS (which should put down my insurance). And it's 4 wheel drive, which is very useful considering the driving I do in the mountains. (It's actually "all wheel drive", which I'm told is different than 4WD.) Oh yeah, and it's a different colour. (Though as is well known, I've never really cared what a car looks like, just so long as it runs, doesn't break down, and gets me where I'm going, comfortably.)
posted by Chloe | Saturday 08 January 2005 3:47 PM
So what color *is* the car, just in case I see some car on the pipeline sometime and wonder if it's you?
Posted by Lisa | Saturday 08 January 2005 11:25PM
Holyfreakin ****!............Glad you are still in one piece Chloe....Whoever did that will get what comes around.....
Posted by Allison | Sunday 09 January 2005 1:37PM
Wow, that sucks major ass. Too bad Thomas' Market doesn't have a surveillance camera in its parking lot...you could put Big Brother to work for YOU!
I was just thinking about a time I stopped at the old Ahart's at Blakeslee Corners (before it moved diagonally to its new location) and saw a semi-demolished car sitting in the parking lot, surrounded by debris that used to be parts of the car. On a whim, I mentioned this to the customer service desk, who announced the license plate number over the P.A....and it turned out to be a rental car that belonged to a customer who had only been in the store a few minutes. So someone had crashed something huge into this woman's car, crushed half of it, and driven away, all in the past few minutes, in broad daylight, without ANYBODY noticing anything!
Posted by Harold | Sunday 09 January 2005 6:00PM
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superficiality >>If the facade is what's important to you, all you wind up with is an illusion. Disillusionment is the gift of substance.
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(more)
Ford grabbed him by the lapels of his dressing gown and spoke to him as slowly and distinctly and patiently as if he were somebody from a telephone company accounts department.
So what color *is* the car, just in case I see some car on the pipeline sometime and wonder if it's you?
Holyfreakin ****!............Glad you are still in one piece Chloe....Whoever did that will get what comes around.....
Wow, that sucks major ass. Too bad Thomas' Market doesn't have a surveillance camera in its parking lot...you could put Big Brother to work for YOU!
I was just thinking about a time I stopped at the old Ahart's at Blakeslee Corners (before it moved diagonally to its new location) and saw a semi-demolished car sitting in the parking lot, surrounded by debris that used to be parts of the car. On a whim, I mentioned this to the customer service desk, who announced the license plate number over the P.A....and it turned out to be a rental car that belonged to a customer who had only been in the store a few minutes. So someone had crashed something huge into this woman's car, crushed half of it, and driven away, all in the past few minutes, in broad daylight, without ANYBODY noticing anything!
