Not your average Friday

There's no good way to say this....I am now a murderer. Although, I still do think that goose was a bit suicidal.

I was driving to work this morning around 7:30. I was probably 5 minutes from work, driving through Pascagoula, MS when I noticed a couple of geese in the median of the highway. They looked happy enough, pecking around at the ground on this gloomy morning. But this goes to show you that maybe people (or geese in this case) look or act happy on the outside, but maybe aren't really all that happy. For this goose, today was the end. Today was the day that he/she chose to end it all. This goose took off to fly (they're not such graceful taker-offers) but didn't quite clear my car on the ascension. ***WHOMP*** (this said in the James-style) Of course, at any anticipation of impact or something flying at you causes one to squish down in their seat & tightly shut ones eyes!! This reaction in and of itself could have really been bad!! But when I opened my eyes, the entire driver's side of my windshield was busted! There was even glass on my dash!

I have never been in an accident, other than a little love tap of a bumper at a rolling stop about 8 years ago, so needless to say - I was very very shaken up. The crazy thing about it was I didn't stop. The whole rest of the way to work, I had my hand over my mouth in shock, I was shaking, and kept trying to figure out if I should have stopped, but if I stopped, what would I do....give mouth to beak? I mean - I don't have a clue where the goose even went!? And there's really nothing to stop for. I doubt that the police would need to fill out a report or notify the goose's next of kin (I am betting that its next of kin was the other goose on the scene of the accident). As I kept driving, more glass shards were falling on my dash.

The only other thing to do at a scary time like this? Call the husband & cry like a baby!! I called Jim on his cell phone and he didn't pick up - Now what?! So I did something that I have only done one other time since he started his orthopedic surgical sales rep job...I paged him. Jim knows that something has to be awfully wrong for me to page him, so he returned my call right away & was definitely worried that something was very wrong. He was very relieved to know that I was only calling to report a suicidal goose & a busted windshield!! So I cried & blabbed for a couple of minutes until he told me that he had actually left a surgery to return my page. What a sweetheart! And that, my friend, is why you should never ever page to find out what is for dinner every night. Then they'll never think your page is an emergency! :) He takes such good care of me - he calmed me down & made me feel much better about the situation.

So the rest of the day included many phone calls from my coworkers who also park in the same lot as I do. I think they thought I committed a hit & run on the way to work - hee hee hee. I guess in a way, they were right! More so, people were calling to see if I was ok, see if I needed a ride or to see if I was shaken up. After I got over the initial shock & scare, I was able to laugh about it a little! Although, I wasn't quite ready for Jim's call to me this afternoon that began with "Hey Goose Killer!" Grumpy.

I called my insurance company, they told me I had no deductible for windshield replacement (WOOHOO!) and I got in touch with a great company in Mobile to do the work on the same day. I was worried to drive my car all the way back to Mobile with the windshield in its condition, and the speed of the highway & wind did cause some additional shards to fall on my dash - but I made it. I had a brand new Volkswagen windshield in 30 minutes! No money exchanged, no forms to fill out, no feathers to pluck.

Not bad for a Friday, huh?