My Car Is Now Worth About $1.87. Including GST.

Somewhere along the line I must have deeply offended the gods of all things automotive.

It may have been in high school, when my friend Schellenboink and I followed each other through town, each driving our parents' somewhat "older" vehicles. Hers was a Chevy Caprice, I think, and mine was a 1978 Oldsmobile Omega lovingly dubbed "The Blue Hippo." We would travel along at idling speeds (passing many other drivers as we did) and laugh uproariously when the lead driver would signal a turn and then shock everyone at the intersection by turning the *opposite* way.

Or it may have been when we locked said Schellenboink in the trunk of a different car and played "guess where we are based on the movement of the vehicle."

(Why, yes, I grew up in a small town.)

Whatever the egregious offense, I am now paying for it. Repeatedly. I was involved in yet another car accident yesterday.

This one was totally and completely not my fault. (Sigh, they never are. Yet they keep happening.) I was not even in the car at the time; I was with my brood in the West Acres mall in Fargo, taking a quick playplace break. We came out to the car and I thought, "hmm, I think I know most of the dents in my car - and there are a number - but I don't think I've ever seen *those* ones." The piece lying on the ground beside my car also looked suspiciously familiar.

I called the police officer who had kindly left a note on my windshield and he informed me that a witness had reported a hit and run and they were looking for the perpetrator, but they weren't sure if the license plate number they had would turn anyone up. He also took my name and address; since I just got my new plates last week, my number isn't even in the system.

Fortunately the car sustained only surface damage, so we continued on our way. Less fortunately, The Boy decided that it was a perfect time to decorate the interior by putting a constellation on the ceiling. In marker.

It is enough to make one's equilibrium dip ever so slightly.