D'OH!

This post is an exercise in embarrassment for me. I'm still having trouble believing I could be so stupid!

Saturday was my dog, Rebel's grooming appointment at the PetSmart in Kitchener. There are grooming salons in my town of Guelph, which we use, but, every once in a while, we take him to PetSmart to be groomed while we shop there and at other places. I also like the salon at PetSmart because the girls who work there sincerely love animals, and never act like it's "just a job" to them. No matter who is working the counter when we arrive, they immediately start cooing over Rebel and giving him hugs and cuddles. Really lessens his separation anxiety when we leave. Because he is a Sheltie (meaning lots and lots of long dense fur) Rebel has to stay under a dryer for a long time making his grooming appointments around 3 hours in length. We had taken the whole family, so after dropping him off, doing some shopping, getting something to eat at Harvey's, we went to Chapter's and browsed the books for a while. My oldest, J, had received a Chapter's/Indigo gift card and was just itching to spend it! LOL! After a while of that, we went to do what I wanted to do. Which was find the local Mitsubishi dealership and check out the 2008 Lancer. What a dream machine! It's at the top of my list for when I can finally afford a new car again!



After drooling all over the showroom floor (not really, but...) we went to pick up Rebel and go home. On our way to Kitchener, we had passed a big open field with a very big billboard in it advertising a new subdivision with starting prices that seemed too good to be true. So, we decided that we would drive that way back to Guelph and stop and get the information from it, as it's very hard to take down a phone number and website address when passing the sign at 100 km/h (62 mph). So, we drove up the country road until we saw the billboard again. Then it happened!

Those of you readers who live in Southern Ontario will know how much snow we have here. The rest of you will just have to imagine it. LOL! It SEEMED to me that the shoulder was about 4 feet wide, so I put on my right blinker and began moving to the right. As soon as my right front tire left the pavement and touched the "snowy" shoulder, it happened. I immediately felt the van pull suddenly right and begin to tip. There was NO shoulder on that road... just a carved off snowbank along the edge. The ditch at that point was about 4 feet deep, and was completely filled with snow. Because of the salt and sand that had been put on the road, the surface of the snow looked exactly like gravel. Well, it all happened in slow motion, because I had already dumped most of my speed in preparation of a stop on a snowy surface. But the "snowy surface" didn't support any weight whatsoever, so the van slowly slid all the way into the ditch leaving the two left side tires on the road. We found ourselves sitting at a very steep angle, and well, if it weren't for the snow, we would have definitely rolled the van. But the snow had piled up against the side of the van, keeping us at a very pecarious angle, but in no danger of tipping completely onto the side. Well... that was extremely embarrassing, especially since a woman had been following us up the road and saw the whole thing. Fortunately, she stopped and, once I had struggled to open the door and clambered out of the van, offered me the use of her cellphone, which I used to call for a tow truck. Then I stood outside the van in the cold waiting for the tow truck to arrive. I was pleasantly surprised at how many people stopped and asked if we were all okay, needed help, or a phone. There is hope for humanity yet! LOL!

An O.P.P. (Ontario Provincial Police) cruiser showed up about 45 minutes later and the officer's first words to me were "Don't worry, I'll try not to laugh TOO hard!" Wonderful... now even the POLICE are laughing at me! After he confirmed the need for a tow truck (it hadn't been dispatched yet!) he then stuck around and we had a nice chat. Once the tow truck arrived, it took about 30 minutes to winch our van (a 2003 Kia Sedona... minivan, but very heavy) out of the ditch, and $80.00 later, we were on our way. It would figure that I had forgotten to renew our roadside assistance plan last fall! I never need a tow when I have a plan, but when I don't, that's when it happens!

Anyway, we all got home safely, about 2 hours AFTER we had planned to, and I just crashed for the rest of the evening. I guess I had been "high" on adrenaline and arriving home allowed the adrenaline to fade, which made me suddenly completely exhausted.

I didn't have my camera with me, or I would have taken some pictures, just to show how far over the van was leaning.

"All's well that ends well" , is the old saying, and in this case, it's very true. Because the officer could tell that I had been trying to pull off the road, and therefore wasn't speeding, and there was no damage to the van (snow is VERY soft...tee hee) he said there was no reason to even write a report of the accident. Which is a good thing, because the O.P.P. are now issuing Careless Driving tickets for single vehicle accidents requiring a police report! Also, no one was hurt, except for my pride, and having a very cold face and toes!