Entry: A lucky day

Today is a very lucky day. I did the usual 8-hour drive to Tampa. I have arrived safely.

Along the way, I was stuck in a traffic jam. In that traffic jam, I was unfortunate enough to rear-end a minivan full of people. Of course, it was entirely my fault and all the damage was on his vehicle and not mine. It would shock me if there a penny less than $3,000 of damage to pay for.

How is this lucky you ask?

Here are the reasons:

• I hit the guy doing 5mph. Had I not been on a traffic jam, my mistake could EASILY have happened while I was doing 70-80mph. Yes...it was THAT dumb of a mistake.
  
• The family lives in Hilton Head. We had a weird South Carolina comradery thing going on.
  
• The gentleman was kind enough to allow me to pay out of pocket. That's a very GOOD thing for me.
  

Yes....it happened. No, it didn't have to. But, if it had to happen, it couldn't have happened any better. I figure that this is a relatively cheap way to learn this particular lesson. Now, back to being poor for a while. ;)