Leo

On Sunday July 25, 2004, my car came to an untimely end. It had been having problems moving its windows up and down, but was otherwise in good shape. The convertible top was showing its age (I'd had the car just shy of ten years), but he still got me around and I enjoyed driving him.

On that Sunday I was on my way to visit a friend and driving along on the freeway. The next thing I remember was being in the hospital, specifically in an MRI machine and hearing someone telling me to keep still.

Then I fell asleep and woke up with a cop talking to me. I fell asleep sometime during that conversation, too. All told, I lost nearly four hours and don't recall any of the accident at all.

The left rear wheel came off, including the brake drum cover and all the lug bolts and nuts, leaving the axle stub spindle thing exposed. So at least everything up through and including the wheel bearing is gone.

I guess I swerved, hitting the center divider and doing minor damage to another car, but thankfully no one but me was injured. I got an egg-sized lump on my forehead (the windshield was bent toward the driver's seat) and my ribs were all squashed or something. After a week they've stopped moving individually, but it feels as if my breast bone was hit with the steeled butt of a rife.

I guess my car slid along the divider. This picture may be all you need to see.