national take your girlfriend to work day

yesterday marked the second annual take-your-girlfriend-to-work-day. Last year I was working on my thesis and spent the day in the corner of a tiny trailer on Andrew's boss's property. There was no heat and very little light. I froze and my brain shut down. Then we went home.

But this year, I got to tag along on a site visit. We hopped in the car and spent the better part of the morning driving through the mountains to the rugged Sonoma coast. We headed north for nearly an hour more before I dropped Andrew at the site and headed a few miles in the direction we had just come from: south to salt point.



I plunked around through the trees and down to the rocky shore, where time, salt and water has eroded the surface of the rocks. I watched the turkey vultures soar on the currents, the gulls resting. Abalone shells everywhere, deep blue water, mussels on the rocks.



It seemed like only minutes had passed since I left Andrew to his work, but as I looked at my watch, I realized I might be late in getting back for lunch. I clamored up the cliff side, camera and new found treasures in hand, back towards the car. I would be on time after all if I hurried.

I turned on some Otis Redding and started back northwards. Until I hit a dear. I saw it fast enough to slam on the breaks, hitting it at a fairly slow speed dead-on. I sent it flying into the trees like a cartoon character, legs splayed out. There was no place to stop, and I was well into a blind curve, so I drove away slowly, listening for scraping, dragging, general malfunction, but heard nothing. I pulled off at the next turnout and inspected the damage. No flat tires, no broken lights, deer hair caught under the crunched hood.

Nothing I could do. The deer was gone, the car's nose slightly smaller and bumpier than it was seconds before. I was going to be late.

But, fortunately, Andrew was late in getting out of his meeting as well. I waited and stewed and tried to read. Then I met the contractor and toured the project site.

For some reason I felt fortunate for the luck of having had enough time to brake. fortunate the car was still drivable, that the airbags didn't go off, and happy I was safe.

The rest of the day was fairly uneventful: lunch on the rocks, curvy drive back to the office, and calls into the insurance company. Then it hit me, $500 deductible. surely more than $500 worth of damage. Trucky wouldn't have bat an eye at that deer, but little Ollie couldn't take the impact. Back to the shop for hood #3.