Not So Funny

It starts out funny. Lars, my son, and I had a very rocky summer last year. He decided (some months earlier) that while living under my roof and eating my food and driving my car and using my support for travel trips was OK, the expectation of following my rules was not. So he picked the one and discarded the other. Actually, it didn't start out funny at all.

By June, I fully realized the discord in his choices. An ultimatum was given and rejected. The result of the 10 minutes that followed his rejection included calls to dispatch and my chasing him across the neighbor's field. In the end, I was slow and he was fast. That's the last time he lived in my house. For the record; after some subsequent rebuilding of our relationship he was given the opportunity to come back but he chose to stay where he was.

The funny part is this (and funny is the wrong word; what I really mean is something closer to charming); a few weeks later he bought his first car. What I found charming was that he bought a car his old man would have bought, an '89 Mercedes 300e. I soon became very grateful that my belief in quality cars somehow made it through his thick skull.

The next morning, while driving through the southwest section of the state, he called to tell me he had been in an accident. He called at about 7:15 in the morning. He had driven down to Beloit to visit his girlfriend and, after leaving very early in the morning to make it back in time for work, fell asleep while driving. He was only about 15 miles from home and in a light residential area. The car drifted to the right, angled down a moderate ditch embankment, and smashed into a 1 1/2' high driveway culvert that was built up to bridge from the road to the actual driveway.

He must have been going pretty fast. I'd guess it was between 45 and 55 mph. The impact sheared off the front undercarriage and the angle of the drive shot the car up into the air. The front bumper clipped off a small pine about 15' above the ground while the impact of the tree slowly flipped the car over the remainder of its trajectory so that, by the time it landed, it hit on its driver's side.

He wasn't wearing a seatbelt. It was a major accident which totaled the car. This was one of those game-changer deals. He walked away with a 1/4 blister on his left hand where some of the powder from the air bag landed. I don't mean to be dismissive about God's care and providence but I am grateful that my son was driving that car on that day.

Buy good cars. Buy your kids good cars. Encourage them to buy their own good cars. Lars' car still sits on my property and the wind blew the tarp off it the other day. I went up on the ridge and re-attached the tarp. The car is ugly, broken, useless, and sitting with weeds growing around it. I have rarely seen something as beautiful.