Hmmm, you don't say... (deer followup)

Check out this link: CNN story about Top 10 states for auto-deer collisions

It basically says it all. So Pennsylvania has a super, flaming, assload of accidents due to collisions with deer. Number one in the nation between July 1, 2004 and June 30, 2005. Huh. Ain't that a surprise...

And, on the deer carcass damage front, there is good news. The following day, after the accident, I decided not to take any chances and chose to visit my favorite Jiffy Lube (as opposed to the guy's I hate). I know those guys, in particular, are not idiots (a boast not befitting many other people employed by that franchise) and decided to play it safe. That being said, I felt I still needed to wash the car one more time (that would make three for those of you who are counting), before handing the car over. So I headed over to the ducky wash to pay ten bucks for another underbody super, laser spectacular. Then right over next door to the 'lube. My Jiffy Lube guy seemed amused by my sincere attempts to wash off the gore when I told him about the carcass. I asked him to check my tranny fluid and please check the underside of the car for damage.

Personally, for he would not ask his men to do anything that he himself could not do, my Jiffy buddy (who's name, despite being embroidered on his shirt, I cannot remember. Who was that masked mechanic?) checked over my car himself. After a few tense moments in the waiting room, he asked me to come see what he had found. Fearing the worst, I followed him meekly into the mechanics' bay.

It turns out that he was worried about the crunched bumper (something I had discovered the night before). Otherwise, there was no other visible damage. When I asked him how bad the gore was, he actually laughed. He'd seen worse (?!) but that there were some serious chunks of deer wedged up under the muffler (aha, I knew that was going to happen, otherwise the muffler looked okay), and in some of the other deeper nooks and crannies. His suggestion (since he flatly stated he was not going to touch it), was to just let it rot away naturally.

Huh, rot away. Yummy. Well, at least the weather is going to turn cold soon, so maybe no one will smell it...

Anyway, that is my story. My car, after driving over a giant deer carcass at near highway speeds, turns out to be okay but gory. He told me that I was really, really lucky. He's seen cars totalled from hitting dead deer. So the moral of this story is, live deer are really bad, but watch out for the dead ones too.


Oh, and my tranny, according to Jiffy buddy, is "cherry." Apparently that is a good thing. To top it all off, there was no fee. So except for all those car washes, the accident cost me nothing. (yes, I know I have a damaged bumper, but I don't want to have my insurance rates go up if I claim it. So I am going to wait until I need to trade it in and fix it then.)

Yay, happy ending to a gory story. Goodnight.