Final Score: Deer One ... Plastic Econobox Zero

I had a very valuable physics lesson on Saturday night. I had a close encounter with, possibly, the biggest deer that I have ever seen. He ran full speed across the highway and tried to occupy the same space, at the same time as my car. The outcome was not pretty. He, miraculously, got up and ran away and I wasn't hurt either. Unfortunately, my car didn't fare quite as well.

My daily driver is a cheap, old Saturn. I bought it several years ago for next to nothing, back when I was commuting back and forth from Atlanta to North Carolina on a fairly regular basis. It has 220,000 miles on the odometer and doesn't look very good - faded paint, scratches, and lots of squeaks and rattles - but it still gets great gas mileage, and it's paid for.

Now ... Saturns are known for their plastic body panels. These panels are great for preventing dings in parking lots, but they don't fare very well in impact situations. The deer got up and ran away ... and I got a shattered fender and headlight, a cracked bumper, and a crumpled hood (which is just about the only metal body panel on the car). It isn't worth taking to a body shop so I decided to have a little fun and take a page from MacGyver. It's true ... there isn't anything that can't be fixed with a little duct tape and a big enough hammer.

:-)

If duct tape is good enough to go 200 MPH in a NASCAR race, I guess it is good enough for me. Hopefully I can find replacement parts at the junk yard in the near future, but for now, I guess this will have to do.

Until next time,

-VoR-