When I was home on maternity leave with Luke, Tay was 3 years old. Rob was home from work one day so I decided that Taylor and I would go spend some Mommy-Daughter time together while the boys hung out at home.
She was, obviously, strapped safely into her car seat, in the backseat of Rob’s red car. As we were driving, about three blocks from home, Taylor started to cry and yell as only a three year old can do. I turned around to see what was wrong. Much to my surprise, and annoyance, she was OUT OF HER CAR SEAT!
First of all – how the hell did she get herself out??
Secondly – WHY was she out?
I pulled over to a screeching halt on the side of the road!
Let’s be honest – it may have been ME screeching, not the brakes!
I turned around and asked her what was wrong and WHY she was out of her seat!
She told me that there was a spider in the back seat and pointed her little finger at …. some dirt that looked like it could have come out of the tread of her shoe!
She disagreed and insisted that it was a spider.
A spider that neither of us could locate.
I was flustered by the fact that she was able to escape from her seat so easily as I strapped her back in to safety. I pulled out of my spot along the side of the road and ….
I realized, WAY TOO LATE, that I had pulled out of my spot on the side of the road without looking in my mirror.
As a natural consequence to that stupid choice, I hit…. A CITY BUS!
Holy crap! So I pulled back over to the side of the road.
Of course, the bus was full of people who all saw my audition to Canada’s Worst Driver! I hung my head and walked out of the car and up to the door of the bus.
Luckily, the driver had a sense of humour and said, “You know – if you want me to stop, all you need to do is wait at the side of the road?”
Ha ha.
Did you know that when a bus is in an accident, everyone has to get off the bus and wait for another one to come and continue their route? How embarrassed do you think I was?
Eventually a new bus arrived and, of course, the police officer who was investigating the accident.
We went over our versions of the events. Of course, both myself and the bus driver had the same account.
I was parked on the side of the road. He was coming up the street and I pulled out and crashed into the side of a very large city bus, giving our red car a lovely grayish-white pinstripe all along the side. There was no noticeable damage done to the bus.
When the officer asked me how it was possible to pull out and hit a bus, I thought I would give it a try.
My response?
“I looked before pulling out but the bus was in my blind spot.”
He looked at me as if he wanted to do a roadside eye test and wrote up the ticket.
Lesson learned? ALWAYS use your rear and side view mirrors before pulling out of your spot because bus racing stripes are not as cool as they sound.
Life with Clark and Coco 