A few weeks ago I was leaving church when my wife and I were sidewiped by an out-of-stater, who apparently thought the left lane was clear and tried to make a left hand turn right into our Taurus's passenger doors. Damn New Yorkers! So we pull to the side of the road and after confirming my wife was ok, I calmly get out and ask the driver if he's OK. I know in the past I've gotten hit and I was really ticked off, but for some reason I was at peace. Maybe the fact that I just got out of church had something to do with it, who knows?

Anyway, I then proceed to dial the Danbury police to file a report for the accident. Luckily I was carrying my Nokia N90 cellphone, which I have been meaning to review as part of the Nokia bloggers program that Andy Abramson is heading up. Side note, Corante's well-written Get Real blog has an interesting post titled Nokia N90 Blogger Promotion: On Fire and Catching Heat discussing the controvery and objectivity of bloggers that review the Nokia N90 since it's a "free phone". I wouldn't call it necessarily "free" since the phone is merely on loan.

Anyway, not wanting to dial 911 since it wasn't a "true" emergency, I decided to dial 411 from the Nokia N90 and ask directory assistance for Danbury police. The 411 operator asks me if it's an emergency and I say "no" and she then connects me to the Danbury police. The phone rings and rings and rings and no one picks up. Then I get disconnected. Wonderful. "Ah screw it, I'm dialing 911," I said to myself. So I made my first 911 call and I was asked by the operator my location. Gee, isn't that just grand? There is no e911 service for mobile phones but VoIP is required to provide e911 location? Anyway, the operator connected me to Danbury police and in less than 1 ring a police officer answered the phone, I told him the situation and they sent someone out.

Long story short, the driver who was given a ticket for an illegal and unsafe lane change. I got an estimate for the damage by his car insurance and they immediately cut me a check for around $2700. The Taurus has 150,000 miles and ironically we planned on trading it in in just a couple months for a Grand Cherokee so we could fit two adults, our two labradors, and our impending baby. Prior to the accident, we called around to a few dealers and they told us the Taurus is only worth around $500, making it virtually a worthless trade-in. So it made the most sense to not repair the Taurus, making it basically "free money" and then we used the money to help purchase a used 2000 Jeep Grand Cherokee. With all the impending expensive baby purchases, including nursery furnishings, this money definitely couldn't have had better timing. Who says it doesn't pay to go to church?

Ironically, a few weeks later (just a few days ago), I was leaving TMC's parking lot driving the banged up Taurus and a sales person flags me down after noticing the damage. I should point out that he is an atheist - which is fine with me, in fact I have a few atheist friends. I don't push my beliefs on anyone, but for whatever reason atheists I personally know never seem to miss an opportunity to poke fun at my beliefs, which does then require some "push back" on my part. That's exactly what happened with my conversation, as seen here:

He asks, "What happened?"

I tell him, "I got sideswiped after leaving church"

He smirkly says, "Thanks be to God for that, huh?" implying that God didn't help me or was somehow at fault.

I simply say "Yeah, EXACTLY! Thanks be to God. I received a check for $2700. It's free money!"

Failing in his bid to mock God, he simply shrugged and I drove away. An "open mouth, insert foot" moment for sure.