Some of you may have seen my post in the Xmas Wish List thread in the Clubhouse where I half-jokingly said that I was wishing for good trade-in value for my X. Truth of the matter is that I have been very close to trading it in for something new and more economical. Well, you could say that that just came back to bite me in the butt.

I was coming home from work this morning around 6am on southbound 280 near Page Mill Rd in Palo Alto, when a deer decided to prance across my lane. Needless to say I didn't see it until it was literally right in front of me and I made dead-center (pardon the pun) impact with it at just a hair above 65mph. I wasn't even able to touch the brake.

Both airbags deployed and I lost total road visibility as my hood flipped completely open, not to mention all that smoke from the airbag charges - btw, it's 5 hours later and I still haven't gotten that stink out of my nose.

First and foremost, I guess I should be thankful I'm okay. Due to the "give" in the deer, I wasn't forced forward enough to touch the airbag or even get a bruise from the seatbelt. Obviously, the deer didn't survive. It flew or slid, I couldn't see of course, across 3 lanes and settled in the center divide area.

Thankfully, there wasn't a car anywhere around on my side, so after a few seconds of taking personal inventory and noting the engine was actually still running, I was able to limp the car to the emergency lane while sticking my head out the window in order to see where I was going. Though I had my cell phone, I was just as happy to see one of those highway call boxes about 50 feet away, so I was able to use that.

CHP came by to take a report and the truck is now sitting in a tow yard somewhere in Palo Alto. I've already called my insurance company and have a body shop lined up to pick up the truck on Monday morning and assess the damage.

Considering this was my first accident, I guess I was a bit shocked, so I didn't really look closely at the damage. I can tell you that the bumper, grille, radiator, hood, driver's side lights and fender, will all definitely need replacing. As for other stuff in the engine bay, I'll know more on Monday. It didn't look like there was any frame or suspension damage, but it was damn dark, too.

So, I guess I'll be motoring around in a Nissan Sentra from Enterprise for awhile. One thing's for sure, I won't have to fill up the Sentra's gas tank after only 2 days of commuting. Oh, and here's the ultimate ironic note. Just yesterday, I ordered a replacement bulb for one of my PIAA foglights. Wouldn't you know it's for the passenger side light which is still intact, while the one that had the good bulb is probably in a million pieces. Hahaha!

I'm finally going to sleep now, so maybe when I wake up, I'll realize it was a nightmare and my X will be in the garage. Yah-right...