All Gadgets Aside...

Last Thursday was supposed to be a great day. I had been planning for a couple weeks to do myself and the world a favor by buying a scooter. (How does a scooter save the world? 85 miles per gallon, that's how.) So I left work early last Thursday to head up to the local Scooter dealer, Scooterville, to pick up a scooter that I had my eyes on. It was a beautiful day, a perfect one for cruising on a scooter especially for the first time. I hopped on the highway as I usually would and started on the river of asphalt towards my destination. I had no idea that anything special was to come of my drive. I didn't get very far. I was driving north on 35w (now famous for the bridge collapse that happened last year) towards Minneapolis as I normally would any afternoon afterwork only there was less traffic at the time being it was the middle of the day. I was behind a Semi Truck that was hauling a load of stacked flattened cars that appeared destined for recycling or a scrap heap. Nothing seemed out of place or unusual but as I passed under the highway 62 bridge going over 35w I was immediately greeted on the other side by a horrific sight. As if I was in the movie Final Destination 3, in a split moment a very large and extremely heavy piece of steel came right through the windshield of my car. It ripped out the center console, stereo and all and landed on my seat narrowly missing my leg by an inch. Right away I knew the piece of steal came somehow from the Semi in front of me. I tried to pull myself together as much as possible through the ridiculous adrenaline rush by honking my horn, the horn no longer worked. The Semi didn't pull over immediately so somehow I managed to follow it a couple hundred feet until he did. In the meanwhile additional glass that hadn't exploded all over the car was continuing to fly into the car because the windshield wipers were permanently stuck on. Once we managed to get over to the side of the road all I could do was get out of the car, throw my keys at the ground, yell obscenities, and shake off what glass I could (I was covered head to toe in glass). As it turns out the Semi was overloaded and too tall to fit under the bridge. It had nailed the bridge as it passed underneath and knocked a steel drain loose and that's what went through my car. The rest of the of what happened is trivial but here is the sight that I could do nothing about but stare at in disbelief:





At this point I don't know what to do. I almost got killed, in fact I was inches from it. It seems that people around me are great and full of support. The people that I am seeking for help don't seem as helpful as they should be though and I feel like I am lost. The whole thing hurts, the car was only a few months old and frankly I don't know where I am going anymore. Help? I guess that's all I can ask for.