Yesterday afternoon we went to see a movie with friends. As we drove around the movie theater parking lot, we first spotted a group of women climbing into a car, and then immediately spotted an open spot directly across from them. Naturally, the open spot won, so Richard started to pull in, only to realize that the person in the car next to that spot had yet to close their door. So he stopped, halfway into the spot, waiting for the door to shut, when suddenly there was a substantial jolt in our car.

At first I thought Richard had hit the brakes really hard, but then I realized that no, we’d actually been hit. By this time the car door was shut by what turned out to be the very friends we were supposed to meet for the movie, so Richard pulled completely into the spot, and we got out to inspect the damage. The driver of the car we’d seen earlier, with all the women climbing in, apparently did not look first before she pulled out, or else Richard’s car was just in her blind spot, but she’d managed to smash the right side of her bumper into the left side of his.

Luckily they weren’t going very fast at all, so no one was hurt, and aside from a bit of an adrenalin rush on the part of most of us involved, everyone was very good natured about the whole thing. Richard and the driver exchanged insurance information, and I and one of the passengers of the other vehicle whipped out our digital cameras and took pictures of both cars to chronicle the damage. Ah, the wonder of modern technology that I now carry that thing with me at all times! And then once we’d all laughed about it there was nothing left to do but for them to go on their way and for us to go off to see our movie.

Accidents are never fun, but really, there are so many worse ways for them to happen. If the car *does* have to collect a new ding or dent, I’d much rather it happened this way – with slow moving cars and no injuries – than on the road where someone could be hurt, or worse.

This has been an entry for Alphabytes.