Paintball

Saturday October 1, 2011

Derek was invited to a paintball birthday party. It was his first time playing paintball and he was very excited. The place was about an hour away, but it was a beautiful day for a drive.

It took some time to get everyone organized and then there was an orientation before getting started. There were several fields of play. I stayed and watched a couple of games. The kids were having a blast.

I went home for a few hours and then returned to get Derek. When I came back there were a couple of private school short buses picking up kids. The buses were facing me and blocking the one way gravel drive. I made eye contact with the driver of the first bus and he started to pull forward and past me on my right. I turned my attention to the second bus and tried to figure out what it was doing. I realized it wasn't going to move so I made a quick turn to the right to pull around him on his left when I heard the grinding sound of metal on metal. It turns out the first bus pulled up, but only far enough so it was in my blind spot as I was paying attention to the second bus. When I turned to get around the second bus, I clipped the rear bumper of the first bus. Grrrrr! What a way to ruin a perfectly nice day.

Derek was waiting with his friends and heard the scraping sound. His friends said something about someone really screwing up their car. Derek later told me that he was so proud when he told his friends, "That's my Dad."

I parked the car and made my way up the gravel road to Derek's group. The bus drivers looked like teenagers. They were out surveying the damage when I walked up. They wanted to give me the good news that I had not damaged the bus in any way. I mumbled something acknowledging that it was my fault and walked away.

In spite of my screw up, Derek had the best time and hasn't stopped talking about paintball.

My car is almost 18 years old and has been on borrowed time for awhile, so the damage is more annoying than anything else. I've been waffling back and forth for years about getting a new car, but just can't pull the trigger when I look at the cost. This incident adds fodder to my waffling, but in the end the damage is just aesthetic. The car still drives fine. The best case scenario has always been that the car lasts long enough for Derek to drive it in 4 or 5 years, but I readily accept that something could go wrong at any time causing me to finally toss in the towel - just not yet.