Rant #1,684: 20,000 and Beyond

How was your Memorial Day weekend?

Mine was relaxing to the max, as I did pretty much nothing for the three days.

And that was fine with me. Sometimes, you just need some time to decompress ...

On May 29, picking up my son from work--yes, he worked this holiday weekend--and driving both of us to get a haircut, I passed a milestone on my car, and it is a very important milestone given the circumstances.

At a little after 2 p.m. in the afternoon, I passed 20,000 miles on this car, exactly two years and one day from the time I finally got this car from the dealer.

That would be a nice accomplishment as it is, but to me, it is really a time to rejoice, and also to look back at why I even have this car.

It was a rainy Saturday on May 10, 2014, and I was driving my wife and my son to a place of business where my son was going to fill out a job application. I was driving my 2008 Kia Spectre, a vehicle that I absolutely loved, one that never gave me a speck of trouble in all the years that I drove it.

Minding my own business, out of nowhere came another car, who evidently never saw us.

He t-boned my car, we spun, turned upside down and ended up at the side of the road.

Witnesses said the other driver, a young kid, went right through a stop sign, and hit us so hard that we tumbled over.

I never lost consciousness, and thank God all we had were some scrapes and bruises.

But my car was totaled, a complete wreck.

But even in its last moments, the car protected us, kept us whole.

We are darn lucky to be alive, to be honest with you.

There is no need to show you a picture of the wreck. I put up a few photos after it happened, but I would rather not do it again; bad memories, which would be magnified by seeing the smashed up car again.

Everything was settled with the other driver and the company, and insurance assessed him 85 percent liability, me 15 percent, something I still can't figure out to this day.

I was told that since I was "there," I had to be assessed some responsibility.

And you wonder why your car insurance is so high?

Anyway, I decided right then and there that since I was going to be screwed anyway--the insurance didn't give me back anything near what the car was worth to me, or to buy another decent car outright--I would not only get another Kia, because of its dependability and the fact that it protected us when we most needed it, but I would get a brand new one--because my family and I deserved it after what we went through.

I ended up purchasing a 2014 Kia Optima, a nice car that gave me piece of mind after the horrific accident my family and I went through.

It is another excellent vehicle, and after some early trepidation brought on by a mild case of PTSD, I have grown to enjoy this car.

So to pass 20,000 miles with it really is a celebration of not only this car, but also to the fact that if it wasn't for the other Kia, I wouldn't be here--or at least in one piece--to have purchased another car and made it to 20,000 miles.

There really isn't much more to say.

As I peaked at my dashboard, and I saw the 19,999 turning to 20,000, I did feel a sense of accomplishment. If this type of car accident didn't stop my family and I, nothing will.

And happily, the story had a happy ending, so it made 20,000 miles even feel better to me.

Here's to the next 20,000, which at this rate, I should reach in 2018.

I can't wait.