Maria of Performance Auto Body agreed to pose for me with her beautiful dog Molly when I came to pick up my Toyota SUV, nearly demolished in a collision with a deer 21 days ago. There was about $9,000 in damage, but the car looks great and rides great, I am very happy to have it back.

Maria and I have been stuffed into a tiny Mazda that requires a strategy to climb inside and out. Between us, she complained it was so low she couldn’t see over the dashboard. I suggested a booster seat, but that didn’t go well for me. I spent much of the morning navigating all of the various fees, deductibles, limits, constraints and fine contract points.

One of the legacies of the great recession is that corporations have learned to nickel and dime me to death, rather than just take all my money at once.

Insurance covered most of everything and all of nothing. Performance Auto Body did a wonderful job, the car rides beautifully, perhaps better than before. So this closes the deer chapter. My most distinct memory of is Maria sitting with the doe along the side of the road while the door sadly expired (I was scolded for not being mournful enough in my writing about the deer)  – Maria was crying – and then eventually looked up for me to see if I was okay. I understand, we all have our priorities and when I say Maria loves animals, you can believe that this so.

I have to say I loved Molly, a true spirit dog, a two-year old who is ghostly quiet, except when she is not. Where I live, people bring their dogs to work. It is very good to have my car back, it feels really good. The car is part of my identity.  It has driven Maria  and me around since 2011, on book tours, vacations, a million rides int the country. Almost 100,000 miles and I mean to put another 100,000 on it.

The Toyota was built just before the roofs of all cars got scrunched down. For big and tall people, riding in most cars is like riding stuffed in coach in an airplane. The Toyota respects my head.