This all started some months ago when I began shopping for a car. My Cadillac (which I purchased from my parents) had died a horrible death last winter when a slow-leak in the radiator caused the engine to seize. It would have cost too much to repair, so I junked it. I got by borrowing my folks ’89 Nissan Sentra which, by now, everyone knows I totaled in a rear-end collision with a semi-trailer last month. The accident caused some of my friends to keep suggesting that I look for a European import rather than a Japanese vehicle. But, after a couple of used Honda Civic deals fell through, I decided to myself, “What could it hurt if I just looked.”

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On Wednesday afternoon, I called up my friend Ahmed and asked him to give me a lift to Holiday Wrecker outside of Tiffin, IA. That is where my Nissan Sentra was towed following the automobile accident on October 13, 2008. I had spent the earlier part of the day getting poked, prodded, scanned and examined at the University of Iowa Hospitals. They wanted to verify that my foot was healing properly.

The personnel at Holiday Wrecker were unsure of the old-style automobile Title or Certificate of Ownership, so it took some time before they gave us the OK to hand the car over to them. They gave us the opportunity to remove any of the undamaged personal belongings that I had in the car, so we dived right in. We were shocked by the amount of damage and it quickly became apparent why my left foot was broken: The entire driver-side floorboard was compressed to the size of a shoe box. Ouch. What follows are a few pictures of the damage.

We managed to get everything out of the car, including a handful of pens that I am STILL unsure where they came from. I don’t recall 13 pens floating around the glove box. For those that are curious, I managed to collect my shoes that had become wedged under the brake pedal. Sketchers are expensive for feet my size and there was no way those would be left behind.