Well...it's been two years since the wreck. How time flies, right?
To give a quick summary, here's what's transpired since then:
I've pretty much healed up, although the collarbone never mended and is still giving me trouble. The lower back is still pretty dang weak, so I can't sit for long periods of time. The right foot has healed well enough, so I can walk, but it really give me trouble if I stand for any length of time or walk for any real distance. And the best part is that I am a freakin' human barometer and know when the weather is changing by what part of my carcass hurts and can tell just how soon stormy weather will be here by how bad afore-mentioned body parts hurt.
As it turns out, I was let go from my job because of the length of time it took me to get back on my feet - however, no one else will hire me because of my physical limitations. But, Social Security insists that I am 100% able to go back to work. So thus begins the endless loop...
As far as my car goes, the insurance company doesn't recognize the limited edition special ordered high-performance equipment that was installed by Toyota in Japan and only would go for a fraction of the car's actual value. It took me two years, but I finally settled on an amount that was about 1/3 of the Scion's actual worth - but I keep the wreckage...
And herein lies a life-lesson I will share with all of you: if you have a car that has factory/dealer installed options, get your car appraised and insured to reflect that!! I cannot stress this enough. Otherwise, if you get in a wreck, you will play the same losing game I did. An appraisal does not cost much, but is worth every penny if an accident does occur.
So yes, I am glad I survived the wreck, so I can continue to annoy people, but the quality of life has taken a direct hit. I honestly hate not being able to get up in the morning and go to work and do stuff and have a structured day like I have known for decades. People say "Oh, that's great, you can relax all day and do nothing!" to which I think (but don't say) "eff you...this is hell" since I can't actually do anything. However, (while lying through my teeth) I smile at them and say "yeah, it's nice to be able to sleep in".
Anyway, here's a few photos of my Scion after I moved it from the attorney's warehouse to my own storage (until I figure out what to do with it)...
Here's a shot of the interior, you can see it held up pretty well during the impact.
Here's an interesting shot of the dashboard. If you look closely, you'll see three marks to the left of the instrument cluster. That's actually skin left by my hand as it was torn from the steering wheel and struck the dash, breaking the instrument fascia and the air conditioner duct...
Here's a good photo that shows how my Scion was crushed on the driver's side. It is about 3 feet (1 meter) shorter on the driver's side, the front wheel resting against the door hinge.
In this shot, notice the white square about left of center? That is what remains of my batter that use to sit between the headlight housing and the wheel-well. The orange reflector was part of the headlight housing and now sit all the way back towards the door.
Here's a good shot that illustrates just how much the body torqued during the impact
A side-note here:
Just shortly before the wreck, I had stopped in to pick up a bottle of wine to go with dinner. I spotted a nice Chardonnay and put it in the front seat and headed home. Within minutes, my world was rocked.
Almost a year later (January 2014), I was able to visit my Scion for the first time since the wreck, and discovered the bottle of wine had survived the impact!
So I put the bottle in a cool dark place to perhaps open as a celebration at a later date. A few friends teased me and said the wine had probably turned to vinegar in the year that had passed, since it had been sitting in the wreckage. I remained optimistic.
A few days ago, on April 7th (the two year anniversary) I popped the cork and much to my surprise, it was absolutely amazing! One of the best aged Chardonnays I have ever had!
So these past two years have been a strange journey to say the least. I will admit I feel a little bit discouraged when I look at the wreckage of my car. However, I prefer to remember my Scion as it was: