Oops

Everything was going so well. On Sunday October 12 I was on my way from an afternoon party (where I only imbibed bottled water, I swear) to a matinee movie. I was not tired, I was not distracted, I'd had nothing to drink, so I have no explanation for what then happened, but it seems I went through a stop sign. No one was hurt, not even the cop who broadsided me (yes, a cop, can you believe it?). I had a stop sign, he didn't, and he said he was already in the intersection when he saw me so he didn't have time to avoid hitting me. Neither of us was going fast, but cop cars are like tanks and it's going take up to 6 weeks and over $13,000 to fix my Prius. Luckily my insurance covers it and also covers car rental for 30 days. As I sat there waiting for Carla to come pick me up after AAA towed away my baby, I kept trying to understand how this could have happened. That's when I noticed the tree in front of the stop sign, completely obscuring it. It just so happened I had my camera in my purse, so I snapped a photo of it. A cop was waiting with me and he noticed what I was doing. He called me later that night, at 10 PM, and told me he'd gone back to the intersection later that day and after looking again at that stop sign, decided to cancel the citation he'd written and also write on the police report that the stop sign was obscured. My insurance adjustor has assured me that this will not go on my record since I am not at fault, and that they are trying to get the city of Palo Alto to cover the claim. As they say - from his mouth to God's ears. I still can't quite believe it happened. It's been over 2 weeks and I still haven't rented the car. I really don't need one, as I have lots of food on hand and Carla has been an angel, letting me accompany her when she's gone on errands. It's been kind of nice not having a car. I'm still doing my daily walk, up to 25 minutes as of tonight, so I'm getting some exercise and fresh air. Speaking of walking, when Trish stayed overnight last week we walked all the way downtown to have breakfast and then walked back. I love it! This is the first time since the San Francisco house that I've been able to walk downtown. I feel like I'm back in civilization. I've posted some photos - of the car, the stop sign, and of me to show you that I'm in fine form post accident.