Hurting "Henry"

I feel like a complete idiot. We've had "Henry", our brand new Ford "Adrenalin" model Sport Trac for 8 whole days...and this evening I backed Henry's left rear fender smack into a concrete planter in a parking lot...while my husband stood and watched in total disbelief.

I've been driving for over 33 years and have never had an accident. Other people have hit me, but I have never caused an accident. I did put two minor scrapes on our old Sport Trac, but nothing that dented anything or that affected the paint job. That pretty clean track record ended this evening.

It happened at the parking lot of the marina where we moor our boat. John had dropped me off in Nanaimo from our cottage early this evening as I have to deliver a full day workshop tomorrow in Victoria. I was worried about backing out of the marina parking spot because close on my left side was a boat stored on a trailer, and I didn't want to make too sharp a turn backing up and scrape my front left end. I turned completely around to look directly out the back of the truck and it all looked clear. Due to heavy rain this weekend, not many people had taken their boats out, so the parking lot was completely empty at the end where I was backing up.

With no cars anywhere in sight, I backed up in a much wider arc than I would have if cars had been parked in all the marked spots. My arc kept me clear of the boat on the trailer, but took my left rear end directly into a concrete planter that was out of my range of vision. It would have been visible in my left side mirror, but I was looking out the back over my right shoulder and it was not visible from that vantage point. As John looked on (before heading back to the cottage in our boat), I bumped into and scraped along this colourful concrete planter thing.

I couldn't hear him yelling at me when he saw what I was headed for. First, that truck is soundproof! Also, John had just been trying out playing his downloaded songs via the USB port built into the truck's audio/tech system. It worked just fine. I hadn't adjusted the volume down yet, so James Taylor was wailing about "fire and rain" as I splashed through the rain to kiss some concrete.

This just doesn't sit right. It's so unlike me. Yet, I did it.

It. Is. My. Fault.

I'll take Henry in to get the repairs done this week. I won't feel better until he's fixed. But now I am scared to drive him, especially parking and backing up. Sigh.

Todo bien. (It's all good.)