I was driving on the highway about 8 o'clock yesterday morning, in the left lane, contemplating getting some breakfast at a drive-thru window, when suddenly - BOOM!  It sounded like a cannon went off.  

I looked in my rear-view mirror and saw an 18-wheeler behind me, smoke rolling from under his wheels.  The traffic in the right-hand lane was slowing, too.  My first thought was that the 18-wheeler had had a blow-out.

Then I noticed that my car was steering crazily, and that a small pickup truck was scraping its left front fender down the entire passenger side of my car.

All of this happened in about a nano-second.

The little pickup truck pulled into a parking lot on the right, and I followed him.  I don't know how the on-coming traffic behind us managed not to hit one of us.

When we came to a stop, I hopped out of my car and hollered, "Are you hurt?"  He was climbing out of his truck.  He shook his head.  "No.' 

"What happened?" I asked.

He explained that he had been working since 2:30 p.m. the previous day and fell asleep at the wheel.  

Thus began a three-hour ordeal of trying to get home.

Not only was the passenger side of my car jacked up, my tire was flat, and the rim was bent.  

I called 911, then called my insurance company.  While I was on the phone with the insurance company, my cell phone went dead.  I had a phone charger with me, but the "cigar lighter" wasn't working.  I'd known this for a month, but had not looked into why it was not working since I seldom had a need to use it. 

The policeman who came to work the accident let me use his phone charger long enough to finish calling the insurance company for roadside assistance.  Instead of getting a live person on the phone, the call sent a text that directed me to a web site.  My hands were so cold I could barely press the keys.  The policeman stayed long enough to let me finish the job of summoning roadside assistance, then he went on his way (after ticketing the young man in the truck).  

An hour passed, and then my phone rang.  It was some guy with a wrecker service, letting me know that he wasn't coming.  

My phone went dead again before I could make another call.

The young man in the truck let me use his phone charger.  I called AAA, which also tried to direct me to a web site.  I finally got a live person on the phone, who said help was on the way.

Another hour passed.

Meanwhile, the young man had summoned some friends.  They offered to change my tire, but by this time I was feeling sorry for the young man (who said he had a baby on the way in two weeks).  I told the young men to take their friend home and put him to bed, but they would not leave me until help arrived. 

Finally, they insisted on changing my tire.  They pulled my spare tire out of the car, but there was no jack.  None of them had a jack that would work with my car, so they summoned another friend. When he arrived with a jack, they changed my tire and got me back on the road.  "Don't drive over 50," one of them cautioned.  

I waved as I drove away, grateful that nobody was hurt, and grateful that the person who hit me had not been an a-hole.

But I was pissed for the rest of the day.