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OK, I'm back now.

The story...what there is, anyway, is this...though really, it happened so fast I don't know what all happened.

I was driving along the back road just before the college here (it's the quickest way, and unless the weather is really, really crappy, that's the way I come), and though it's snowing hard, it wasn't bad at all. And then all of a sudden I COMPLETELY lost control - I mean COMPLETELY. Correcting did nothing at all. I'm lucky I wasn't going very fast, Or I would have flipped over for sure and this wouldn't have a happy ending. I'm also lucky no one was coming the other way - ditto.

I spun completely around - this all seems surreal now, like I wasn't even there. I remember being almost amazed that the person on the radio kept talking calmly as if nothing was happening. And then I ended up across the road, almost facing back the other way, and in the bushes. No ditch there, fortunately!

I didn't get out at all (duh) because at the moment all I was thinking about was getting back on the road. So I didn't check for damage or anything. As the guys here said, "typical chick". OK, I admit it! I'm an idiot! ;-)

But I was able to back onto the road and continue to work, though (confusingly enough to me), the car continued to act out of control. Even though I was crawling along, it was pulling in all directions and just NOT steering right. When I got into the parking lot here, I looked around at it and the only damage I found was that one of the back tires was completely off the rim. Not good.

I came in and told people and got help - at that point everyone was assuring me that most likely the rim and or the tire would have been destroyed by my driving even the half mile or so that I drove, and I was near tears - there ain't money in the bank for that right now. But when we all went out and looked at it, it didn't look too bad.

So...we called maintenance, and they said if we could get the wheel off and bring it and the tire up, they'd see if they could put it back on, and check for damage. It took FOREVER for us to do it, meanwhile it's snowing HARD and most of us don't have gloves (duh...), but we did finally. And there's no damage! I'm soooo pleased! Of course, there could still be something that wasn't visible, I suppose...but be praying about that, please?

What some have said (and I think they may be right) is that possibly the tire coming loose was the reason the car went out of control in the first place, rather than the result of the accident. There are some HUGH potholes on that road, and it's possible one of them popped the tire, I suppose. I know I've NEVER had my car act like that, even though I've driven in snow and ice plenty of times. It was very, very scary!

But all's well that ends well! Whew! And I owe lunches to at least a few folks...