Carrameow,

I am very sad to hear of your misfortune, but I'm sure you realize the sacrifice that the car made for you. There are many other cars that you could have been driving in which you could have been seriously injured or worse. Even the MB's from the kseventies and eighties were very far ahead of most other brands in the safety categories.

Noone can know EXACTLY how you feel, but I think that I have an idea of how you feel. I remember when I first started posting here on mshop seeing the pictures of your garage and your car. I enjoyed very much our correspondence regarding what we were doing to our diesel cars.

I know full well from us getting acquainted about four years ago that you have been working steadily on the car all that time.

What I can offer is this: I believe I know you well enough to understand that the work on the car is therapy for all the software fighting issues and the other stuff we deal with in our professional life. Very few people would see it this way, but I too get my therapy from sticking my hands into a greasy transmission or engine. Losing the car is much like losing a pet. Take a little time to relax, then get another one and offer it the TLC that you did to this one. You have learned SOoo much from the first one, the second one will come out even better.

Hopefully the one that just got crunched still has many usable components. If you need help finding a rust free car to start over with, there are lots of them in Texas. Start watching ebay or whatever and if I can go look at a car for you, just let me know.

I'm sincerely glad that you were not hurt any worse. Take care of your back and don't take any chances. We're all thinking of you.

Best regards,