I killed a deer on Saturday night driving home from the Lakeland/Ashland hockey season opener.

I was going only 55 on Highway 2 coming up to the Hwy 51 interchange in Hurley. Dawn was looking at the big mountain (or hill rather next to the road) and I glanced at some construction sign for about a second.

Then a doe literally jumped out from the side of the road and into my car. The doe hit my front right bumper (giving me only a four inch cut on my bumper -- that's it) and flew backwards 10 feet, snapping its neck on impact with the pavement, and flipped and twisted and slid through the snow along the side of the highway.

I drove back to see it, called it in to the Policija, and investigated the body myself. It's head was spun around, its leg bone went through the skin and fur, and there was very very very little blood -- if any.

Seriously, my damage is that of a car backing into me with a trailer hitch and this deer was all folded up like a pretzel.

Either way, it was pretty freaking cool. However, it ruins the fact that I had never been in an accident before... I knew, though, that moving up to the Northwoods would likely mean I would hit a deer before Christmas. However, I was gaining confidence when I saw how little the deer up here run across the road, compared to down in the south. In the south, they run all over, and routinely run into the side of people's cars. Up north, they usually just stand there in bewilderment of a car speeding by.

But yeah, I'm fine, my lady is fine, and my '02 Taurus is fine. Perla was being babysat at the time and missed the whole thing.

Just thought I'd throw that all out there....