| Charles suggested that I blog this.
I had a dream last night in which I got into the car in a parking lot in a "bad neighborhood." I saw our GPS device still mounted on the windshield, and I made a mental note to remember not to leave it visible when the car is un-attended.
I tried to start the car, and it wouldn't start. I unplugged the GPS from the lighter and tried again. This time it turned on, but something was dim. I figured I'd get going and the battery would recharge itself on the way home. I pulled my cell phone out of my pocket, and its battery was also dead. Without thinking, I plugged it in to the phone charger.
I drove out of the parking lot and went about a block when the car died. I couldn't call anyone of course, but I remember thinking about calling for roadside assistance versus getting someone to jump start the car,
Next thing I knew, there was some lady there to fix the car. She went to each corner of the car and picked it up a little. Apparently, all but the rear left tire were flat. (That's the tire that was recently flat in real life.) She then proceeded to open up the trunk, fiddle with some levers or something, and pull... Then the two front tires folded in to the center and came back toward her like they were on a track. I was impressed, but not all together shocked. Apparently, this was a normal thing in my dream world! So then she simply took the tires off the track and replaced them, then pushed the track back and the tires went back into place. (I didn't know where she got the new ones from, I didn't see her vehicle.)
Then she did some more fiddling in the trunk and pulled out something else from the front on a track. It appeared to be two side tanks of water near to where the tires would be, connected to a long and skinny central tank by clear plastic tubing. She explained something to me about how this device worked, where both tanks draw from the reserve. It looked like water, but I don't know what it was for sure or what it did!
That's all I remember... Then, after I told Charles my dream, he told me that the car has been "died" twice in the past two days. O.O He's taking it to the mechanic now! | comments: Leave a comment   |
| We love our mechanic, he's been good to us and our cars. But his wall is confusing. Left to right, it reads: "We welcome your check," "Your check is welcome," and then "No checks accepted." Good thing we're not the check-writing type!
| | comments: Leave a comment |
| So, today I went to pick up the car, which has been in the shop since September 2nd. For those of you who keep track of such things, that's 74 days. In addition to the repairs, the insurance company also paid $30 for each of those days that were "storage." (Presumably, before they approved the cost and not during the actual repair period, although I wouldn't be surprised nowadays.)
That was a whole ordeal unto itself... After renting a car to get there during their business hours, I get there and the receptionist tells me that it's not ready. I inform her that she's mistaken, because my husband and I both spoke to the guy in charge of our car yesterday. She tells me that all of them are in a meeting, have a seat and she'll let me know when they're back. Of course, Charles calls them and asks for the repair guy, and he's sitting near his phone. He says go out to the body shop. So I go to the service area where you check cars in and out, they direct me how to get there, and the lady that's there tells me that it's still up on the rack but okay, they can get it. It hasn't been washed yet, I tell her I can wait. So she pulls the file on it, and it says to collect about $400 more than what I'm prepared to give her. Apparently, they had additional damage approved by an adjuster who went out to re-examine the car, but I haven't received that check yet.
Want to know why? Becuse it hasn't been sent.
Anyway, that was an interesting adventure. In the end, I got the car back because our insurance company faxed over a copy of the check and talked to someone who knows stuff at Ford. I start it up, and the low fuel light comes on. I actually haven't asked my husband yet, but being that his accident was when he was about to get onto the freeway, I have to assume that there was gas in the car when he took it to the shop... Anyhow, luckily there was a gas station across the street.
Anyhow, car's back. After picking up the car, I went to Enterprise Rent-A-Car next door to return the car that I had rented to go to the place that had our car. Well, he tells me that in NoHo they put a $300 hold on my bank card, rather than the traditional $300 charge and then a refund for the un-used portion. That would actually have worked better. However, since they had put a hold on it and I had paid for gas and the car repair on my bank card, when the guy tried to charge me the $118 that the rental ended up costing, it was declined. I didn't think much of it, actually I thought that it was probably deemed out of my norm to pay the same car rental place twice on the same day for different amounts, and one of them in a city I've never spent money in (except for at the dealership). So I asked him to try my Capital One card, which I made a payment toward this morning but if that payment hadn't gone through I would not have had enough available credit for that transaction. Well, it went through.
I then drove home, went to have lunch, and then went to the Burbank mall, where I planned to make a $64 purchase at Bed Bath and Beyond. My bank card got accepted at the restaurant, but declined at BB&B. Strange, I thought, I just used it... So I said oh well, put it on my other card. That also got declined. (So either they let me over-draw it at the car rental place, or they didn't let me use available credit at the store, depending on what time they processed my payment.) So I call the bank, figuring the Capital One card a lost cause since either of the two options I mentioned wouldn't be a plus for me making my purchase.
The first phone banker person says maybe my magstrip isn't working right, there's no reason why it wouldn't have gone through. She transfers me to the ATM department people, and that phone banker says that Enterprise put a 2k+ hold on my account, and that's why it won't work. That puts me over my limit for the day. However, this banker claims that there's a $500 ATM/debit limit and a $3,000 credit limit, and that I'm over one but not the other. He says run it as credit, it should work.
Upon thinking about it further now, I realize that the exact amount he told me Enterprise put on hold is the amount that I spent at the Ford dealership. Unless there's a really improbable coincidence here, whereby Enterprise decided they needed a security hold 8 times more than they normally charged and it was the same amount it took to fix the car, he must have skipped a line when reading it. If Enterprise did in fact put a hold of $300 as they verbally told me (or $250 as it says on my slip) and Ford charged me the $2k+, then I'm still under the $3k daily limit he quoted me.
So I go back in the store, go back to the same line I was in, but another register opens up and they move me there. So I explain to the new cashier what happened and that I just spoke to the bank and she said to run it as credit (it automatically runs as debit unless they tell it otherwise). It declines again.
So I call the bank again. This new person tells me that I've exceeded my limit for the day, period. I ask if there's anything I can do to make this purchase and he says I can write a check. (Lot of good that does me, if I don't carry cash because I've gone to plastic-money-mode, you think I carry checks?)
I go the restroom at the mall, then on the way back toward the exit, I ask someone if there's an ATM. I'd call the bank and ask them if it should work, except I don't have reception inside. So I'm directed to the one ATM in the mall, inside the arcade. I get there, and it's dead. I've convinced myself it wouldn't have worked anyway, sour grapes ya'know?
Good thing I wasn't at a fancy restaurant after I ate, or stranded on the highway trying to get roadside assistance. (Maybe this is why women typically go shopping in packs? I'd bring my husband along the next time I want to spend more than $3,000 in one day, but someone has to make the money so I can spend it!) We had in the bank (after two tanks of gas, lunch, the car rental, and the car repair) twice as much as what we pay for rent, and there was no way to access it until 12:01am. I was pretty determined at that point to get the items I was trying to buy, but I think they would have kicked me out of the store before then.
So there you have it, my grand waste of several hours of my day, all because I spend too much money... And I still haven't figured out how they claim I spent $3k... *starts counting on fingers* | | comments: Leave a comment |
| Charles went down to sign paperwork for the apartment "to take it off the market." I'm not sure if that means it's the lease or not, it actually didn't occur to me to ask. Anyhow, we're most likely going to be moving in the vicinity of Thursday of next week.
In other news:
- The Explorer is now fixed, we're going to pick it up tomorrow morning.
- Also tomorrow morning, my Charles has to go to the DMV to take his written driver's test to renew his license. Technically, it expired yesterday but since they only do Saturdays once a month and we're procrastinators, it had to wait until tomorrow. Hopefully he doesn't have to do the behind-the-wheel too since it's expired for two days. =P
- I've done some more edits to my website, actually putting in more content, but more coming later.
- I've packed the stuff that we won't use between now and next Thursday: one box of bathroom stuff, one box of kitchen stuff, one box of movies, and one of books (there's more books and kitchen stuff coming, they take lots of room). Almost everything else is clothes, electronics, furniture, or already stored in a box.
I'm sure there's more, but I can't think of anything else right now. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| So, I was at work on the 18th, the only person in the whole building, when a jogger (not a customer of the aquatic center, but someone jogging the perimeter trail) came to the front counter where I was to tell me that there were a couple of cars broken into in the parking lot. She described the color and model of the cars, and one of them was the car that I drive. Her post-it note with the license plate numbers confirmed it. I couldn't find the non-emergency dispatch number, so I called the administrative phone number for the PD, who then transferred me to dispatch. I let them know that I was in the aquatic center, and to please have the responding officers come get me there, as I would not be waiting outside the car for them.
They came about an hour later, which I find is about average for a non-emergency call. The other person was missing a purse, with credit cards and such, so they took her report first. Then they came to get my report. Good thing the other person just got there, because I opened that morning, so I had like a 6 hour window where I hadn't moved or seen my car.
I was missing the bag that my husband got me for Valentine's day two years ago (two Valentine's days ago, that is, we haven't known each other two years =P). That made me really sad, because I really liked the bag... I used it as a swim bag or carry on luggage (most recently on my trip to Texas) or girly-briefcase. I don't remember exactly what it had in it besides some pens and my old work clipboard (that had my name drawn on in paint marker and a pen tied to it with fishing cable). I had taken out my organizer thing when we did our taxes, I'm thankful for that since that had W2s and I think a checkbook. Anyhow, I'm sure they thought it was a purse.
Two days later, on Thursday the 20th, someone broke into another two cars- one jogger for a purse, and one (belonging to one of my employees) for a CD wallet.
It's really a prime location for that kind of stuff. Near the freeway, people jogging who leave their purses in the car... I hear tell that both the times they took purses, they had filled their gas tanks and purchased stuff at a major chain store within 10 minutes. At least that gives them something to go on, I would think, since both of those places have security cameras. I mean, it's like taking a stolen ATM card to withdraw money, except they don't normally sell you stuff at the store if you're wearing a ski mask. (But on the other hand, the ATM cameras are closer and thus better quality images assuming you're not covering your face.)
The employee had glass coverage on her car, so it didn't cost her anything to get her window replaced. Our mechanic says we'd have to leave our car at least a day or two, and my husband is going to call him back to see how much it'll cost us.
Turns out every single month we have some kind of car issue. =P | | comments: Leave a comment |
| I forgot to mention, on Saturday we celebrated my uncle Jorge's 50th wedding anniversary. We didn't make it to the ceremony because I had to work (it was the last day of a class I was teaching) but we went to the reception. Everything was very nice, my aunt looked gorgeous. For some reason, I didn't get a picture of the two of them with my camera. There were disposable cameras on each of the tables, so I took pictures of them and their kids and such with the disposable, and only pictures that wouldn't interest them as much on my camera, like my husband with baby Angel. The baby really likes him!
I'll post those later, right now I'm (as I type) uploading pictures from the conference I went to the first week of this month. I'm just a little behind in the picture area. (Partly because my computer doesn't auto-magically bring up the camera as a hard drive, so I make my husband get them for me. =P)
I will post pictures later though, I promise.
We spent the night at my mom's house and drove back up in the morning on Sunday. We picked up the car, which we still owe money for. It's gorgeous too! It's shiny, much prettier than I've ever had it! (I bought it used from a neighbor who bought it new, I think.) We've rejoined the world of the two-car households! Which is why I'm here blogging and uploading pictures instead of at work waiting for it to be time to clock in.
So, for now, go to my yahoo pictures site for National Aquatic Conference 2006 pictures. I'll let you know when the other ones are up. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| | I've been back and forth with the insurance company of the person behind me lately. She contacted me first, which surprised me. She seems pretty decent, although the internet speaks highly of their sneakyness factor at her company. She's sending out an adjuster to get an estimate "on or before 2/13." This could take a while... I think I'll just live at work for the next couple of weeks. I'm teaching lessons until 7pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so Charles can just drop me off on his way to work, I'll swim laps until lessons time, then he can pick me up after that. mmhmm. That's what we'll do. That or insist on getting a rental car. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| We picked up the car from the towing place last night. Hopefully if we do go after the insurance company of the person behind me (which I think is just as silly as the person in front of me going after my insurance company, she didn't have any more fault in not being able to stop than I did, but I suppose such is the insurance industry), they'll reimburse us for it. But I didn't want it to sit there and collect storage fees. It turns out that it was the inertia switch (auto gas shutoff) that made it not start up, which I did think about on scene, but I wasn't too comfortable driving it at that point anyway.
What I did find that I hadn't noticed before was that the hood is slightly bent up on one side, and on the opposite side the bumper got pushed inward. The car is perfectly drivable going in a straight line, but when the tires turn they scrape the back side of the bumper. Sounds yucky, I made Charles drive it because it was scary. He's going to call a mechanic who's worked on the car before and ask if he can fix it and look it over for other things. Charles says that this guy does everything, but I want to make sure he does do body work before we either drive it to the valley in that condition (has to be on the curvy freeway) or get it towed (which cost us $350 last time). | | comments: Leave a comment |
| | Tags: | accident, car | | Subject: | Built Ford tough! | | Time: | 05:21 pm | | Current Mood: | ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/moonmama/sillysuns/sad.gif) disappointed, but impressed |
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| I got in my first real car accident today...
I've actually only been driving a couple of years, before that I wasn't comfortable driving because my bad vision in one eye makes it almost impossible for me to accurately estimate distance. I took driver's education (the class, but my school didn't do the behind-the-wheel part) and there were a lot of "x00 feet from..." references in it that I didn't like!
I then got a car to go to and from work (all 3 miles of it) and to and from food. The first time I got on the freeway was to drive to San Diego, that was fun! (That's the first time I talked to Andy on the phone.) So it's not like I've logged tens of thousands of driving hours. =P
In that time, I've had two accidents- one alone, and one with Charles in the passenger's seat, both of them in my mom's car. Both happened in the same month, for the same reason: hydroplaning on the freeway. The first one was in broad daylight (3pm) on a freeway that was otherwise dry, but I caught a puddle I hadn't seen. The second one was at night on an interchange, shortly after it rained.
Today I had my first "real" accident, by which I mean that there was more than one car involved. I dropped by the UPS store after work to fax something to the bank, then to Kmart to pick up some pictures (more on that later), then I was heading back southward on a major street to go pay the car insurance.
We were all in the left lane of a two-lane (each way) street, due to an accident in the right lane. I have to admit, I did glance at it, when it was in my frontal field of vision. I promise, I didn't turn my head. Then the next thing I know, I see brake lights- now, we're all driving slow because we're merging and such because of the accident, but at about this time is when the right lane opens up. I had put my foot on the gas a little bit because we were going slightly up hill, but I wasn't gassing it when I saw the brake lights.
Anyhow, I saw brake lights, I was still close because we were driving slow, there were no other brake lights or slowing before... then I remember thinking that this guy's not just slowing down, he's not moving. So I floor my brake at that point, and have enough time to realize that I don't have enough time to stop. I hit the guy in front of me at what feels from the driver's seat like a good impact, then the lady behind me hits me more lightly. I obviously gave her more time to brake than the guy in front gave me. The lady behind her was able to stop, but I think the person behind them wasn't.
I stayed in the car, on the brakes, until I saw the guy in front of me open his door. I thought that if we could move, we should move out of the way, but since he couldn't move we were staying... not for too long, since the police department was already at that intersection for the other accident.
They did three passes- first they asked if everyone was alright, then they went back again (end of the line forward) asking for our statements and letting us know that they'd need our paperwork (license, registration, insurance), then a final pass to collect the documents and ask our stories again. (At least they asked me again, but I was car #2, so maybe my story was more of interest than the others'.)
My car's front bumper seemed just a bit worse for wear- there's something loose where the bumper actually meets the car in the front left corner, but I can be convinced that it was pre-existing. The guy in front of me lost tail lights and got pretty smashed up. My rear bumper dented the lady behind me. My car, rock solid. I have to admit, I like my 15-year-old car better today than I did yesterday.
So far as I can piece together:
#1 - Brand new (no license plate) Toyota customer shuttle van driven by Toyota representative. His boss came on scene not long after and spoke to me. He said something along the lines of "were you one of the ones that was pushed into him." Interesting wording, not sure what it means. The driver never spoke to me. When the owner (or manager at least) gave me his contact information, I had to specifically ask him to write down the name of the driver. He sustained the most damage and was towed away. (I didn't think to look at the front of his car until much later, after he'd been towed away.)
#2 - Me, 91 Ford Explorer. My car shut down as soon as we made impact, possibly due to automatic gas cut off feature. It wouldn't start, so we had it towed. No visible damage. Even the TV in the back seat that busted down my folding back seat and slid right up to the passenger seat was undamaged. I have pain and expect bruising from my seat belt. The car is now at the tow place's yard, where the driver says the insurance companies come to check cars out.
#3 - White minivan, possibly 90s. Driven by a female driver who said it was her first accident too. Her front bumper area was dented by my rear bumper, and her car wouldn't start. The tow truck that came for me jump started her.
#4 - Small passenger car, most likely 00's model, dark color, driven by a young female. She stopped in time to not hit the white van, but I think someone else rear-ended her.
#5 - Car driven by an older couple. I was confined to my car through most of this, and this was the first car to leave, so I never saw it. I do remember an older couple asking the officer some questions while he was walking up to me. That would also explain why car #4 didn't leave.
#0? - I have a suspicion that there was a car 0, a blue-toned vehicle in front of the Toyota. Here's why- 1) I could have sworn I heard "six car" when two officers were talking to each other not far from my door. 2) The Toyota manager picked up something from the ground that was that color and said something about that being "it." 3) It sure would explain why he stopped so fast. 4) It would also explain why the police (and the owner of car #1) didn't focus on me as much as I expected, if I was the third car instead of the second car...
So, yeah, the cops forgot to give me a report number, but I got it from the lady behind me. We shall see then if my hunch is correct.
Apparently, they're considering it two different accidents- the three (or four) cars in front, and the two cars in back (the break being where the cars didn't touch). So I got the information from just those two people. I called the number on my insurance papers, but they said I need to call some other number, which is only open during business hours... on the east coast. (She made sure to add that, because it was 4:45 when I called.)
We shall see... I doubt that the car needs major repairs, but you know how those insurance places can be. I'm very, very curious to see the police report.
My husband left work as soon as I called him and came to see me. He glared at people who were slowing down to stare, that made them look away, it was kind of funny. Then we went down to the other car (parked at the corner gas station) and went to pay our car insurance bill. =P
We're back down to one car until I get the Explorer back from whatever the insurance company does to it, but I'm gunna feel a little safer when I do have him back. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| Yeah, remember how I said I had too much to do and too little time? As I was going to PetCo to get food for my poor, hungry lizards, which I was going to rush home and feed them before I went to the apartment, I get a flat on the freeway. The THIRD flat tire of our new car we bought in May. You know, my '91 Explorer has had it's problems, including replaced brakes, radiator issues, etc, but it's never left me stranded on the side of the freeway...
Of course, my phone was almost dead and rather than have it die on me when I was snaking up the Pacific Coast Highway in the dark, I had left it on the charger while I made the "quick" trip to the pet shop.
I was bad and drove the car some more after I realized the back left tire was flat. I passed an interchange, because getting on another freeway was going to be no help. I got off on the next exit, near a Ford Truck place. Of course, they didn't do tires for "small" cars, but one of the guys at the shop was nice enough to change the tire for me. So I'm driving on a spare for now. I borrowed Mom's car again to go to Oxnard, which sucked because in the process I somehow lost the loan application which was in the trunk of the car before I left to PetCo. It disappeared, and now Charles has to drive down to El Monte so that we have a form with both of our signatures on it... | | comments: Leave a comment |
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