My Car Has a Boo-Boo

This morning started off just like any other, typical weekday morning. My husband asked me to drop him off at the MAX station (rather than wait forever for the bus). He drove us there, said goodbye, and got onto the train. I then took the car to gas up, then go home. Well, that's where the normality of the morning ended. When I was less than a mile home, I slowed down and stopped at a yellow light that was about to turn red. Well, right when the light turned red, I herd a loud screech behind me. I looked up into my rear view mirror just in time to see the front end of a rather large pickup crunch into the back of my car. BOOM! I was all freaked out at first, and Jasmine started crying. I jumped out of the car to see the damage, which wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it was. One of the tow loops on the front of his truck punctured my bumper. I then calmed Jasmine down as I searched for my insurance card. Woops... I couldn't find it, but I found several from like three and four years ago. Hmm... I fished out the one that expired in July, and I exchanged insurance info and addresses, etc, with the guy who ran into me.... his name is Chris. He felt very bad, and was very nice. He said that he was just driving along when he looked up to see my brake lights and the red light. I'm just glad that he was applying his brakes when he hit me, or else the damage could have been tons worse.

After I got home, I tried calling my local Allstate Insurance office. They weren't open yet. Bummer. A few minutes later, I got a call from Chris, asking if I had yet talked to the insurance. When I said no, he suggested that he just pay out-of-pocket for the repair, rather than reporting it to his insurance company, if the repair costs weren't too much. His wife had suggested he do this when he told her about the fender bender. This made me wonder if he's got a not-so-good driving record. ANYhoo, I agreed to at least go get an estimate on the damage to let him know about how much he'd have to pay. So, I packed up the kids and hauled them to an autobody place. Of course, the second I pulled Tyler out of the car, he started throwing a huge tantrum. I had to carry him, kicking and screaming, into the office to speak with the people there. A man came out and inspected the puncture wound on my car's bumper. We went back int othe office and he pulled some stuff up on his computer. The whole bumper pannel, along with the absorption pad beneath it, needs to be replaced. The parts and labor would add up to about $970! Yuck-O! He also estimated that the car would need to be in the shop for three days.... double Yuck-O!

When I got back home and called Chris, he was okay with paying this amount. We agreed to meet at yet ANOTHER autobody shop (one where he took his wife's car a few months ago when it was broken into). The guy at this place was much friendlier than the one at the first place I went to. He gave me a tour of the shop, and showed me some examples of repair work they have done. He said that the estimate that I got at the first place is about what he would charge, since the cost for car parts and labor is pretty much standardized across the board. However, since Chris has dumped so much of his money into their business in the past few months, they would cut him a deal. Chris's truck also sustained some damage, which will be fixed by this repair shop as well. The car guy ordered my car parts right then and there, and said that they would be in the shop by 4:00. He suggested I bring the car by tomorrow morning. He told us that, if there's no additional damage uncovered while they're replacing the parts that they KNOW they have to replace, that they should have it done sometime on Thursday. Only two days... YAY!

So, tomorrow morning, after I see Jasmine off at the bus stop for her first day of Kindergarten (she's very excited about it all), I'll head back down to the autobody place. Chris will meet me there, and make all the payment arrangements, etc. They will have a car from Enterprise come pick me up, and Chris will follow us back to the car rental place, where he will pay for a rental car for me to use for the next few (hopefully only 2) days. That will cost him about $22 per day. This whole thing with renting the car, etc, had better be done with quickly since I need to be back home to pick Jasmine up from the bus stop at 11:21. I'm grateful I don't have to pay any money in this whole ordeal, but it's still a stressful pain in the butt. I'll be happy to have my own car back. I've never driven a rental car before, so I know that's gonna paranoy the heck out of me. I am only going to use it when I absolutely HAVE to, like for my doctor's appointment tomorrow afternoon.

Well, there's the incredibly long, most likely boring, story of my car's boo boo. I am now goingto go give my kids a bath, then give Jasmine some "Karissa hair." I'll braid her damp hair into tiny braids, so tomorrow morning it'll be all crimpy when I take it out. (Her aunt Karissa has that done to her hair frequently, hence the name.) We will all try to get to bed early, so tomorrow we can have a fresh start with Jasmine's first day of school. I've got all of her school supplies stuffed in her backpack, and everything is pretty much ready to go. Tomorrow, I will pin a tag on Jasmine with her name and her teacher's name, so they will know where in the heck she's supposed to go (she sure doesn't). Luckily, there's a bunch of parent volunteers directing students at the school this week. Being the worrier that I am, I called the school today to confirm this. I' know I'll worry about her for the next few days, but I keep telling myself that she'll be okay. Whew. It's only Tuesday, and I'm ready for this week to be over already! Ugh!