Well, dear readers, it was the ME day that went to HELL. Yes, you heard it here, dear readers, it was the ME day that went to HELL, and it happened the second I got up at eleven after eight and a half hours of sleep. I put on my reading glasses, woke the computer up, and saw that there was a text waiting for me. It was from my insurance company and the gal processing my claim. It was not good news, or, as she put it, I know this isn’t what you wanted to hear. She was right. Turns out that after the shop did a complete teardown of the motor car, their estimate didn’t meet the 65% of the valuation of the car and therefore the car was deemed “totaled” and that some new person would be contacting me shortly about options and she assured me that I would be provided top customer service. I immediately called the body shop and spoke to the nice gal there and while she was a bit surprised by the decision, she basically said it was pretty common, as the estimate was 8K and the car valuation was around $11,300. I asked her to please put it back together again as it was perfectly drivable. She said I had to talk to the insurance company and that she doubted I would want to do that when it was fully explained to me. I finally got the new gal to call – she’d JUST seen the paperwork. I had several conversations with her, and it became very obvious that putting the car back together was not an option, as they’d already reported it to the DMV as totaled, which they had to do. Oh, they could put it back the way it was but then I’d have to go jump through many hoops with the DMV, find a body shop that could do it for what they were willing to pay me as salvage and the better option was to accept the valuation money and get something to replace the car. I called the body shop back and told them they could release the car to the insurance company. I got the information about how the payment would be made – one payment when they got the salvage, put directly onto my debit card, and then one when they got the title, which will be on Friday. So, certainly by Monday I should have both payments.
Then began the car search. My insurance company has a deal with a ton of dealers that guarantees a fair price for their insured, so I began there. I ended up finding three cars I liked and that looked like they were in excellent shape, two of them the same year as my car with just about the same mileage but more goodies than my car had, like the GPS and backing up camera and all that stuff. No accidents and all servicing properly done, plus a thorough once-over with the dealer. One was located in Buena Park and one in La Crescenta. I asked Buena Park if there was any way they could bring me the car for a test drive. He said he had one worker who didn’t live so far from me so that will happen late tomorrow, I think. La Crescenta is bringing the car at noon o’clock. While I prefer the slate gray that I had, which Buena Park is, La Crescenta is black and that’s fine by me, too. The third car is a year younger than mine with 6K less miles and it, too, is slate gray, looks in amazing condition, no accidents, all servicing done properly, and that one’s actually the most tempting and it’s just a few hundred more and I think they’d come down that few hundred. But that one can’t get here for a test drive, and I’d have to blind buy it or try to find a way to get out there. I had really good luck buying the now-totaled car pretty much blind, so I’ll see how I feel about the other two and then chat with the folks in the city of Orange, which is fifty miles from here. They would have to get the car to me if I purchase it, that much I know and I’m not sure if they would or could. So, that was my entire damn day until 7:00, at which point I said what Babs and Donna so eloquently said – enough is enough.
I had the rest of the meatloaf for food, which was only 300 calories, I had some onion dip with red and green peppers as the dippers – that was pretty good – then later, I had a salad with scallions and Good Seasons Eyetalian dressing, and that was fine, then I had a few blueberries for a kind of sweet. I had several long telephonic conversations, too. Then I began watching A Better Man on a streaming screener – not sure I want to finish it given the stupid conceit of the film, which is based on the life and music of Brit singer Robbie Williams, the conceit being that Mr. Williams, for reasons unknown, is portrayed as a monkey. Yep, after ten minutes of that, I turned to something else, the something else being Bertand Tavernier’s first film, The Clockmaker of St. Paul, starring one of my favorite actors, Philippe Noiret, and co-starring another favorite, Jean Rochefort. And a score by Phillip Sarde certainly wasn’t going to hurt and neither was being based on a novel by Georges Simenon. I’m thirty minutes in and finding it excellent. And here we are.
Today, I’ll be up by eleven, I’ll test drive a car at noon, then Robert Yacko is coming by to drive me to the mail place so I can get the title off to the insurance company (they provided me with a two-day UPS pre-paid label), and then the dry cleaners to get my dry cleaning, then home. All that shouldn’t take more than thirty to forty minutes. Not sure what food will be, as my only option here is an omelet of some sort and I don’t think that sounds like it would be satisfying, so I’ll probably bring in a nice Chinese chicken salad from somewhere – not too many other options, unless I do catfish or something like that, although none of the sides work for my diet limitations. I could also get some kind of soup from somewhere, but I’d still need something more substantial so the big salad with protein is probably the way to go. Then the second test drive may or may not happen in the later afternoon or early evening. At that point, I’ll know if I’m happy with either of those cars – if I am, I’ll choose and probably give them a small amount to hold the car until the insurance money is ready, which hopefully will be Friday or Monday, the sooner the better. If I’m not thrilled with either car, then it will be the one in Orange as a blind buy. The story the photos tell is pretty thorough – about thirty-five photos of every inch of the car, which really does look to be in perfect condition. After all of the above, I’ll watch, listen, and relax.
The rest of the week is ME plus whatever car things need to be done.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up by eleven, test drive a car at noon, go to the mail place, go to the dry cleaners courtesy of Robert Yacko, figure out food, make sure the insurance company got the car and is processing the first of the two payments, maybe test drive a second car, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Ask BK Day, the day in which you get to ask me or any dear reader any old question you like and we get to give any old answer we like. So, let’s have loads of lovely questions and loads of lovely answers and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, hoping you’ll send your most excellent vibes and xylophones for a quick happy ending to the car drama.