Monthly Archives: November 2008

My Day, In a Nutshell

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Car News
The repair shop called and asked if I had contacted the insurance company of the man who ran into my car on Friday. The answer was “no”. Normally, they call us to get a statement, but this is only if they have some sort of RECORD that your car was involved in an accident.

It’s all straightened out now.

The repair shop said my car was almost totaled, which is not really saying much. It’s a 2004 car, and it’s worth $6,000′ish. The shop is relatively expensive, so the missing bumper alone was probably enough to send it close to the edge.

I’m getting a new suspension, tire, wheel, hood, bumper and straightening out of whatever is not straight anymore, plus payment of my rental car (which I wish I could keep!) and my towing expense, which I had to pay in advance.

Voting Day
I voted at 1pm. There was NO ONE in line. CNN made the mistake of saying Nebraska only has 3 electoral votes, but we have 5. We’re small, but we count, even though they said our number of votes was inconsequential.

The number of electoral votes each state gets depends on the number of members in both Houses of Congress, which is based on population.  If a candidate wins the state, even by one vote, they get 5 electoral votes in Nebraska (3 for our congressional districts and two floating electors based on the popular vote). In Texas, California, Florida, Ohio, etc., they get more.

Sometimes the person who wins the popular vote does not win the electoral vote.

The race seems really close right now. It’ll be interesting to see who wins, and what the voter turnout was.

Exciting stuff.

Bumper Cars

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Friday, I left work for a late lunch, so I could go to TLK’s Halloween parade at school.     I got into an accident, through no fault of my own, and never made it to the parade.   Plus, my car was towed to a collision repair shop.

It was a mess.   An elderly man ran a red light.  He hardly spoke any English.   A woman in another car he hit went to the hospital with heart issues.

The fire brigade washed away the radiator fluid leaking from the man’s car.   The tow truck man got into my car and ducked away from the steering wheel, fearing the airbag would deploy (I suspect the airbag is not working).

The police officers were professional and knew what they were doing.   They suffered through my silly questions and general shakiness over having been hit.

So here is this:

 

My car is the gray one without the bumper.    Also, one of my tires is ruined, and God knows what else.

I’m not sure what the mph at impact was.   I believe this road is 40 mph, and the man in the brown car ran a red light.   His impact with me was somewhat reduced by that white car, which was actually not even travelling in that direction at the point of impact.

The good thing is that this was not my fault.  There were 15 witnesses who all stopped and talked with the police.   I wasn’t injured, and TLK wasn’t in the car, of course (she was at the parade. )   Also, I have car rental, courtesy of the elderly man’s insurance.   

I was walking to the collision shop talking to Ian when the tow truck driver stopped by to pick me up.   Frankly, I was ready to walk instead of drive at that point, but it would’ve been a longer walk than I thought.

It’s a good idea to stop at yellow lights.