Oh, My Back
In lieu of posting something meaningful today, I thought I would tell you about my lunch. This is a blog right? It’s supposed to have stupid stuff that nobody in their right mind would care about.
I went to Bag ‘N Save after lunch to buy some office snacks. Generally I avoid stores with punctuation in their name. I also avoid grocery stores with ’save’ in the name, because it generally means they saved on cleaning supplies. But this store is quite conveniently located between my house (where I ate lunch) and my work, so I make an exception (or two).
I was pulling into one of the rows to find a parking space and a woman was pulling out of the first stall of that row. As I turned, I saw here reverse lights, stopped, and honked. Crunch! At first glance, the damaged appeared very minor. However, something was broken underneath because the fender wasn’t attached to the frame where it should have been. I asked her for her name and phone number, which she gave me, and told her I would get an estimate and call her.
The police won’t write a report for accidents on private property, or so I’ve heard. I’m sure that’s not totally true, but the police weren’t called, so there it is. She didn’t like the idea of me getting an estimate and wanted to go with me, right then, to an auto body shop. Ever reasonable, I agreed.
The auto body shop’s estimate was $720. From the woman’s reaction, I get the feeling that that’s a little higher than what she expected. She called some people, including her lawyer. A couple of people came out to the body shop and took pictures of my car. I dare say none of them was an attorney, but I shouldn’t judge people like that.
I have a lot of other observations about this situation that, while funny, aren’t flattering to the people involved. I think I’ll wait until any future legal entanglements are resolved before I voice those, if ever. I’ve done a little sleuthing of my own which leads me to believe this case won’t be easily resolved. Well, that’s what insurance is for. And that’s what higher insurance premiums are for. I’m sure a gin and tonic in front of my fireplace tonight will help push the bitterness down and out of sight.
P.S. The title of this post is meant to be humorous. Nobody was hurt in this situation. In fact, her vehicle was moving at normal back-out-of-parking-stall speed so the only way there could be bodily injury was if there was someone tied to her bumper. There wasn’t that I noticed.
DK:
I am unhappy that you were involved in this minor accident. Surely the United States justice system does not provide a satisfactory remedy for this situation and, as you noted correctly, insurance companies prove helpful here.
Alternatively, I am happy that you consider your weblog an appropriate forum not only for technical analysis and suggestions but for personal events–as your entry will keep me from speeding through grocery store parking lots and alert to non-observant patrons.
DA
There wasn’t that I noticed.
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Yeah, but it always amazes me what gremlins can appear out of nowhere after ‘the facts’ have been filtered through the seedy little minds of the legal elite among us.
I affectionately call it “lawyers doing math”!
:-O
Glad it was just a minor crash Dick.
I glad you’re okay too Dick. Please take care.
I don’t know about this, Dick…
At least you could have added some token Excel content. Something like “I got three estimates, plugged them into an Excel workbook, and wrote a VBA macro to calculate the average. Then I used the AVERAGE worksheet function and wrote a formula. Amazingly, the answers were the same.”
I hope it all works out. Nothing like dealing with the unsavory gentlemen who run body shops.
BTW, there’s a sticky note on my monitor that reads, “Sunday paper!” I won’t forget.
I generally try to avoid restaurants that end with “eees” or “days”. For example, Shoney’s, Hardees, and Denny’s are all off limits. Likewise, Fridays, Ruby Tuesdays, and Fat Tuesdays are all off too. There’s a high correlation between my visits to these restaurants and my purchases of Pepto-Bismol (I fugured that out with Excel).
Six months ago my wife got a new car. Three weeks ago she stopped at a coffee shop in a strip mall at 6am to get a cup of coffee before going to work. At around 9am I got a call in which she said someone had nicked the driver’s side mirror. I told her that I would just touch it up when she got home. She told me the mirror was hanging from the door. At that point I decided to look at car. I drove to the hospital where she works and observed that the driver’s door was caved in. Apparently it was dark when she drove away from the coffee shop and she didn’t notice. We called the police, they took a report, and I assume it’s now in their cold case files. The “nick” cost $1,700. Oh well - like you said, at least no one got hurt.
You meant to say; “I punched the numbers in three cells, then got my calculator to compute the average and wrote that into the fourth cell”
Dick—
I had this happen to me recently too, but both of us were backing out. My insurance company paid for her claim. Now I’m fighting with them to get it listed as “no fault” which is what they reported to the DMV.
Life sucks when it comes to car accidents.
I am sorry to hear your problems and hope that you will soon resolve them all
My wife has just suffered the very same type of accident, If only people would look and listen
The other drive seems not to live at the address details he gave to my wife so we may have to pay a GBP 100.00 excess.
Our insurance company nominated a body shop for repairs and we have to do nothing except take the car to them for repair.
We now have a free car as part of the insurance claim and our car is due back this week
My wife also tried to use her new G3 mobile to take some photos of the accident but her phone jammed and this is now on its way back to G3.
I am sorry to hear your problems and hope that you will soon resolve them all
Dick,
This is my first time at your site and it’s a good thing I came. You mustn’t use Jwalk’s Excel formula. It is the same one he used to figure out the winner of his poetry contest…and I ended up winning. How’s that for fuzzy math and uncertain results?
You meant to say; “I punched the numbers in three cells, then got my calculator to compute the average and wrote that into the fourth cell”
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Don’t laugh , there are people in this office complex that do it exactly that way! Believe it or not! One gal calculates timesheets for the County Road Dept. exactly that way… WOW!