Four Years old with my Chatty Cathy doll - whom I still have
I’ll have to unpack her and say hello …. it’s been quite a while.

Tags: Chatty Cathy

We just booked this vacation through www.oars.com - Sea of Cortez Island Hopping!  I am so excited.  It should be a fantastic adventure!  I will blog all about it when we go in November… I know it’s far off, but I just had to blog how excited I am about going!

Tags: Sea of Cortez

What do your children think you do at work?

Dear Mrs. Jones,
I am not now, nor have I ever been, an exotic dancer.  I work at Home Depot and I told my daughter how hectic it was last week before the blizzard hit.  I told her we sold out every single shovel we had, and then I found one more in the back room, and that several people were fighting over who would get it.   Her picture doesn’t show me dancing around a pole.  It’s supposed to depict me selling the last snow shovel we had at Home Depot. From now on I will remember to check her homework more thoroughly before she turns it in.
Mrs. Smith

Does it pay to be nice? I tried to work with the parent’s of the boy who hit my daughter’s car that was parked in the school parking lot.  The boy had just gotten his drivers license that day!   If it were reversed, I would really appreciate the parents to work with me and not put the accident on my insurance. Rates will go up and who needs that?

I called and spoke to the mother and she was eager as well to keep it out of insurance. The father was out of town. I told her we would get a couple of estimates and give her a call. She gave me the father’s e-mail and I sent over pictures of the dent (see the previous post). We got one estimate on Monday morning for $723. The second place we went could not give us an estimate saying they couldn’t find the part - a front fender for the 1983 280 ZX.

I get a call Monday afternoon from the mother’s assistant (the mother is blind). The assistant wants to come and take some pictures of the car. No problem at all - except when she says she needs to see under the car to make sure the dent wasn’t there to begin with !!!!!!!! I’m sorry ??? Are you implying we are liars? I wasn’t too happy. I met her up at my daughter’s work and she took pictures with her cell phone! She did her “inspection”.  I would probably want to make sure it wasn’t an old dent as well, but would never have told the people that.  Well, I was a little mad, so sent this e-mail to the husband:

“Hi ******

Can you please give me a call when you get into town tomorrow? Your wife’s assistant called me today and wanted to see the car and take some pictures. That is no problem at all. The problem is she said she needed to make sure this wasn’t an old dent. That is insinuating we are pulling a fast one. That isn’t something that sits well with me and frankly I’m mad about it. I spent time away from my job today to go with (my daughter) and get estimates. The first one is from ******* for $723. The other one is pending from ***********. They weren’t sure they could get the part. We will need coverage for a rental car as well. If we can’t get this taken care of out-of-insurance, please let me know and I will make the phone call to the insurance companies tomorrow.

Thank you,”

I get this back -

“Please leave emotions out of this. I will call you Wed. and be clear, we will resolve this quickly”

???? whatever…

I then receive this e-mail on Tuesday -
“That is not the case. ***** reported the car body is in bad shape and therefore I requested my assistant to inspect the damage. She told me the body has severe rust damage and substantiated ******’s observation. I will call you tomorrow.
******”

Okay… now I’m not happy.  If you hit a car that has rust and body damage (which our car has 2 dents and one small area of rust) does that exempt you from fixing it?

I write this:

“If you are trying to dispute this accident that your son has caused, I will be calling the insurance company right now.  The car is an 1983 vehicle, what shape do you expect?  Please give me a call now, because I will not wait until tomorrow.”

I also sent this: 

“The car does have a few dents.  Those dents and any rust on the car, does not matter at this point.  The thing that matters is that your son has made a  big dent which we want fixed.  We have a witness who had to back your son’s truck out of the parking space because he couldn’t figure out how to do it.  This witness saw the scratch on your son’s truck.   Is your assistant qualified to make this statement?   I think not. *******”

I then dialed his insurance company.  Who needs this crap?

I then get this doozy -

“I cannot address this until I get back in town, sorry life doesn’t stop for a dent in a junker car and I’d appreciate it if could handle this situation with a little class.
See you tomorrow”

Junker Car?  Handle this with Class???  What a total jerk!  Who needs him?  I don’t.  I filed the claim.  So much for doing a good deed.

I then get this final e-mail the next day:

“You need to contact you insurance co. and let them contact my co. I have instructed my co. not to talk to you but to wait for contact from your carrier. If you do not have insurance, then you need to call me. By the way, that would be illegal but I will be accountable for ******’s actions regardless.
Sincerely *******”

So… now he’s wondering or assuming we “junker car” drivers don’t carry insurance.  Plus… He can’t stop his insurance company from talking to me.  HA.  I don’t have to talk to my insurance company AT ALL. 

The greatest part of this entire thing is when his insurance company calls me and says I might want to go through our insurance because they are having trouble verifying his insurance!!!!!!!!!   That was great!  Made my day.  Two hours later it was all cleared up and just yesterday, I went and picked up the check to get the car fixed.

So…. does it pay to try and be nice?  Not in this case.  Caused me grief and stress to deal with this guy, a real winner.

Ended up we had 3 witnesses - one eye witness, one proctor who heard it happen and was there immediately and one proctor who came had helped him back the truck out.  Thank goodness for these witnesses!  If you ever witness an accident, stay and help, give your name and number… it can save the day!

Tags: cars

Years ago we had just moved and I wasn’t working. We had three kids and I had plans to write a book. I had a lot of ideas, but just never got it down on paper. I work better under pressure and I guess I need the pressure switch to be “ON” … because I just didn’t get it done. I needed to either write the book or get a job. I read my horoscope one day and it really hit home, especially with the ad I had found in the paper about Working At Home:

“Physical appearance attracts opposite sex.  Team up for song duet.  Until February attract money like magnet.  Opportunities appear to increase income… loans approved, find bargains.  Apt to be extravagant, however.  Until Birthday, make favorable contacts.  Study new skill or write that book.  Receive money from relative.  Future plans expanded upon.”

I went on to take this course and become a Medical Transcriptionist.  It was a scary thing as I was never a typist and didn’t know one medical term.  But, it turned out to be a great job as I worked from home and was there for my girls when they needed me.

The reason I brought up horoscopes is because I have been going through my parents files and was going through one medical file for my Dad.  He had stuck a copy of the daily horoscope from the newspaper in the folder.  This ran on February 18th, 2006.  My Dad had found out he had bladder cancer in late 2005 and was starting his fight.

“You don’t need to jump the moon now, just keep your head above the water line.  Little miracles are as necessary as big ones and oftentimes are even sweeter to behold.  You are due one.”

Yes, my Dad was due a miracle.  Maybe the miracle was that he was a tough fighter and was with us until last year, April.  Maybe it was a miracle he had a year without cancer and was able to travel with my Mom.

Yes, I am a believer of horoscopes, not every day… but often.   I hope you have a little miracle in your life… if you need it!

Tags: Horoscope