I’ve been on a bit of a hiatus for the past couple of weeks.
The Saturday before Christmas, my girlfriend and I drove up to Oregon to visit my parents over the holiday. It was a very nice, pleasant, and restful trip.
On the way back, though, I hit an icy patch on the Grapevine. I was Car Number Three in a six-car pile-up. The accident took place at midnight, and it wasn’t until 2 AM that the extortionist tow service had moved the remains of my van to a truck stop in a nearby town. (Less than 10 miles, $340. I was very tempted to tell the guy, “sorry, I don’t have it. Put me back on the freeway, and you get to tell the Highway Patrol why you’re not clearing me off the road.”)
Since the freeway had been closed on account of the weather (Yeah, right. Ten minutes too late), there was no room at the motel. We got to spend the night in the lounge area normally reserved for professional drivers.
Around 10 AM, I called the Cal-Trans number and learned the freeway had been opened. Next call was to the Auto Club, to get the remains of my van towed to the repair shop in North Hollywood. Unfortunately, I was told the insurance adjustor wouldn’t be able to look at the van until after the new year. I can’t imagine it won’t be declared a total loss. The front end is caved in. I skidded into one car, spun around 180°, and then got to watch Car Number Four skid into my already abused front end. And with 303,000 miles on the van, I suspect they’d call it a total loss over a flat tire.
Good news: I have decent insurance, which covered a rental car. And, I had enough in reserve, and a good enough credit score, to buy a replacement van. So on Saturday, while the year-end clearance sales were still going on, I went shopping. With the dealers as motivated as they were, I got a good deal on a nice van. It’s a 2002 Honda Odyssey, loaded with nifty features, and only 63,000 miles on it. As far as I’m concerned, that’s nearly new – just old enough for someone else to have taken the first year’s depreciation on it.
Oh, yes. More good news from the accident: All the people in all six vehicles walked away from the accident. My girlfriend has whiplash, and I’m referring her to my chiropractor. I have a small collection of bruises, but nothing major. Given that the crashes happened at freeway speeds, things could have been a lot worse.
There. Enough with the events of my life. Later today, I hope to post about the events of the world.
L8-R!
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Greg said,
303K, I’d say you got your money’s worth out off the van.
January 3, 2007 at 11:04 am
Karl Lembke said,
But it’s no wonder they wanted to get back to Snow Patrol. I’m in the wrong business.
January 3, 2007 at 3:17 pm