our no good very bad day today
It began like any other day. Brian got up and headed off to work. The kids had breakfast and watched cartoons until about 8:00 am, then went to get dressed and ready for school. I started watching something… I don’t even remember what it was now. At approximately 8:15 our day took a turn for the no good. I dozed off watching whatever it was.
8:39 - Dylan pokes me in the arm, “Hey, mom. It’s 8:39 I’m pretty sure we missed the bus. I wasn’t paying attention to the time when I got out of the shower.” Okay, not a problem we can walk to school. Is everyone ready? Boys start gathering backpacks and getting ready to head out the door. Lucas, your pants and shirt don’t match, go put on your black pants please.
We went out the door at 9:00 am and started walking to the school. It’s about a 20 minute walk, not too far. Ethan chattering the whole way as usual. It was a nice morning and the walk seemed like a small blessing in disguise. We were enjoying the sunshine. A train came so we had to wait about 10 minutes for that. Then there we were walking along the fence in front of school. A light blue caravan drives by and as usual Ethan says, “Look mom that looks like our van, only wrecked really bad” something he points out at every light blue caravan he ever sees. Only this time it was in fact our van. I turned looking at the wrecked passing vehicle, you know that weird reaction you have when you see smashed metal and there was my husband driving it, and there was our license plate confirming that the smashed up mess was our light blue caravan.
All four kids immediately went into a frenzy of little tears and worry as the van pulled off onto the shoulder of the road just ahead and waited for us to walk over to it. I quickly pointed out that if daddy was hurt he wouldn’t be driving the van! Tears stopped and little feet hurried toward the driver’s side of the van. Everyone piled in and we all came home. Even though we were right in front of the school I didn’t feel right making them go in all worried like that. Home seemed the best option for everyone.
Here’s how the van looks (and there’s some more pics in my flickr if you’re so inclined to look at the twisty metal) For reference, this is what happens when a big SUV t-bones your caravan. No one was seriously injured.
Brian is actually on his way out to get a rental car now. $200 a week!! Ack. Yes, we are paying for it out of pocket because we just found out today that our “full coverage” car insurance doesn’t include a rental car service after an accident or while our vehicle is getting repaired. No rental car. And as you can see the doors and windows don’t really close properly, nor do they open. The van runs, but I’m sure it’s not really the safest thing to be driving right now.
The humor here is that we were getting prepared to go trade this van in to get a flex fuel vehicle. But we’ve both had so much work that we hadn’t gone to the actual car dealership yet. We looked online, did comparisons, checked the blue book value of our vehicle and were prepared to go in with a pretty good idea of what we wanted. I wish I had pictures of the SUV …. it has a roughed up bumper, and maybe some blue paint in it’s grille. Not really damaged at all. The driver actually leaped right out of the vehicle and start yelling and screaming … until the police came of course, at which time the SUV’s driver decided they were hurt and traumatized and needed to go to the hospital. But, that’s a story for another day I’m sure.
In the meantime we just … wait. The insurance company, we’re with Allstate by the way, said that an adjustor will be out to look at the van, take it to the garage where they will decide if it’s repairable or totaled, and if it’s repairable they do all the repairs right there at that same garage … and we have a nice $500 deductible that has to be paid up front before they’ll do any repairs should “repairable” be our verdict. I’m almost hoping for a verdict of totaled just because it would be faster and easier! Awful I know.
And just to sprinkle some sugar on the day. Around 5:00 the kids went outside. They were supposed to be right in front of our house, and not go wandering around. Well they wandered. And Ethan decided run into the street when a car was coming, near the rental office. The car stopped and complained to the rental office, and they came and knocked on our door and asked if Ethan had returned home, which he had. It was a fluke, he knows to look before crossing, he’s always VERY careful and always telling everyone else to be very careful and yelling at the kids that just run across the street in the morning to go to the bus stop without looking. This was a case of he ran a few steps off the curb, stopped and backed up. He’s still restricted to playing on the patio for awhile regardless for being careless. And if I hear the words “violation of your lease” one more time I think my head will explode. I think breathing might be a violation of my lease, everything else seems to be around here.
There you have it. That was our day in a nutshell. And now it’s almost bedtime for munchkins and I’ve got some work I want to finish up. I think I might relax and watch TV for an hour after it’s quiet. I definitely need to clear my head a little.
Tomorrow will be better.
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April 17th, 2008 at 7:11 pm
Oh my gosh, what a day! And darn that leasing office - they need to get off ya’ll’s backs! And I can’t believe the SUV driver was such a lunkhead! Urgh!
Here’s passing you some super potent virtual Calgon!!
Yes - tomorrow will be better!
Lisa Marie Mary’s last blog post..PayPal Email Scammers Need to Go Back to Spelling Class
April 17th, 2008 at 7:16 pm
Oh man, what a DAY! Tomorrow will be better, because it couldn’t be any worse, right?!
Jules’s last blog post..Soy Un Perdedor
April 17th, 2008 at 7:22 pm
omg hugs! im glad he wasn’t hurt, but that looks horrific!! Thank God no one else was in the van or it would have been. Yeesh. I hope they say totaled so you can just go ahead and get a new car like you wanted.
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April 17th, 2008 at 7:24 pm
Oh my goodness! That’s some kind of bad day, girl! ((((Loretta))))
I almost hope they total that out too… sounds like less of a hassle! I hope you get out of that place soon… unless looking for other housing is also a violation of your lease. I’m glad they’re so relaxed around here!
Jennifer’s last blog post..Getting a New Fax Machine
April 17th, 2008 at 7:33 pm
So sorry this happened! I’m so sad for you. Hope it resolves quickly for you and you have a better day tomorrow.
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April 17th, 2008 at 7:37 pm
Virtual Calgon -lol- I’ll take some of that. Thanks everybody. I’m just feeling glad today is over. My mom was just telling me that if it’s totaled there’s a clause in my financing contract from Chrysler that says it’s also paid off if it’s worth less than I owe and bluebook value it’s right around the same amount, possibly a thousand or so less than I owe. So totaled might be a really good verdict after all. I need to dig out my financing contract and look at that too I guess.
This whole day has just been in slow motion. I’m exhausted and I didn’t really “do” anything. It’s like…. this all happened, but it doesn’t feel like it happened yet. I dunno….
thanks again everybody
Where would I be without my blogging friends?
April 17th, 2008 at 8:24 pm
OUCH! I hope tomorrow will be MUCH better!
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April 17th, 2008 at 9:02 pm
Wow that’s what I’d call a bad day. Sorry to hear about that. Thankfully your husband wasn’t hurt though. And yes you are right…tomorrow will be better.
Tishia Lee’s last blog post..Scattegories
April 17th, 2008 at 11:14 pm
HOLY COW! I’m so glad that Brian is ok. This is why I’m one of those big SUV drivers. Since hubby is fire/emt up here where we live we see a lot of car accidents. I have people pull out in front of me daily. I worry if I was in something smaller I’d be toast.
My suburban is part of my defensive driving. lol
Fine print sucks. I know so many people on full coverage that assumed EVERYTHING was covered. There is a reason we pay for full coverage isn’t there?
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April 17th, 2008 at 11:55 pm
I’m so glad Ethan and Brian are both OK! As bad as it is, it could have been SO much worse. Here’s a great big hug from me, too. (And it looks like the SUV driver was at fault. Why isn’t HIS insurance paying for the damage and rental? I hate no-fault insurance!)
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April 18th, 2008 at 10:05 am
So far Friday is much better. I’m working away in the office, the tow truck is coming to take the van to the garage to be evaluated….. it’s all going smoothly for today. Kids made it to the bus stop on time LOL barely because I forgot to pack Lucas a lunch for his field trip today, other than that all good.
April 18th, 2008 at 10:06 am
Thank you everybody for your kind comments
I’m just glad no one was hurt in this mess. Well, unless crazy is the result of an injury, lol but that will be a story for another day.
May 16th, 2008 at 10:24 pm
[...] would be in reference to the van being at the garage. You may remember Brian being in a car accident last month, hard to believe it’s been a whole month already. And I mentioned that we were supposed to [...]