Indianapolis 500

I'm having problems inserting pictures again, so scroll down to see a few, and go to my Flickr account to see the rest. I don't have all the descriptions on yet, so bear with me on that.

We had a good time at the races, but man, that drive is a BITCH! 12 hours (each way) in the back seat of a Toyota Highlander - don't recommend it. We left late Friday evening (9:00 or later), and stopped at a rest area somewhere about 4:00 am to get a couple hours sleep. We got to our motel around 11:00. We lucked out and they had another room available - originally, we were going to sleep on cots in their room, so we had our own room, and we promptly went to sleep. Perry & Destiny don't believe in sleeping while in Indie, so they went running around and came back and got us about 5:00, and we went to the IRP races (modifieds, sprints, mini sprints), and that was totally awesome! As we were walking in, there was a wreck literally right next to us that scared the hell out of both Chris and I. The cars were coming from behind us, so we had no warning that it was going to happen - just a loud bang as they hit.

Those races were done by 10:00, and since we were all still pretty tired, we went back to the motel to get some sleep.

Sunday morning we got up pretty early, but we still didn't make it to our seats until right at 1:00 (start time). I knew that there were some 400,000 people at this race, but that's just not a number my mind comprehended until we actually got there and SAW that many people. Even seeing it on tv doesn't really give you the feeling. Everyone got a good laugh at us. We wanted to make sure that we were going to have everything we needed for a whole day out there, so we had a couple of personal ice chests, a couple of camping pads to sit on, my bag o' stuff that I never leave home without (camera's, first aid kit, book, umbrella's, etc.) Turned out that we were in the paddock area, which is the only covered area at the track (except for the box seats), right on the start/finish line. The flag waver was directly in front of us and on the same level as us, so we got to watch him do his thing.

The honest truth is that I enjoyed the races we went to on Saturday much more than the big race Sunday. Here's why: you can't see what's going on. We could actually see the cars coming out of turn 4 all the way down the straightaway and into turn 1 - but nothing ever happened right there. NOTHING. So we'd watch these blurs of color speed past, and then watch the little display that showed what lap we were on and who the first 10 drivers were, and we'd see the numbers change, but never saw what happened or why.

Still, it was an experience I'll never forget. We met a guy from Jamaica who had come to America for the very first time just to see this race. We met a lady from England - again came just to see this race. We met people from all over the country - and every single one of them was pumped up and excited and ever so friendly. Even when they were laughing at us for bringing everything but the kitchen sink to the race!

But if we ever go back, we're hopping on a plane!

Wheetie, Wheetie, WHAM

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Originally uploaded by bookworm91770.

These dove were hanging out in a tree at our motel, driving Chris nuts cuz he couldn't go shoot them. They are humongous! Each is about 2 of the size we get here in September during hunting season.

Collision

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Originally uploaded by bookworm91770.

This was Saturday at the IRP, as we were walking to our seats, there was a wreck right (literally) next to us. Freaked both Chris and me out!

Pace Car

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Originally uploaded by bookworm91770.

This was Lance Armstrong in the Pace Car.

Danica Patrick

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Originally uploaded by bookworm91770.

Of course, we girls were cheering for Danica. She got up to 5th place, but ended up finishing in 8th.

Who??

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Originally uploaded by bookworm91770.

They go by so fast, we had to pick out a car when it rounded curve 4 and watch it go by to see who it was. If you tried to look as they passed you, this is all you saw.

And the winner is...

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Originally uploaded by bookworm91770.

Sam Hornish #6 won.

SuperHeroes

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Originally uploaded by bookworm91770.

As we were driving back from the race on Sunday, we found Spiderman, Superman, and Robin (I don't know where Batman was - must have been his day off!) having a conference on the roof of a nearby house.

Forgot to mention

That the hospital called Mom yesterday afternoon and told her that she does have a broken rib! She swore up and down that she did, but when I was at the hospital they said her x-rays were clear. They must have looked a little closer.

She did ask them about the massive bruise on her abdomen, told them she was concerned because of the aneurysm, and they agreed that she should have a CAT scan, just to be sure everything was okay. She's got that scheduled for 1:30 today, Chris is going to take her. I'll update when we know more, but I think that this is just a precaution.

Decisions Decisions

Chris and I have an opportunity to go to the Indianapolis 500 this weekend for about $200.00. A once in a lifetime opportunity. Some friends of ours always go, and this year, they were taking her little sister as a thank you for babysitting, etc., and at the last moment (last night) she cancelled. So Chris jokingly says we ought to go since it was already all paid for, and they said if we would pay for one of the tickets we could go! Seriously!

It’s one of those deals where neither of us really cares about racing, and it’s not something that on our own we would ever do. But. So I said that we’d have to figure out something to do with Mom, and went to ask her if she would be willing to spend the weekend with Grandma? Yeah, that would be okay. So then she was supposed to decide whether she wanted to go spend a couple weeks with Debbie or if she wanted us to pick her up at Grandma’s on the way back.

So this morning she tells me that she doesn’t want to go stay with anyone, she wants us to leave her at the house, without a car, and she PROMISES that she will take her drugs correctly.

Yeah, right.

So now what? On the one hand, if the opportunity had never come up, I wouldn’t miss it. It’s not something I’ve been dying to do. On the other hand, Chris and I are just starting the 2nd year of our marriage, we don’t have any kids, we have enough money in the bank to be able to go and still pay our bills, and why can’t we be spontaneous and just go?

I was telling my boss about it this morning, he says I should tell Mom that she’s already agreed to go stay with Grandma and that we’ve already agreed to go, so she doesn’t have a choice. I haven’t talked to Chris yet, he was still in bed when I left this morning.

Mom says that she’s going crazy because she doesn’t have any control over her life. That she’s had control for the last year and done fine until she came to stay with me. I wanted to ask her “What control?” Margie was giving her her drugs, I was paying all of her bills. All she had to worry about was gas, food, and cigarettes. When she moved down here, she wanted me to give her more control, so I gave her a chance and let her handle her drugs – and she did really well until she got back on the Xanax. She wanted to pay her bills, so I said fine, I’ll let you pay the Tulsa bills. I asked her about that this morning, because I haven’t seen any checks come thru the bank account to pay any bills and she said that she hasn’t received any. In 2 months? I paid the April ones, but I haven’t paid anything for May because I haven’t seen any. (She goes out to get the mail and can’t remember what she does with it. I keep finding it in weird places – hers and mine both.)

I told her that I’ve been trying to give her chances to show me that she can handle taking care of herself, and every time I do something bad happens, or she makes a really bad decision.

So, what do I do? I’m so tired of fighting with her all the time. She’s not happy, Chris and I aren’t happy. Every day is a battle of wills over something. She wants me to give her all the money, let her buy a condo, all new furniture to put in it, a new car, as many trips to Seattle as she wants to take…and let the future worry about itself because there’s no point in planning for it.

I feel like I’m dealing with a child, and while I try not to treat her like one, I know that I do at times, but she’s all about I WANT WHAT I WANT AND I WANT IT RIGHT NOW AND YOU’RE MEAN IF YOU DON’T GIVE IT TO ME. And that just pushes my “If you’re going to act like a child I’m going to treat you like one” button.

I just want my mother back.

Do you ever feel like...

You're in a big raft with several other people and everyone agrees where you need to go, but no one paddles with you, so you don't get anywhere?

That's my whole life.

Accents

You know how when you're watching a movie and the actor has that really fake accent, and you swear that no one anywhere actually talks that way? Well, they do, or at least the Minnesotians do.

She's okay, really

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Originally uploaded by bookworm91770.

Looking at this picture, it's hard to believe that Mom walked away from this wreck with just some bruises. She's pretty sore today (and will be for a few days), but she's doing well.

I've gotten very frustrated with her doctor, I have called him repeatedly and can't get him to call me back. I called yesterday and told them she had been in the wreck and that he REALLY NEEDED TO CALL ME BACK, LIKE TODAY! He didn't. We're going to have to talk to an attorney anyway, so I'm going to ask him if we could, or even should, do anything about this doctor. Mom loves him, thinks he's the best thing out there, but when he won't respond to legitimate concerns.....

Mom has finally agreed that driving to Tulsa to see a doctor is ridiculous and that she's going to have to find one here. Finally. I've been trying to fight that battle for months now - ever since we agreed that she was going to move here. Of course, since she won't be doing anymore driving for awhile, she doesn't have much choice about that. It's bad enough having to take off work to take her to the doctor in the city, I can't take off whole days to take her to Tulsa.

So we're back at the "Figure out what the hell we're going to do" stage. I've already told Mom that we're not replacing her car just yet. I was worried about her moving into her own place even before this, and I'm just not sure where I stand on that right now. We've been looking at some condos, but I think that we'll put that on hold, at least for a little while. We're going to have attorney fees, court costs, and who knows what all coming up - most everything is going to have to be on hold until we see what's going to happen with that.

Of course, she still thinks she should get to go to Seattle in August. First thing Lesley said when I was talking to her was "Guess Mom's not coming to visit anytime soon!". I haven't even mentioned it to Mom yet - we'll fight that battle another day.

At this point, I just thank God that she's okay.

The truck is fixed!!

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Originally uploaded by bookworm91770.

Chris looking out at one of the scenic turnouts. See in the background, the truck is fixed! We picked it up Friday before heading out!

Turner Falls Closeup

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Originally uploaded by bookworm91770.

I imagine that when we haven't been through a winter drought, the whole face is covered with a rushing wall of water. Beautiful huh?

Turner Falls

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Originally uploaded by bookworm91770.

I had never been to Turner Falls before - mostly because you have to pay to get in, and usually if it's not free, we don't do it. So we stopped at an overlook and were able to get some pictures of the falls. I was really kind of disappointed - not in the falls themselves, but in the whole set up. It's more like an amusement park than a natural wonder type of thing.

The falls themselves are beautiful, and I could stand up on that overlook and picture my Indian ancestors living in this valley, and almost wishing that I could go back in time....And then we got back into the air conditioned car and I went Oh Yeah! This is why I like living in the 21st century!

Oklahoma Lime Mountains

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Originally uploaded by bookworm91770.

Interesting, huh?

Oklahoma Mountains

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Originally uploaded by bookworm91770.

Driving through the "mountains", it looks like someone has planted rocks everywhere. These lines of rocks cover the entire area, and it's amazing how straight the lines are.

Price Falls Sign

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Originally uploaded by bookworm91770.

An explanation behind the falls.

Price Falls

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Originally uploaded by bookworm91770.

This area is the Baptist capital of the world! Well, maybe not really, but there's a lot of them out here. This is Price Falls, which is on private land owned by the Baptists. They didn't mind us stopping to take this picture. I think this is supposed to be the original water wheel. Anyway, it's not a very big waterfall, but it sure was pretty. I want to build my house right above it, so that I can open my windows and listen to it any time I want to.

Misty Mate

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Originally uploaded by bookworm91770.

This little thing right here is a LIFE SAVER! Fill with water, pump it up, and you get a nice mist that evaporates and cools you off even when it's 100 degrees outside. Doesn't work so great in high humidity (gee, in Oklahoma?), but on those dry hot days....HEAVEN!

Gilligan Hat

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Originally uploaded by bookworm91770.

This was the last stop on our trip, we stopped at the Lake of the Arbuckles to do some swimming. We found this area that wasn't very crowded at all (of course, it's 2:00 Sunday afternoon and everyone else is headed home!) We had lunch and finally broke into the wedding cake before doing a little swimming. Chris brought me a float so that I could relax and be lazy while he stood there holding onto the float so that I didn't float away! What a husband.

Of course it didn't work

So I'm going to blog from Flickr again today. I'm going to try to do it so that my actual post is at the top this time, instead of seeing all the pictures and then finding out why I've done what I've done....

Our Anniversary Trip

I'm not sure why I'm even attempting to put pictures in this post, we all know how much luck I have with that. But I have to try it anyway, so here goes:
Flowers
These are the flowers Chris got me for our anniversary. He brought them up to work on Friday, so I walked in from going to get Mom (more on that later) and they were on the front counter. I have such a wonderful husband.
Cabin
This is at the cabin we rented for the weekend. It was really kinda cute, and it had a wonderful view out that huge window. The only problem with it are those shades that are on it - everyone driving by could see right through them into the cabin!

Okay, I'm going to post this and see if it worked!

Daily News

In our late-breaking news section of this blog, Lesley has started a blog of her own, Trinity, which symbolizes her three kids. She just started it, so there's no pictures yet, but I've told her she is now required to post as many pictures as is humanly possible of the kids - especially Beamer, whom no one has seen except for Mom.

In other news, we went looking at condos last night. We had gotten a listing of 8 condos in the areas we were looking in, but Mom narrowed them down to 4 because she has to have a fireplace (couldn't tell you the last time she built a fire, but there you go). The second one we looked at was cute, very cute. They had obviously done some work trying to get the thing to sell. My only problem with it is that both bedrooms (and showers) are upstairs, and I really wanted her to be on the ground floor. We are now broadening our search, the realtor is supposed to be looking for some 3 bedroom condos that has at least one bedroom on the ground floor. At least that way, Mom wouldn't have to go upstairs very often.

Mom was ready to buy last night. She got mad at me cuz I made her look at the remaining condos on our list, and made arrangements with the realtor to keep looking. "What if someone buys this one out from under me?" It's only been on the market for 191 days, I don't think anyone is going to scoop it up in the next couple. And if they do, we'll just find a better one later.

Then we went to dinner with Sandie and Mike and Britt. Poor Mikey, he picked up the tab, and we're not a cheap bunch to take out to dinner. I did give him the Outback gift card that I had gotten at the Kiwanis lunch a couple weeks ago. My boss' Mom and Dad are very involved in Kiwanis, and they invited me to this lunch deal where I won the grand prize - the gift card! We had a great time, we don't get to see Sandie and Mike very much - and I only work a mile from their house. Too much stuff going on.

I did see their new dog after dinner. Absolutely adorable!!! She's going to be a decent sized dog, which really surprised me cuz Sandie wanted a small dog - I'm thinking about Duke's size. Do you all remember Duke? I remember Phil burying him up to his neck in a sand pile:) Does anyone still have a picture of that?

Just Stuff

We dropped off the truck this morning for repairs, hopefully it will be done by Friday, although I wouldn't mind taking the rental car on our anniversary. They gave us a Mazda 6 - sweet. It's amazing how much more pep a car has than a truck or SUV.

We finally decided where we're going for our anniversary trip. I tried to get us back out at Robber's Cave (where we honeymooned), but they were already booked up, so I found us a cabin in the Arbuckle Wilderness, Cedarvale Cabins. It's going to be nice and isolated, we don't have to see anyone if we don't want to. We're leaving Friday after work and will be back sometime on Sunday. I can't wait.

We had a good time on Sunday, dinner was excellent. We prepared everything but the steaks at home and then took everything to the nursing home. Dad was really upset that we weren't taking him to the house, but he's been so weak lately that they are using a machine to transfer him from his chair to bed and vice versa. I told him I wasn't going to risk him falling just cause he wants to get out of there for awhile. He started physical therapy again last week - we can't get them to keep him on it. They decide that he's not going to improve anymore so they drop it, and I have to request they start him back on it again. Hopefully, in a couple weeks, we'll be able to get him out of there for awhile.

After dinner, Chris and I went and put flowers on him mothers grave. We go every year for Mother's Day and her birthday. She sounds like a wonderful woman, I do wish I could have met her.

Anniversary

Our first (or 4th, depending on how you look at it) anniversary is quickly approaching. We've been trying to decide what to do - he wants to go camping/fishing somewhere (imagine that!), and I want to do a romantic evening at a nice hotel, with room service and the whole bit. I think I'm going to win out on this one.

For my birthday last year, we went and spent the night at Embassy Suites Hotel, which was really nice. They have room service, so we can order dinner in, and then they have an awesome breakfast deal - everything from bacon and eggs to cereal to fresh muffins and fruit. Truly wonderful. So that's what I'm pushing for.

I just ordered our replacement wedding cake for eating on the first anniversary. I decided that even though the original one didn't last thru the honeymoon, I still wanted the tradition. $15.00 for a 6" white cake with white frosting, but that's okay, it's a one time only deal.

In other news, I got Greg and Amber's gift ordered yesterday. Mom and I (and the guys) went in together, so we were able to do a pretty nice gift. I couldn't quite figure out how what we got them is going to work, but it looked cool. I'm sure they don't read this blog, but I don't want to chance it so I'll tell what we got them later. I need to get ahold of Sandie, I've still got Grandma's pikepass and I want them to take it back to her if they are going to the shower on Sunday.

Then, when I got home last night, Mom and Chris were out looking at her car. Oh shit. Yep, my family's 3 for 3 - in 6 weeks. Chris had a wreck a couple weeks before mine in the exact same intersection, except his was technically his fault - he rear-ended the car in front of him. It's a weird intersection - there is a stop light and a stop sign. Which do you pay attention to when you have a green light? The girl in front of Chris didn't know either, so she was going when she got the green light and slammed on her brakes when she saw the stop sign. Then mine a couple weeks ago (I had a red light). Then yesterday Mom went to McDonalds and turned a little too close and scraped up the whole left side of her car on one of those red cement poles they put so you don't hit the building. I don't think it did any real damage to the car, just the paint. And she wonders why we don't want her to drive on Xanax.

We went to see the neighbors kid play baseball last night. It was pretty fun, especially since they won - the very first time they've won this year! Austin was great, he struck out once, but hit a couple of great balls later on, and actually made it to 3rd base on one of them before the 3rd out. I took a bunch of pictures for them, but on my 35 mm not the digital. We pigged out on chili cheese hot dogs that were actually pretty good. Final score was 7-5. Go team!

MWF Seeking Hobby

I don’t know what to do about Mom. She’s bored, and she wants to get out and do something, but she’s back on Xanax so I can’t let her go anywhere by herself. She keeps asking me to take off work so we can go shopping, or house hunting, or whatever. I need to find her a hobby that will keep her occupied.

Every time we talk about getting her a hobby, all she wants to do is go antiquing. She’s tired of clocks and teapots, so she wants to go to a couple of auctions and find something else to collect. I have just a couple problems with that. 1. Money. 2. Room. When I say hobby, I’m talking about something like cross-stitching, or painting pottery, or gardening. Something that while it may take an immediate outlay of cash to get started in, once you’re going, you’re only spending money periodically. When Mom talks about a hobby, she’s talking about shopping.

She went to Wal-Mart 3 different times while she was in Tulsa last week. I’m not sure how much she spent on me, but I came home to 5 or 6 new shirts and a pair of pants. Then she wanted to go back and get me more clothes. Thanks, I really do appreciate it, but…..

She was supposed to go house hunting with Sandie on Tuesday, but I had to talk her out of it. Then I called Sandie to let her know that Mom wasn’t coming and it turned out that Mom hadn’t called Sandie back to confirm so she wasn’t ready anyway. Mom and I are going Saturday to look. We invited Sandie, but she said that it would be hard to do with Britt so I don’t think that she’s going.

And what is it with our family and planning get-togethers on holidays? Greg and Ambers shower is this Sunday, which is Mother’s Day. We already promised Dad that we were going to bring him home and cook him a steak – he’s been wanting one for months now, and I just haven’t had time to deal with it, much less get a pathway through the house that we could get a wheelchair through. So Mom and I are going in together and shopping online and having the gift shipped to them. I need to get that ordered in the next day or so. It was funny though, I pulled up their registration and laughed – 45 total items. We have more people in the family than that! When I registered, I was told to select 2 items for every person we had invited to the wedding, that way there was plenty to choose from and if someone wanted to give multiple gifts (towel sets, kitchen stuff), they could. So we registered for some 200 items. Amber’s list is much easier to choose from.

Final Grades

Monday, we got an email from the teacher of that review class that I hated. She gave us our grades on the practice test that we had to turn in (I bombed it by the way), and said that it had significantly lowered many of our grades, and that if we wanted to correct our incorrect answers, she would give us some extra points.

Emails were flying back and forth, phones were ringing, and much cussing was occuring. Then, as we are comparing notes, we found that a couple of us had answered the same thing on several questions, and she counted one of us wrong and one of us right! So now, I actually really don't know how I did on that test, and at this point I really don't care because I got another email this morning telling me that my grade in the class is 91. Oh, and that every one of us in the class passed the course. Freaked everyone out for nothing.

So it's official, I managed to get straight A's again. Probably my last time since now I have to start on my gen eds (Happy Happy Joy Joy). Thank someone that that is over.

Souvenier

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Originally uploaded by bookworm91770.

Of course, I have to buy a souvenier everywhere we go. Usually I get something that is $5.00 or less, which actually, this one here is. It's a painted gourd, that actually has a seed or something in it, you can hear it when you shake it. We also got a gourd birdhouse with a bird and a dragonfly painted on it.

I always wished I could paint, or draw, or do anything artistic.

Lions and Tigers and Bears...or at least Peacocks

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Originally uploaded by bookworm91770.

I love the colors in this shot. The blue was even more brilliant in real life than in this picture. There was a peahen in the cage as well, amazing how different they look. And no, I didn't take a picture of her - I wanted the bright colors.

There was a camel too, but his picture came out blurry.

Jesters

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Originally uploaded by bookworm91770.

Then we found a booth with jester's hats (very appropriate for these kids!) We had a lot of fun with them. Steph's got great kids.

Harris Hawk

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Originally uploaded by bookworm91770.

The first thing we saw when we came in was the falconers. This is a beautiful Harris Hawk, I think they said about 2 years old. Isn't she beautiful?

Geocaching

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Originally uploaded by bookworm91770.

I'm having problems posting pictures thru Blogger again (imagine that!), so I'm going to do this one at a time and then enter my post last.

This is on our way to find the cache before the Renaissance Fair (they went after the fair too. She's addicted!)

School's Out!

I took my final test last night, I'm not sure how I did though. It was for the review class that I've been bitching about all semester long. I made the highest grade on the last one, a 77, so I'm not really expecting much from this one. It just needs to be high enough that I get the passing grade.

We had the award ceremony for that award on Wednesday, Chris took some pictures (and they actually came out!), and I actually got written up in the school newspaper! I'm trying to scan it now so that I can upload it. I haven't gotten Chris' pictures uploaded to Flickr yet, so I'll have to put them up later.

We're going to Muskogee this weekend to meet Steph, Gunnar, and the kids at the Renaissance Festival. I'm so excited. I haven't been to one in awhile, but they are lots of fun. People get really into this, dress in period costume and the whole bit. And of course there are lots of booths where you can buy all kinds of stuff. I don't know that Chris is really excited about going, but Saturday (assuming it's not raining) we're going to camp out around Lake Hudson and then visit with Phil & Jamie on Sunday.

I'm really looking forward to a nice, relaxing, fun weekend.

Something went right!

I believe we left our story where we were waiting for the insurance adjuster to call, so I'll continue there....

Tuesday afternoon, the adjuster did call and I gave her my side of the story. She said that she would go ahead and start verifying the quote I'd faxed over, but that she couldn't go any further until she spoke with the people who hit me. So I said that I'd been unable to get them to call me back, so what happens if they don't call you back? She said that she couldn't just take my word for about the wreck, without a police report (damn police report) she would have to talk to them before cutting a check. I said that I understood that, but what if they didn't call? She didn't really give me an answer to that, but told me I could call her in a couple days if I hadn't heard anything.

So I got to thinking and remembered speaking to their insurance agent, and she said that they admitted that there was a wreck, but that I had caused it by stopping for no reason (at a red light with traffic coming?) and that since there was no police report they weren't going to file a claim. (I may have already mentioned that part before, can't remember).

So this morning I went ahead and called the adjuster to tell her about this and said "Hi, this is Sherri" and she said "I just put a check in the mail for you!" Bob Bitchin. She has spoken to everyone she needed to, they didn't try to deny that there was an accident, and we're good to go. We're supposed to have the repair shop gather up all of the parts needed, then contact the adjuster again to arrange for a rental car, and then get the truck fixed!!!!!!

Finally, something worked out the way it's supposed to. Now, I'd better go call the repair shop and find out if they want to start gathering up parts.

Always call the police

The people who rear-ended me at a stop light last week are now refusing to file a claim with their insurance because supposedly I slammed on my brakes for no reason (at a red light, with a car coming) and therefore it's not their fault. And, since I was nice enough not to insist on calling the police and thereby ensuring that she would have received a ticket, they don't feel that they have to file a claim.

Funnily enough, until I got a quote and told them how much it was going to be, they wanted to just pay it out of pocket and be done with it. There was no question of fault at that point.

Unfortunately for them, their insurance allows me to file a claim on them. So I just did. Now the insurance company has to contact them and get their side of the story, and then a claims adjuster should be calling me within a couple of days (depending on how quickly they can get ahold of these people).

So the moral of this story is, take the ass chewing from the cops for wasting their time, make them file a report - and issue whatever tickets they feel the need to - regardless of how minor the wreck is.

A friend of mine was in a similar situation a couple years ago, she was rear-ended, and the guy that hit her said that she slammed on her brakes and he wasn't able to stop. (They had to call the police because she was injured and had to go to the hospital). Know what the cops told him? That it was his responsibility to keep enough distance between him and the car in front of him to stop. Period. What if a child had run out in front of her vehicle? A rear-end collision is just about a guaranteed fault.

So hopefully, the rest of this will go smoothly. If not, I'll have to get my insurance involved and then I'm sure it will be a nightmare.