All is not such sweetness and light with the insurance companies as I had thought at first. We found out this week that my car has been ruled a total loss. Black Rider will ride no more. And now, instead of providing us a rental car for up to thirty days while completely repairing the car and restoring it to us in pre-accident condition, the insurance company gives us an ultimatum of three days from the time we settle our claim with them to return the rental car, and offers us a mere pittance for the value of the car. Going out of town for an unavoidable week in the middle of all this does not help with the timeframe. So it had better really help on the stress front.
Gloomy thoughts. Here are some cheerful thoughts to counteract the despondency.
We opened our personal Christmas presents on New Year's Day. We had agreed, since we spent the big bucks on the TV for each other, to exchange only inexpensive but thoughtful presents for the rest of our Christmas gift. These were a great success. I gave Michael a picture of me for him to take to his office (he's been wanting one for over a year), which I got for free from a coupon, and which I framed with a $2 frame from Goodwill. Michael gave me a CD he burned of some of my favourite tracks from my favourite CDs, so now I have a Best Of collection that has exactly the tracks I want. See, half the fun of exchanging these presents was in gloating over how cheap they turned out to be. Efficiency and thrift are virtues as admired in our house as in the Gilbreth house (Michael read a few chapters from Cheaper By the Dozen aloud to his family while we were there over Christmas. What a great book!)
Baby is very active. Must be healthy. Some people are still surprised to learn that I am pregnant. This is very gratifying. It's not that I'm not glad to be pregnant, but it's terribly reassuring to discover that it's not so obvious as all that. This won't last much longer, I'm sure. But it's nice while it lasts.
I'm up 5+ games of rummy to Michael in the unofficial tournament we've had since getting back from Ohio. We haven't played any more Euchre since I kept losing that. Rummy is such a nice game.
We had such a time of it trying to calculate the total points possible in any given game of rummy. This discussion was started over breakfast one morning this week after a game in which all but two (non-face) cards had been played. One of us had scored 170 and the other 180, so we deduced that there must be 360 total points out there. But we couldn't get the math to add up. Tens through aces scoring 10 points each offered a total of 200 for all the face cards, all suits, and then the nines and below should add up to 180 (9 cards x 4 suits x 5 points per card). We were twenty points off. We laughed long and hard when we realised our error.
It's been such fun reading Christmas letters from friends. I love hearing from people and it's so nice to read my friends' letters just as if they were real grown-ups. Having a Christmas card list is such a grown-up thing. I really, really, really do mean to be good and do it next year. Quotha.
Off to finish packing. Let's see if going off and ignoring the pile of stuff to be done has improved the situation any. Sometimes just ignoring problems makes them go away. Maybe if I go back and look at the bags now I will have clearer insight into what I should pack and everything will be a breeze.
Aloha for now! Have a great week, y'all!
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3 comments:
What a great idea for gifts. One of my favorite gifts that I "made" was a rectangle collage frame with pictures of Nathan and me from the beginning of our relationship right up to our engagement. In each picture we are some place or doing something memorable. It was lots of fun to put together. I gave the frame to him for Valentine's Day the year we got married. Although it would look cool in his office, he's put it in our home office, so we both can enjoy it any time we're in the room. :)
Rose, here's a bit of unsolicited lawyerly advice (and hopefully it's not too late): DON'T AGREE TO SETTLE with the insurance company unless you are 100% satisfied. If they want to cut you a check for less than your car was worth, don't accept the check. Tell them that, instead of money, you want them to go out and find you the same exact car (mileage, features, etc.) and give it to you. Your insurance co. is obligated to restore you to the position you were in pre-accident. If they won't give you the dollar amount to do this, simply tell them they'll have to find you another car themselves. This will compel them to raise their offer of settlement to FAIRLY compensate you. Hope it's not too late for you to work out a better deal with them! I hate to see you given a bum deal.
Amy
Thanks, Amy! I have been wondering that very thing - it seems reasonable to demand that they put us back to where we were before this happenend, but I wasn't sure what leverage we had before they gave up on us and threw out our claim or whatever. I mean, if we keep saying 'No' and holding out for more, and they keep insisting that that's all they will cover, then we're sort of at a stalemate, right? It's encouraging to hear you so emphatically insist that we do have a right to be made whole.
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