… I have totally used up all my grace quotient for cuss words for the year today.
Ok ok… I know. Where sin exists, grace abounds that much more. I am embarrassed over my very carnal reaction today even though my friends have told me not to worry about it. They say that what I did was totally understandable. It’s still embarrassing though.
See, what happened was this. At 8:11 am my alarm goes off. I hit the snooze twice and roll out of bed at 8:29 am. I am not in the best of moods in the am anyway but I saw The Happening last night and got to relive it all night long in my dreams. Not only that, my subconscious must hate me-self because it decided to make up even more horrible ways for people to die.
I hate this PTSD … stuff. <– see …. there I go again with the temptation to have a trash mouth.
Anyway, I had told Perry yesterday,”I have to get the U-Haul at 9 am. I’ll buy you lunch if you help me go and get three pieces of furniture (garage sale kind of situation from a friend) and bring it back. It should take maybe an hour and a half, maybe two.”
We didn’t have lunch until 2:30 pm. Things got bad … quick.
This is what happened. The friend I was buying the furniture from is a relative of one of my best friends. So, I went by my best friend’s house first. There was some misunderstanding and he thought I was going to rent the truck for the both of us to haul stuff around whereas I thought he was going to do his own thing at another time.
Slight hiccup and quite a bit more work. Perry was cool with it. No big deal.
We go over to the house with the *fabulous* night stands, chest of drawers and outside picnic table for my balcony. However we decided to load up pool furniture for my friend for a first run.
I put the U-Haul truck on the curb, near the back side of the house so we could have an easier time with the pool furniture. As my friend and I are walking out across the yard to put the first item in…. we saw this elderly couple, take off out of their driveway like lightning! It was seriously like they thought they were the space shuttle (which landed by the way … heard the sonic boom even). The man went flying backwards at a curve straight into my U-Haul truck! I wasn’t directly in front of his driveway but, because he was curving out, he nailed the back passenger side quarter panel.
Randy lost it.
Later, my good, loving and dear friend (God love his raggedy ol’ heart) decided to show me his impersonation of my reaction. He threw his hands down and screamed, “&@*$!!!!!!!!!!” and then threw his hands up and yelled, “@#$*!!!!!!!”
Then he reminded me that through all of this, the whole time, I had a Christian emblem on my t-shirt.
::: shaking head ::: Isn’t that just some crap?
I laughed at his impersonation. When it all happened and I was trying to de-escalate my “fight” mode. I only remember him saying very firmly “eeeaaassssyyy.” He is a good friend because he really does know me. Him making fun of me later was perfect.
So, yes, I said two really bad words, really loudly with elongated enunciation. I turned away to compose myself and to do my best to not have an absolute melt down. I hadn’t been involved in any kind of accident for 16 years … I was not happy and wanted to get even angrier but I knew that would not be the mature thing to do after my initial outburst. It took a good minute for me to turn around again. But when I did, I noticed that the very old man was shaking like a leaf and I instantly felt terrible for him. His wife, bless her heart, was all over it: calling insurance, admitting fault and trying to calm him down. I apologized to her for my initial reaction. Even though I didn’t direct it at them… just in general. I felt awful. She said she completely understood and didn’t blame me.
Sweet lady.
I have another friend who is very high up in a National rental car company. He once said to me, “Don’t *ever* take the added insurance coverage they offer at the desk. If you are paying for rental car coverage on your personal policy, it’s cheaper to go that way if something happens.” Since then I have never taken it and it turns out… he was exactly right. U-Haul is going to decide Monday if they are going to go after my insurance first or directly toward the man whose fault it was. If they go after him first (which I think they will) I won’t hear from them again. If they go to mine first, than I only have a $100 deductible :). My insurance company said that if U-Haul does come to them they (my company) will go after the other Insurance company to pay for it and reimburse my deductible. If I had taken the U-Haul deal, I would have had to pay $150 and still might have ended up talking to the various insurance companies.
Also, the U-Haul people tried to get me to do a “Quick Claim Settlement” where they, on the spot, assess the damages and I pay half and that’s it. They quoted me a very large price and I just said,
“No thanks.”
::: dialing Insurance Agent Jan :::
Don’t get me wrong, the U-Haul dude was just doing his job. He looked more scared than me. 
So, in the end, my premium *might* go up and I may be out a hundred bucks temporarily. But I have pictures, two witnesses and a couple taking responsibility. i wasn’t even in the car for goodness sakes. I am not worried about it (anymore) but it was a drag on the day.
Sidenote: when everything was much calmer and the lady and I were bent over the police report like a puzzle trying to figure out how to fill in what information needed to go where like the cop told us. The older man, with a whimsical smile and little mischievous glint in his eye said to me, ” I was just trying to go get some food. I’m hungry!!!!”
When he said that, I could fully relate to climbing into a car and taking off like a bat out of hell. Ok … maybe not … but I thought he was cute by trying to be playful like that. I just smiled.
By the way, speaking of food, I am totally eating ice-cream tonight.
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