The Joys of Parenthood, Part 683

Tuesday, February 10, 2009
So I get a call from the Smart Boy yesterday afternoon - he's had another accident. This time he rear-ended another student's car on the major thoroughfare near our home. The reason? She screeched to a halt to avoid hitting the car in front of her, who was...wait for it...stopped in the middle of the road because he wanted to change lanes.

I don't think anyone was hurt, although the driver of the vehicle he rear-ended said on the accident report that her neck hurt. She was able to drive away.

He got a ticket for following too close (of course), and his poor little Honda is in bad shape. We had it towed to a body shop, then we took his girlfriend home, and went to sign the paperwork for the repair.

This is going to cost lots and lots (and lots) of money to repair. Once the estimate comes in (sometime later this afternoon), I'll need to decide if we'll repair the car or scrap it.

Oh, and the asshat that stopped his vehicle in the middle of a major thoroughfare and caused the trouble? Yeah. He drove off. Classy.

This incident is making me cranky for a variety of reasons:
  • The economy's in the crapper;
  • And this repair is going to be very expensive;
  • At a time when I'm trying to bolster our emergency fund, rather than deplete it;
  • And my job is not very secure;
  • And did I mention the economy's in the crapper?
Sigh.

12 comments:

mattw said...

All the more reason why personal teleporter technology is the way to go. No collisions. Scientists, I'm looking in your direction.

Seriously, though, car repairs suck and I hope it isn't too bad. Glad to hear SmartBoy wasn't hurt.

Janiece said...

Thanks, Matt. I'll post an update when the estimate comes in.

John the Scientist said...

Uh, Matt, to quote Douglas Adams:

I teleported home last night
With Ron and Sid and Meg
Ron stole Meggy's heart away
And I got Sydney's leg



No thanks.

Random Michelle K said...

Plus people will look at you all funny when you say you see creatures in the transporter buffer.

Nathan said...

I don't mean to be critical in your time of need, but you should have considered the 2009 economy when you concieved this particular Smart-Boy.

::Runs far, far away as fast as possible::

Janiece said...

Nathan, you can be replaced.

Or put on the same road as the Smart Boy - your choice.

Cindi in CO said...

This accident is news to me.

Obviously, you have no concern for my feelings.

Heh.

Janiece said...

::snort::

I was going to call you tonight, as I gave Mom the news yesterday.

The Mechanicky Gal said...

Must be hell with a mother AND a sister! Who gets the news first? How do you keep track? How do you rank the importance of news so that they get equal "firsts" of important and not-so-important news?
It fair boggles the mind!

WendyB_09 said...

Glad everyone is ok. Cars can be replaced, kids, not so much.

Had a similar experience during my high school years. I was in the middle car, which was a '68 VW Bug, when the car in front of us stopped in the middle of the road and backed up to the CHURCH driveway they'd missed. She drove on and the the police had to go get her, she didn't even know she'd cause the wreck!

OH, and we were hit in the rear by a massive full-size Chevy station wagon, driven by the other half of the lunch-bunch that day. Fortunately, we were not going that fast, but it did total the poor Bug...something about the engine being up under the back seat...

WendyB_09

Janiece said...

Amy, you have no idea.

MWT said...

Well see, that's what blogs are good for. You can make a single announcement and then it's their fault if they don't read it faster than the others. ;)

Glad to hear the kid is okay. Condolences on the poor car.