Late December, back in '63... Oh, wait, that's Billy Joel...
Oh, was it a night in Grand Forks tonight for your's truly. After all the wonderful things that have transpired over the last several days of vacation, travel, and spending time with one of my best friends - the wonderfulness and good fortune had to end some time. I was waiting for it, but didn't quite expect it to hit this hard or this soon!
Lu and I got together this evening (Tuesday evening) and went through all of our photos and expenses and split everything up. Everything started out so innocent... Then Lu asked if I could drive her to Wal-Mart to get some cough medicine - as apparently I had given her some of the what I have been battling this past weekend. We were driving nonchalantly down Columbia when we came upon the construction zone near 24th Street. There was a small sign that had an arrow pointed towards the right, so I progressed to the right lane and no sooner I did that, I looked up and saw the pavement end. Yes, the pavement ended - as in there wasn't anything there. I slammed on my brakes but the loose gravel and dirt didn't allow me to stop and the car slid over the edge of the pavement and went straight to the bottom of a 3 to 4 foot gouge, where the road had once been. They had barrels up, yes, marking the construction, but honest to god, they had these things lined up like it was a lane - as in where you would drive around the construction. Apparently, the city DOT guys have no clue how to put up a "Road Closed" or "Road Ends" sign, because there wasn't one there. I have the pictures on my phone to confirm it...
So, I call the police to report the accident, a cop shows up, we have a brief laugh and he looks at the situation and says, "I'm surprised this is the only one we've had tonight... this is very poorly signed." Honest to god, that's exactly what he said. As we (Lu, me, and the police officer) stood there assessing things and waiting for the tow truck, we had several other cars swerving over into the other lane because they had figured out they were in the wrong lane. It was that horrible.
So, anyhow, now I have a damaged car... A dented and detached muffler and some bashed in materials on the underside of the front of my car. I don't think there's any major damage, but it's dark out there and I can't really make out a whole lot. I'll have to wait until morning to go out and look everything over.
This isn't happening at a very opportune time for me, either. I have traveling plans in three weeks to return home to Indiana and now, I have no idea if I'll have the fundage or, perhaps, the transportation to do so. Obviously, I'll need to call my insurance carrier first thing in the morning and, I guess, the Nissan Dealership to get an estimate on the repairs and to check on my air-bags. They didn't deploy, but I'm nervous that the impact may have jarred something. The one advantage is that I have the day off work tomorrow, so I'll have the time to get things done. The disadvantage, money, of course. Interstate Tire charged me $200 tonight for wenching my car out of that mess and I'm only assuming that I'll have another $1,000 in repairs to pay for on the car. This, at a time, when I'm already pinching from my vacation last weekend.
Someone, please tell me a joke. Fart in my face. Or do something to make me laugh. I'm really in the dumps right now...
Oh, was it a night in Grand Forks tonight for your's truly. After all the wonderful things that have transpired over the last several days of vacation, travel, and spending time with one of my best friends - the wonderfulness and good fortune had to end some time. I was waiting for it, but didn't quite expect it to hit this hard or this soon!
Lu and I got together this evening (Tuesday evening) and went through all of our photos and expenses and split everything up. Everything started out so innocent... Then Lu asked if I could drive her to Wal-Mart to get some cough medicine - as apparently I had given her some of the what I have been battling this past weekend. We were driving nonchalantly down Columbia when we came upon the construction zone near 24th Street. There was a small sign that had an arrow pointed towards the right, so I progressed to the right lane and no sooner I did that, I looked up and saw the pavement end. Yes, the pavement ended - as in there wasn't anything there. I slammed on my brakes but the loose gravel and dirt didn't allow me to stop and the car slid over the edge of the pavement and went straight to the bottom of a 3 to 4 foot gouge, where the road had once been. They had barrels up, yes, marking the construction, but honest to god, they had these things lined up like it was a lane - as in where you would drive around the construction. Apparently, the city DOT guys have no clue how to put up a "Road Closed" or "Road Ends" sign, because there wasn't one there. I have the pictures on my phone to confirm it...
So, I call the police to report the accident, a cop shows up, we have a brief laugh and he looks at the situation and says, "I'm surprised this is the only one we've had tonight... this is very poorly signed." Honest to god, that's exactly what he said. As we (Lu, me, and the police officer) stood there assessing things and waiting for the tow truck, we had several other cars swerving over into the other lane because they had figured out they were in the wrong lane. It was that horrible.
So, anyhow, now I have a damaged car... A dented and detached muffler and some bashed in materials on the underside of the front of my car. I don't think there's any major damage, but it's dark out there and I can't really make out a whole lot. I'll have to wait until morning to go out and look everything over.
This isn't happening at a very opportune time for me, either. I have traveling plans in three weeks to return home to Indiana and now, I have no idea if I'll have the fundage or, perhaps, the transportation to do so. Obviously, I'll need to call my insurance carrier first thing in the morning and, I guess, the Nissan Dealership to get an estimate on the repairs and to check on my air-bags. They didn't deploy, but I'm nervous that the impact may have jarred something. The one advantage is that I have the day off work tomorrow, so I'll have the time to get things done. The disadvantage, money, of course. Interstate Tire charged me $200 tonight for wenching my car out of that mess and I'm only assuming that I'll have another $1,000 in repairs to pay for on the car. This, at a time, when I'm already pinching from my vacation last weekend.
Someone, please tell me a joke. Fart in my face. Or do something to make me laugh. I'm really in the dumps right now...
This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 01, 2007 and is filed under car , rant . Monitor this post through the RSS 2.0 feed. You may leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.
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