UH OH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The pollen was pretty heavy from the tree next to the driveway, so my son asked me if we could swap sides with our cars. His car is a lot newer than in mine and in better shape, so I agreed. He moved them later that evening just before his girl friend arrived. They were leaving the next morning for a vacation in the Dominican Republic and she was leaving her car behind his in my driveway.

The next night we had a bad storm with wind gusts up to 40 MPH. Like usual, I didn't even hear it and slept right through it. The next day I went out to go shopping and saw this.

"Wow, that must have been some storm. It blew over the basket ball hoop. I'm lucky, it just missed my car."

As I got closer to the car I saw the hood. AW CRAP! THE FUCKING BASKETBALL HOOP LANDED ON THE HOOD WHEN IT BLEW OVER!!!!

Looks like the hoop blew over onto the hood and then slid down to the ground scrapping the car all the way and taking out the license plate and frame.


I met the insurance adjuster at the body shop this morning. He recognized me right away. It seems we knew other at the Watch Hill marina on Fire Island. We didn't hang out together, but we did chat from time to time. My late wife and his used to talk a lot during the week when I wasn't there, so his wife knew men quite well.

The owner of the body shop came out to negotiate the repair with the adjuster. They bickered back and forth a little and settled on what the insurance company would pay for.
1. New hood, not a used one nor and after market hood either.
2. New front bumper cover.
3. A little body work.
4. Total labor - 2 1/2 hours.

Out of ear shot of the adjuster, I made arrangements to get the leaky and dinged up windshield replace and compound and wax the entire car. I was going to get the small dents and dings fixed, but he said that would be too expensive as then I would need to get the whole car repainted. I agreed.

We made arrangements for me to drop the car off on Monday to get repaired. It will be about a week. My insurance company will pay for a rental car for me.

I left and went grocery shopping and picked up a slice of pizza with mushrooms for lunch. When I got home I played the message on the answering machine. It was from the body shop. I called back and it seems that the the insurance company thinks $500 for a new hood on a 1998 car is too much. They agreed to pay $300 for the hood, a new after market or used. The body shop recommended after market so that what I'm going with.

A few hours later the insurance company main office. They said the total cost of the repair is $1675. Minus my $500 deductible they are sending me a check for the balance. It will go out tomorrow. I was to let the adjuster know if they find anything else out when they do the repair and they will pay me more.

Not bad service, huh?