car fukt
At they say: “I'm alright, but I was in an accident.”
This weekend was full of car fuckery. (As it happens, my car was fucked in the back and then in the front. All around fucked)
I drove to Ithaca on Friday, and got back today.
On Saturday as we were setting out for the farmer's market, the bracket holding my muffler to the body of my car snapped a screw (or possibly a welded joint... not sure what was there before). Fortunately I had the windows down and the radio wasn't very loud because I noticed fairly quickly that there was a dragging scraping sound.
After a cursory inspection, I determined that the muffler wasn't dragging, but the metal bracket was. So no expensive damage. In fact, the situation would easily be rectified with a single nut and bolt. So I whipped out my trusty rope and tied the bracket to the body of my car (and to the locking mechanism of my trunk for extra safety). And we drove for a quick jaunt to Monro Muffler. They were absolutely awesome standup guys and didn't even really charge us to jack the car and put in the bolt and weld it in place. Fantastic!
The rest of the weekend is car-uneventful, and so this morning relaxed and full of happy thoughts (unrelated to the car), I set out on the drive home.
And at about 11am, outside of Corning, NY, my car hood flipped up and smacked into my windshield.
Fortunately, there weren't many cars around me, and I was able to see the road in the open space between the hood and the body of my car. I pulled over without too much trouble.
A cop eventually pulled up and helped me fill out an accident report. To get myself home, I tied that very same rope (thank god the guy at the muffler shop put it back in my trunk!) between the hood of the car and some metal bracket underneath my radiator.
I'm not sure as to the full extent of the damage, but at the very least I will need a new hood and a new windshield (it didn't shatter, but there are three good sized cracks in it), and a new plastic frame from which my wipers protrude.
The drive home was long and tedious, but uneventful (not counting the dirty looks I got from people for driving a car with a rope-tied hood).
Will call my insurance company tomorrow morning. I drove by "my" mechanic this evening and he said he'll go with me tomorrow morning to his usual auto body guy. It's a nice gesture and all, but I'm not convinced how helpful that will be.
Anyone know of a cheap/honest auto body guy in Pittsburgh?
I dunno if I believe in karma, but I guess something bad had to balance out my recent streak of good lately. I just wish it wasn't a windshield-sized chunk of bad.
I totally deserve an ice cream for dealing with this though. I guess I'm taking the bus to Coldstone tomorrow.