A costly crunch
Last weekend was not a good one, in terms of planning and execution. Oh, #1Son stayed home overnight without parental supervision for the first time, with friends, with permission, so long as it was a dry house and didn't bring down neighbour complaints or police visits - from the remains of the night as seen the following evening, what with garbage collected, recycling in the bins, and the dishes done (coulda knocked me over with a feather on that one alone!), he justified the trust placed in him, as far as that event occurred. But, that was later in the evening. Let me start at the beginning.
A few months ago, I was asked to go back to Strathroy to perform a wedding for a couple that I had gotten to know over the past couple of years due to Darth Daughter. Sir Goobs was coming with us on a very short leash, I was performing the ceremony, The Kat was playing the music, and while we were there she was going to get some work done on her major client that has brought her back for a day or so every two weeks (long story short - her replacement's life went to hell and she's filling her own gap until a solution can be found). We had our suitcase, computers, service bulletins, music, and the clothes on our back, which should have been enough (more on that later). As I was backing out of our driveway, I made sure to check carefully both ways - we are at the bottom of a hill, and sometimes you get caught between the traffic coming down from the stoplight and the traffic coming the *other* direction through the four-way stop. I waited, paused, checked, double-checked (and, I should mention, the sun was shining on the salt crust on the back window, and the houses across the way were already in shadow - thank you, winter!). No traffic, all looks clear, backing out.
BANG!!!
WTH?!?!
I pull forward into our driveway and get out, and find that the neighbour across the street had also been backing out in her Ford F-150, right into the same stretch of lane as I had wanted. She had pulled perpendicular already, and the trailer hitch on my van that is pretty much rusted into place had slammed into the rim of her rear wheel, gouging it a bit. We were both shaken up and frightened, but when we calmed down we looked at things again and figured that there wasn't enough damage for us to have to call the police or anything. No smashed lights, no crunched quarterpanels, no mangled axles, nothing. We drove off, saying we would talk about it more later.
So, the three of us finally get to Strath, Sir Goobs to a friend's, The Kat to her office, and I go to the hotel to unpack. I pop the trunk, don't even look inside, and have an epiphany that causes me to swear. Sure enough, suitcase full of clothes, but no suit bag. I had put on the suit (a new one) to make sure it fit properly, then bagged it up... and hung it back up in the closet! I called The Kat, posted a note on FB for people to laugh at, and then went to get her to go to the rehearsal. As I'm waiting for her, she calls me - she'd forgotten the keys to the office! We would have to go to the rehearsal, I would bring her back, and then I would be gone for about four hours, home and back! It was a long drive, in some ways, and I'm just thankful that CBC had some interesting shows on that evening!
I get home the next day and there's a note in the mailbox. The neighbour had gone to a dealer to check the damage, and it turned out that the rim was actually cracked, in addition to the gouge, and it needed replacing, a $775 expense if they went through the dealer! "Please let me know how you wish to move forward." Well, CRAP!! We're supposed to be trying to save for a cruise next New Year's, not frittering money away on things like this! Emotions went low that Saturday, let me tell you.
However, when I mentioned it to someone the next day, that someone turned out to be an insurance broker, and she informed me that two cars backing out into the same space counts as mutual responsibility, a pair of "unsafe reverses" and insurance would assign 50% blame on both parties. The neighbour admitted that she hadn't seen me either, so...
Now, I *did* hit her, so The Kat and I discussed it and I went over and offered a bit over half of the claimed expense as a way of ending it - she was a bit shocked that *she* was possibly liable for any of it, but when I explained that going through insurance was a non-starter, as we have a $500 deductible and 50% liability wouldn't even come up to that mark but WOULD impact on both of our rates, what we offered was considered acceptable. After all, as The Kat reminded me repeatedly, we *do* have to live with these people, and would like to do so for a while yet!
But ei-yei-yei, what a weekend that was!