October 29, 2021
Dear Everyone:
What a week!
On Sunday I went to
open the freezer door and the handle came off in my hand.
Spoiler Alert: It
only took a few minutes to figure out how to fasten in back into place.
On Monday the
insurance agent, who had promised to call me last Thursday, called to
tell me that the company had decided that my car was “a total loss”.
He also gave me the information about the current location of
what’s left of the car so I could retrieve all the “stuff” that was
still in it.
And he told me that
the company would compensate me $38,623.15 for the doomed car.
Agamemnon had met his Armageddon.
I find it interesting
that the insurance company computed the “replacement value” of my car
down to the last penny. Not
14 cents, not 16 cents, but exactly 15 cents.
Another interesting
thing: I’m suddenly getting
prerecorded calls about renewing or extending my car’s warranty.
Just a tad bit too late for that, I think.
Now, there’s only two
things wrong with getting $38,623.15 to buy a new car.
The first is that the car is (was) only two years old and I still
owe about $22,000 on the auto loan.
No problem, the insurance company will actually pay the credit
union first. Once the loan
is paid off, the balance will go directly into my account.
The second problem is
that this is not a very good time to be shopping for a new car.
The Great Global Supply Chain Shortage Snafu is still in full
swing. In the meantime, I’m
still driving the rental car.
The insurance company stopped helping with that at End of Day
(EOD) yesterday.
Just in case, I went
ahead and applied online for a new car loan at the credit union.
They were happy to accommodate me, and the loan was approved
within minutes
On Tuesday I drove up
to Vallejo (pronounced vuh·lay·hoe) to the salvage yard where
what was left of my poor car was being stored.
A kindly forklift operator picked it up and delivered it to a
space near the office.
Another kindly worker hooked up a portable battery long enough to
facilitate opening the trunk where everything had been deposited.
He also helped me transfer everything into the trunk of the
rental car.
This afternoon I
pulled it all into some semblance of order in said trunk.
At least I’ll be able to find things when I need them.
For the past two weeks, I would think, “Oh, I have that in the
trunk of my car…” Only to
realize that the trunk of my car was far, far away in Vallejo.
I had a brief
conversation this morning with the same sales representative who sold me
my now-defunct car, Agamemnon, two years ago.
He told me that new cars were coming in and being sold off in
about the same day now. At
his suggestion, I made a down payment on a new car, sight unseen, which
should be arriving some time in the next two weeks.
Now I just need to think up a name for it.
Everybody have a
Happy Halloween!
Love, as always,
Pete
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