Looking Back
“Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.”
It was way back in February. It’s was a rainy evening, just getting dark. We were leaving the Porter Ranch shopping center on our way to one of our favorite 7-11s when it happened. A car side-swiped us on the driver’s side.
No one was hurt, but it did shake us up. The other driver came down the left turn lane, hit us, then pulled into our lane in front of us. He stopped, as the light was red. After checking we were both okay, Kris got out to talk to the driver. He didn’t speak English, but he pointed down the cross street as if to say he was going to pull over. As the light turned green, he sped off straight ahead, fleeing the scene. By time Kris got back into our car, I had lost him in the traffic.
However, while Kris was talking to the driver, something told me to get a picture of his license plate, which also caught the make, model and color of his car. That was the only way we were able to track him down. He broke off the driver’s side mirror and scraped both driver’s side doors.
So why bring this up now? Because after six months, we finally got our claim settled. It took a lot of work dealing with an out-of-state insurance company, First Assurance. I talked with their rep once, initially. After that I could only leave voicemails. It got to the point where Kris, myself and our insurance agent, Bruce Boord of Boord Insurance would tag team call each day.
We kept getting texts and letters that they had to further investigate the case. How much more was there to investigate? We got an estimate for the repairs at a body shop they recommended. It was over $3,000.00, but they tried to pay us off with only one-third that amount. They also tried this little trick where they would send a text to my phone that would say, “Click here to accept your settlement.” But it didn’t say how much the settlement was. So if you clicked on it, and it was for $1,000.00, that was it. They could say, “Well, you accepted it.” They also tried sending us a check for the aforementioned amount (a thousand dollars and change).
After five months, our case was handed over to a different department. That person we were able to talk to and we got our money. I guess they gave up on trying to short-change us.
So, we got a new mirror. The damage on the door we will live with for now.
Dennis
232nd blog completed.
First Steampunk novel: 76,865 words. ß Past 76,000. Goal: 80,000.
Second Steampunk novel: 783 words.
Second Steampunk screenplay: 157 pages.
First Steampunk screenplay: Need to update with notes from the novelization.
Third Steampunk screenplay: 38 pages.
This all reminds me of a Meatloaf song.
“And Dennis loves his meatloaf.”
Not that kind of meatloaf, Vincent.
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