Car Craziness

Hey, everyone! Just wanted to start off by saying

Me as a Bitmoji

No real writing done this week YET. AGAIN.

Granted, that is largely because I've been working on figuring out the insurance stuff - spoilers: it did NOT get sorted out last Tuesday - and checking to see how much it would cost to get the body work done on my car.

I've been to the police station to petition for a copy of the accident report once it's done.... which it isn't yet. Apparently it takes roughly two weeks for an accident report to be completed. I've set myself up with a new insurance company... long story I won't get into. I've gone to one collision center that gave me the top estimate of "only brand new parts for that specific vehicle from that specific maker." He seemed to know what he's doing, and I trust his skills, buuuut, he himself was being very unprofessional while I was there. The next collision center was a bit of a disaster with the owner grumbling about how crappy new cars are, and how he couldn't give me a proper estimate without taking the front off my car first, and then he slammed my hood shut... which dislodged my headlight further and wouldn't let my hood actually latch...


He also gave me the low-ball estimate of "probably going to use all refurbished parts, and I couldn't see everything without taking off the front" which was about half of the quote the first guy gave me.

Needless to say, I am NOT going to that second guy.

Thankfully, my manager at work knew of another collision center in the next town over, and let me leave work early so I could get an estimate before they closed for Memorial Day weekend. I have to say, I am DEFINITELY going with these last guys, as long as their estimate doesn't come back as more than the first guy's.

See, I don't have the estimate quite yet.... I got there with about a half-hour before the collision center closed. They took pictures for insurance purposes, and checked everything out to see what I would need replaced. They didn't have the time to look up prices for the pieces, though - hence me not having the quote yet - because they were a bit more concerned with a couple of other things.

As I mentioned, the headlight got dislodged further while the second repair guy was pulling and shifting things to see around the front bumper to see what needed replacing. Which meant the inside of my hood looked like this.

The back of the headlight was now resting on my fuse box and was preventing the hood from closing all the way. The cracks in the headlight were now at the perfect angle to catch the rain we had been having off and on all week, so some water was already pooled inside a touch.

Also, with all the not-so-gentle tugging on the front bumper, it was now significantly off the main body of the car. When I drove my Cruze to the third collision place, since I'd be on the road for about ten minutes or so, going about 50mph (80kph) on the stretch of road connecting the two towns, I thought I'd be smart and bungie everything together. I have a whole package of those mini-bungies that are only about 3 or 4 inches long (~8cm). I latched two from the hood to the body, making sure to lace through the bumper as well to try to hold everything together.

The guys at the collision center were not fans of my ingenuity....

They were afraid the bungies wouldn't hold. The bumper could fall off the front too quickly for me to stop, so I'd run it over; popping my tires and/or tearing my undercarriage apart. Or I could cause an accident. Oooor, the bungies would fail and my hood would come flying back at me, smashing in my windshield, possibly dislodging and destroying my roof, or even get me into another accident. Then there was the headlight problem: it could scrape the fuse box and damage that, at the very least abandoning me with no electricity to my car, at worse it could spark an electrical fire. Plus, the water pooling in the headlight could also cause a short. The turn signal wasn't working either, or the fog lamp... and I have no horn to warn people....

They were NOT going to let me leave with the car like that. So, instead of pricing up my quote for me, they - completely of their own accord; free of charge - spent the next half-hour banging out the dent a little on the one fender so the headlight could lay in it properly. They also JUST finished repairing another 2015 Cruze that was hit on the left side by a deer. So they had a "replacement" headlight. It's not a permanent fix since this light is cracked as well, but the bulbs still work and the crack isn't so bad as to allow water inside. So it's a better option for safety reasons.

Also, don't worry, all of this work was after they took the pictures for the insurance company, and the original headlight is in my trunk in case the adjuster needs to see it in person.

They also managed to easily pop my blinker back in place and snap my bumper back on. Now, my bumper is in place, my hood closes, my fuse box is clear, and my lights work! Still need to get the actual parts replaced, but it's a good tide-me-over until I can get that police report and finally get some pay out from insurance.

Headlight from other Cruze that was hit by a deer

Bumper popped back into place and hood fully closed!

I felt really safe knowing these guys were looking out for me. Even if it was a ploy to try to win my business, it worked. Customer service will win you clients most of the time...

So that's been MY week for the most part. That, and being so mentally drained from this whole nightmarish rollercoaster that I just zone out on the couch when I am home.

There was really no way I would get my mind to work well enough for quality writing.

I DID manage to finally finish part 2 of my Meet My OCs series over on Tumblr. I had meant to post the first three in the series - all of the Real Life Inspirational Backstory stuff - on Sunday the 19th, when I posted the first part. When that didn't happen, I meant to post part 2 - the Real Life inspiration for all of my Gyateara main characters - on Monday or Tuesday. Some time relatively close to the original post. That also didn't happen.

So I figured, "I know! It will be a weekly series! I'll post part 2 on Sunday!"

Bitmoji

Missed that too. So yesterday I was DETERMINED to get this post done and published before it got any later. I hid out on the front porch, enjoying the sunshine for an hour or two after work, and COMPLETED PART 2! Yay!

Who Wants to Meet My OCs? (Part 2 - Gyateara)

In case you aren't sure what I'm talking about, what I started doing on Tumblr is give the background, and eventually I'll give the actual bios, of my original characters. I've wanted to do this since November, and I'm finally pulling the trigger on it. Part 1 talked about my inspiration for the two main story worlds I'm working with: Gyateara and "Glitches".

Part 2 talks about the real-world inspiration for each of my Gyateara characters. Things that wouldn't show up in their character bios. Things like Amara being my first D&D character and based off a mini Hubby had given me when we were dating. Or Natalie and Connor each being hodge-podge meshes of cliched anime protagonists. Or Jolene being my longest-running D&D character who also inspired my first winning NaNoWriMo story.

So, if you want the full details on those four lovely characters, check out my Part 2 of my Meet My OCs series. I'm going to try REALLY HARD to get Part 3 properly done for a Sunday update over on Tumblr, but I'll be sure to link here on next week's blog as well.

Biscuit Facebook sticker
by Ghostbot

I did manage to get more reading in this week, though. Taurus Pixie had her latest chapter of "Chat Vert" up yesterday, and I quickly devoured it. We finally get to see Adrien's perspective of what's happened so far. We also get to see his jealous, borderline possessive, tendencies whenever he sees Ladybug with another man. That man, of course, is the amazing Luka. So... his nervousness about losing Ladybug to Luka is quite justified. Just... not EXACTLY the way he's thinking.

Anyway... go check out the story!

In the meantime, I haven't written anything fictional all month. I've slacked off a touch once, I don't want to do so again. I guess that means this week's goal is to write up a nice one-shot to finish the month off with. Anyone have any suggestions?

Oh! And I used some of my "I'm doing brainless activities to zen out" time this past week to go through my Bitmoji app and save just about every image I could find that MIGHT be valid to use on this blog at some point or another. I think I have over 200 images. So, you'll be seeing a lot more of Cartoon Me from now on.

Bitmoji