On the bright side, I don't have to worry about that warranty issue.
2005-08-06...12:33 a.m.

Once again, at the beginning seems to be the logical choice.

The big bad and ugly of the van repair is thus:

$2360 total to rebuild and repair the tranny and it's various necessary components.

It became a hugely upsetting thing to me, because it seemed like every time I talked to the mechanics, the price went up. I should have stopped calling after they hit $2080. Really. Also, every single time I called, I had to be called back because the person that answered the phone never had the answers to my questions. I was frustrated, and stressed about the financial strain, and irritated that when it comes to mechanics, things are always worse than what they say it's going to be.

*insert "wild-eyed maniacal hair-raising grin" smiley here*

They told us it should be done on Thursday, but, of course, it wasn't. Fortunately, I kind of expected it, and had already extended our reservation on the rental car. I still had to be back today for Alex's kindergarten screening. So I left last night to come home in the rental car, and left Corey in California to come home with the van.

It's a very long trip no matter how you look at it. It's a little more than 600 miles, one way. Corey and I usually trade off driving duty because the trip takes us about 11 hours when we have the kids with us. It took me almost 13 hours. CalTrans does their highway work throughout the night, most likely to minimize impact on traffic and reduce heat-stroke incidence. I can appreciate that. Unfortunately, I reached the part of the drive where there are four or five areas where the highway is either completely closed down, or reduced to one lane. I came to a complete standstill for about 10 minutes at one point. By the time I got to Barstow, I was exhausted. I wound up narrowly missing a thunderstorm at Ludlow, and taking a nap at the rest stop between Ludlow and Needles. I finally got home, unloaded the car, and returned it to the rental office around 8.

I got to sleep from about 9 until 1:15 this afternoon, then I had to get up and get Alex to his school screening. It went just fine, and we got a little info (bus route and Mercedes's new teacher and classmates). We'll find out who Alex gets for a teacher next week.

When I got home, I called Corey's folks to find out what was going on with getting the van back. I hadn't heard from anyone, and the time was being cut a little close - it was 2:30 p.m., and Corey had to be at work at 2 a.m.. Nobody answered any of the cell phones, and Corey's Nana was the only one at home. She had no idea what was going on. I finally called the mechanic, and they said that Corey had picked up the car about an hour previously. Corey's dad called me back a few minutes after I talked to them and said Corey was on his way.

Less than an hour later, he called again. To tell me, "Don't worry, Corey's fine."

No conversation that starts out that way can be good.

It turns out that Corey was on his way home, not even 10 miles away from his parents' house, when the transmission started acting up. He decided to turn around and head back to the mechanic.

On his way back, he got rear-ended. BAD. He was hit by a pick-up hauling a trailer. From what I understand, traffic came to a sudden slowing, and the driver of the truck couldn't stop fast enough. On impact, the driver's seat-back broke, basically laying Corey flat.

I'm thankful that he wasn't injured by flying debris, such as the child safety seat or the television.

He was pushed across two lanes. He didn't hit anyone else, and he didn't collide with anything, stationary or otherwise.

Thank whatever powers may be, I'm so grateful. The horror of losing my husband is more than I can imagine. The thought of having to tell my babies that their daddy is never coming home...well, I think I'd rather throw myself off of a cliff. So thank God. Now if that same God can convince him to at least get some x-rays taken to make sure there's no serious damage. He's stiff and sore, but chances are that it's mostly due to the sudden shock to the system of being hit hard enough to do THIS to my van.

But still, auto accident injuries have a nasty habit of sneaking up on the victim later. So hopefully, I'll be able to talk him into going in once he's back in town.

Which, right now, is our biggest thing going on. He didn't get the insurance info from the guy that hit him. Only the police got that. So we don't get to get the ball rolling over the guy's insurance until the police report is released.

And I just realized what an asshole I am. I never even asked about the guy driving the truck. I wonder how he's doing, and I hope he's not hurt. Not too bad, anyway.

So, we will have to wait to be reimbursed by the other guy's insurance for things like Corey's day of lost wages, his lost .50/hour bonus for perfect attendance, the plane ticket to get him to Vegas, the rental car to get ME to Vegas, and whatever the hell we're going to do about the van. I have to get up in 5 hours to pick up the rental car.

Those people are going to know me by name.

the last trail...the next path