Only Four Days Into This Month...

[willowisp]

...and it feels like we've already been through a full one. We got our rental car today -- Andy is very encouraged to get a new car ASAP because it is, in his words, "big and ugly". When he told tyee the make and model, she used the far more eloquent term "pimpmobile".

The blue book value on our car is high 39/low 40s, depending upon the phase of the moon when I enter the information on their site. The initial estimate for fixing the damage is $5300, and that's before they did the serious looking. Today Andy faxed over the police report and repair estimate (have I mentioned recently that we adore the people in our apartment office?). First the lady said she didn't get one or the other or was missing a page or something (I only heard Andy's side of the conversation), and when they worked that out she promised to look it over and call him.

I had a doctor's appointment today, and we had called to let her know we might not be able to make it. Since Andy had the rental car by 10:00 and the appointment was at 14:00, we decided to go ahead with it. We left with plenty of time to spare, but I was an airhead and left her phone number home. We found the cross streets, but as far as we could tell there was nothing resembling a doctor's office there. Finally I got out of the car and walked around to the buildings to see if any people might be aware of a stealth doctor. I finally got to a building marked "Albuquerque Employment Services" and asked the receptionist, and she said she'd go get the doctor. Silly me, expecting some indication of, say, the doctor/practice name visible from the street.

We went to Whole Foods on the way home -- I hadn't gotten anything but the meat and pineapples for shish-kabobs, Andy was out of charcoal, and I'd used up the last of the rice for the buttermilk chicken. He picked up some zucchini to put on his skewers, and we got some corn on the cob. Eating corn in NC and here has almost made me miss the manure smell in spring and fall due to the corn we used to get in the summer (and the fact that upstate NY winters last seven months, and during that time the ground is frozen, hence no smell).

I also picked up some organic Fruit Loops and Corn Puffs. While I know the sweetener used is as bad for my blood sugar as cane sugar, the cereal lacked a lot of icky stuff like six different forms of wheat and such. The flavor is intriguing -- sweet, but you can still tell that the base of both cereals is corn. As a side note to 9thmoon: the other day I saw some freezer push-up popsicles at Whole Foods. They're something like $2.00 for 14, and there were only two flavors, <mumble> and <mumble<, neither of which was green. There may be more choices where you are, though.

Hopefully tomorrow the insurance person will officially declare the car totaled, so we can go to the credit union and get pre-approved for a car loan. I'm not sure what time frame Andy is planning on for getting the new car, but I imagine getting a rental car onto base will be all kinds of headaches, and thus it will be in the "sooner" range.

Comments

[9thmoon.livejournal.com]

*big smile*
I love organic fruit loops, though.

I wish we lived nearer a whole foods.

Are you sure you're going to total the car? You don't have to, you know.

[callicrates.livejournal.com]

Yeah, we're sure. The initial estimate for the repair was $5320. The blue book value for this car is about $4300. And that's the initial estimate... there is a strong possibility that there's more damage hidden that they would only find once they took it apart to start repairs.

My sense is that if we're going to be spending thousands of dollars on car stuff anyway, we might as well get a new one with a warranty attached.