The Venting thread

[Atheist37]

I'm really glad that everybody's okay, Rian. I suggest you get the driver's cell phone and text message records. If he was talking or texting at the time of the accident you have a much better chance of getting everything replaced -- and then some. Insurance companies can be a pain to work with and a court battle could take years. My sister-in-law flipped her Range Rover due to a faulty Bridgestone tire, refused to accept a settlement, and just recently won a judgment that after lawyer's costs is less than the settlement would have been. Be happy your loved ones are safe and seek good professional advice!

[OzAnt]

We have 3 family members in the hospital currently. My husband's brother (seizures and diabetes), my sister (persistent cough and detox-again), and my niece (pancreatitis-again). And they're all at different hospitals, none of which are nearby. What a way to spend Easter.
I'd be grateful for any positive karma sent their way, whether by prayer or thoughts.

Best I can manage is positive thoughts. I wish you all your loved ones the best, Sue and I hope it doesn't get you down too much.

We're supposed to be going to Florida next month with my brother-in-law and his family, so hopefully he'll be doing better by then, and the other two as well.

I hope so too, Sue

Ant

[OzAnt]

So this weekend, he decided to take the boys for a half day quad trip while my daughter and I had some girl time. He's pulling off the 2-lane highway to the quad area, and POW!!!! He got rear-ended by a tanker truck.

Sorry to hear that, Rian. It shouldn't matter that it's a new vehicle and that what's important is that your family is okay. But, I have to agree, it does. Something ain't new once it's fixed. Hopefully the vehicle will be replaced. Something to think about if it's not though, they have got better at determining if a car's repairable nowadays - which is to say, if the insurance company decides to fix it, chances are it's because it actually IS repairable (so that you'd never know it had been involved in an accident) and not because they're trying to save a dollar. They seem to have worked out that going down the "saving a dollar" path was just plain bad economics in the long term.

A37 makes a good point with getting the truck driver's cell phone and text message records. Driving like an idiot certainly can be explained by having been distracted by something.

Good luck with all of it - but again, really glad to hear all your loved ones are okay.

Ant

[Rian]

Thanks everyone for the tips and the sympathy! Some soreness is starting to come out (husband - neck and back; oldest son - hit knee on console; youngest son - hit side of face on door frame, TMJ sore) but it looks like it will be minor. Good advice about the cell phone! and sorry about your sister's settlement, A37 - is she OK?

And I'm VERY happy that my loved ones are basically fine!!!!!

[whoosanightowl]

Thanks everyone for the tips and the sympathy! Some soreness is starting to come out (husband - neck and back; oldest son - hit knee on console; youngest son - hit side of face on door frame, TMJ sore) but it looks like it will be minor. Good advice about the cell phone! and sorry about your sister's settlement, A37 - is she OK?

And I'm VERY happy that my loved ones are basically fine!!!!!

Rian,
So sorry to hear about the accident but glad that everyone is okay. I was going to warn you that sometimes it takes a while before injuries show up, but you've already seen that can be the case. Be sure to have the guys all checked out at a medical facility and that everything is well documented just in case down the road something shows up. Best wishes in dealing with the insurance companies, hopefully his will pick up anything your insurance doesn't cover and your insurance doesn't go up.

And an update on my family hospital situation;
my niece went home late last week and my sister went home yesterday, both are feeling much better. I'm not sure about my brother in law, we'll be talking to him today. Thanks Ant for the positive healing thoughts sent their way.

[Atheist37]

sorry about your sister's settlement, A37 - is she OK?

The accident was several years ago, right in the middle of the Bridgestone tire fiasco (2003?), and all the lingering aches and pains are long gone. Her baby was asleep in his car seat and woke peacefully as the dust cleared away. Seat belts, air bags, and a good quality baby seat saved the day. Due to the hype in the news, she was seeing big dollar signs and didn't want to accept a fair settlement. Now she's just glad it's finally over.

[Rian]

Yeah, those baby seats are great! The last time we got rear-ended by a truck was about 12 years ago, and our middle son was in his rear-facing infant seat. My husband and I had a lot of back/neck pain, and I briefly lost consciousness, but our son seemed to be just fine.

Un-be-leeeeevable - in the midst of all this accident stuff, I end up spending the night at the hospital with my daughter last night - we thought she was in the early stages of appendicitis, but it turned out to be an ovarian cyst. We got home at 4:30 am, just in time to catch a whopping 2 hours of sleep before the day started ... *yawn*

"Good" news re trailer - it's officially totaled. We also have our rental car now - one of those fun vans with the ramps, so my son can just drive his scooter in! However, I like the rear lift on our Suburban better, because it's quicker (no tie-downs, while the van has tie-downs). Anyway, at least I don't have to lift the scooter anymore

We salvaged our stuff out of the trailer today - it was interesting to see where things ended up. We keep the keys in the quads when they're in the trailer. One quad had the key still in, another had the key fly out and end up at one end of the trailer, bent, and we can't find the third key anywhere. I can't wait for instant-replays in heaven! ("ah, THAT'S where that key went!") I think at least 2 quads will be fixable, but one might be totaled. We're still hoping our car will be totaled so we can get a new one - we'll find out more tomorrow when we go get another estimate. Accidents are a lot of work! I thank God that my boys are still with me

[whoosanightowl]

I know going through the process of getting estimates and insurance hassles can be very trying, but hang in there, Rian, (not that you have much choice!). Pretty soon it will all be just a bad memory and things will get back to normal, with everyone having fun camping and 4 wheeling once again!

PS. I didn't know there were going to be reruns of everyone's lives, sort of like old home movies, shown in heaven! Well hopefully you won't all have to watch each others!

[Rian]

I think there will be reruns in hell, too ("and now here's some MORE pictures from our high school reunion ... ")

I think the ones in heaven will be fun, though (not that there's any Biblical basis for having them, but I bet they'll be there!)

Update - they totaled the car - hooray! Hopefully we'll hear the proposed settlement by the end of this week or early next week.

[Pseudonym]

I think there will be reruns in hell, too [...]

Matt Groening once said something along the lines of: "I don't believe in God. I believe in Hell, though. I've seen the Fall schedule."

Glad to hear that everyone is okay.

[whoosanightowl]

I think there will be reruns in hell, too ("and now here's some MORE pictures from our high school reunion ... ")

I think the ones in heaven will be fun, though (not that there's any Biblical basis for having them, but I bet they'll be there!)

Update - they totaled the car - hooray! Hopefully we'll hear the proposed settlement by the end of this week or early next week.

LOL, endless high school reunion photos-now that would be hell!
Glad to hear that they finally decided to total the car. Good luck with your new car search!

[Rian]

Rats. Saw the dr. today, and I have a torn rotator cuff, hanging on by a thread. More surgery *sigh* but I can't do it until the first part of December.

[whoosanightowl]

Rats. Saw the dr. today, and I have a torn rotator cuff, hanging on by a thread. More surgery *sigh* but I can't do it until the first part of December.

So sorry to hear that, Rian. I hope they'll be able to fix it for you. Why not till December, aren't you in pain?

[Rian]

Yes, I am - but our whole family is going to Hawaii in November for my dad's 80th birthday, and I'd be in a sling still if I had surgery now so I couldn't swim (let alone the post-op pain and inconvenience of a sling on vacation!), so I gotta wait I'll try real hard to still enjoy Hawaii with my family, though - I think I"ll be able to manage some fun despite the injury! But my major league baseball career is over ...

[Rian]

AAAAAAAaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm so frustrated!!!! Most of you guys know that my middle son is handicapped - his legs never developed right and they're really small, and he has bad scoliosis. He uses an electric scooter to get around, and we have a handicap placard so we can use the handicap parking spaces - they give us room to use our lift and to drive the scooter to the side of the car so I don't have to lift my 100+ pound son from the side of the car to the back, and it lets him not have to go behind the parked cars where it's dangerous because he's low and they can't see him well.

SO - last year, we always got this one handicapped parking space that was right up front. This year, there are some more people with handicaps, so we usually don't get that one, but we get one a few rows down.

That is, if there are no able-bodied people taking them... *fume*

The absolute WORST offender is this lady in an expensive green Jaguar (this is not a usual car - it's by far the most expensive car in the lot). Pretty much every day she takes a handicapped spot and does NOT have a handicap placard (unless she keeps it in the glove box and never shows it yeah right ) So today, we're a little later than usual - still on time, but a little later than usual - there is only ONE handicap spot left - I have my placard hanging from my rear-view mirror and I'm coming towards the one spot from one side, then I see her coming from the other side - and she zips into the handicapped spot!!!!

There are now NO handicapped spots left. At this point, I pull up past her and put it in park and start unloading in the parking aisle, hoping that maybe she'll finally realize, when she sees me use the lift and drive the scooter to the side of the car, that YES, THERE IS A REASON FOR HANDICAPPED PARKING SPACES FOR HANDICAPPED PEOPLE! I get the kids safely off and decide this is it - I'm going to politely ask her to PLEASE not take the handicapped spaces when she's not handicapped. I step towards her car and wait for her to back out, where she'll have to go right by me and I can flag her down - and she snivels out the front! (squeezing by the concrete parking block thing).

I don't like those militant handicap activists that will shut down a mom-and-pop restaurant if they can't afford to put in a ramp, but this is different - a completely able-bodied adult who continually takes advantage of all the other able-bodied people at school by doing something illegal, and continually takes advantage of all the handicapped people who live day in and day out with pain, difficulties, and danger, and to whom that handicapped parking spot is a real help in a hard life.

What should I do? My husband thinks I should write a letter and politely give it to her, starting with something like "Please stop and consider what you are teaching your kids when you continually break the law and take advantage of handicapped people by parking illegally in the handicapped spots". I think that's a good idea, because I really don't want to turn her off from handicapped people.

Or maybe I should just slash her tires?

Anyway, I needed to vent.