Magnet lives

I spent the day yesterday picking up the pieces of my little Magnet. Literally.

In the early morning I woke up and started working, tracking down Milo's last name and phone number and address where my car had stayed the night. I was drowning in insurance policy numbers, phone numbers, police report numbers, addresses, tow truck numbers, license plate numbers, make model color and year information for my car, Milo's truck, and the Honda that hit us. I was so tired and hungry the night before that I hadn't thought to get this info.

So after some tracking down of all the scattered pieces, I rode my bike to the neighboring town to meet the tow truck driver. While I waited, I picked a few of the larger chunks of taillight and bumper and light bulb out of the street and took some pictures of the car. I inspected the undercarriage to make sure I couldn't see any signs of leaking from the gas tank, or any cracks in critical steel parts, but it looked like the bumper, lights, and tailgate took the damage.

We loaded up The Magnet onto the truck and the tow driver entertained me with stories of hit and run accidents, of old cars adorned with parts from a bunch of other cars from the pick and pull yard, and of fishing in Oregon.

At the body shop he tried to back The Magnet into a parking spot and cut it too sharp. The right front wheel came out of the brace and fell to the ground. It popped off the passenger side front bumper. It's a good thing it is plastic and the bumper just popped back in...

At Dibbles Collision, The nice guys, I waited for a bit then spoke with the receptionist that seemed to have a lot of little things that needed to be done and so would take a sentence worth of information, then do something else. Then one of the bosses took me out to look at The Magnet. He took one glance at it and said oh yeah that's totaled. So what you do is call your insurance. He takes a business card from his pocket) and tell them it is a total loss (he says total loss slowly and clearly and with an arrogant edge to his voice, and writes TOTAL LOSS in all caps on the back of the card and signs it. Then he gestures as if he is going to leave. So I asked him what he thought about the innards. Are they okay? Do you think the damage is just superficial? I don't think the gas tank is damaged; it is way in there. The damage is only to the tailgate and bumper and lights. But it has already done what it is supposed to do, and if you get in another accident it will be very dangerous. You should just take it to the wrecking yard and get yourself a new car.

He did not look at the innards. And this is what I would expect from an asshole that realizes he will not get paid for this job. And all the things he said, he said with an air of asshole factor, partly laughing inside and partly annoyed that he would have to take the few minutes needed to actually look at the car. And so I drove my totaled car away in front of him just to prove it rocks.