Eating my way to a different car

Well, the Impala was totalled. It only had 81,000 miles on it so it was really too young to die.  The damage didn't look that bad but the repair estimate was three pages long. Who knew there was so much stuff inside?

I was really impressed with the quick service I got from State Farm. They gave me a check on Friday. We have rented a car to use for car shopping for a different car (which is almost as bad as job-hunting!).  There are so many ways we could get a bad deal, thank goodness my son-in-law is helping. The guy loves looking for cars--go figure!

I had managed to get my weight down to 197, but with all the hassle, I'm back over 200 again. I have belonged to TOPS (among many other weight-loss groups) and their creed is. "I am an intelligent person, I will control my emotions and not let my emotions control me." Much as I may try, I can't remain that detached. I was in TOPS during 9/11 and gained 10 pounds in one week.

Thanks for all your kind words and support. I really appreciate you all!

Ouch!

On this past Saturday, I had my very first car accident--I rear-ended a car stopped for a left turn on Larpenteur.  The back end of the girl's car was smashed in and it wouldn't run. It just sat on the median in the rain as she cried.

One month ago, my granddaughter of the same age was rear-ended at a stop sign. Sonja also cried as the information was exchanged and her car towed away. The woman who ran into her didn't have insurance and tried to blame it on Sonja. The car was totalled and it was a nightmare for her.

As a result, I was extra sympathetic to the girl whose car I hit. She said it was her only car and she needed it to get to work. I hugged her and offered to take her to work as we stood there in the pouring rain and passing cars stopped to ask if they should call the cops. Several people who had witnessed the accident had pulled over to give statements to the cops.

When the first officer asked me for details, the girl's mother arrived and rushed over yelling and accused me of trying to kill her daughter. The sweet young girl just sobbed as the cop tried to calm the mother down. I admitted the accident was my fault (which I learned later you should never do) and that I had good insurance. That made the mother back off, however, she insisted that her daughter was in shock and needed to go to the hospital. Several other cops had arrived and called for a ambulance and a tow truck.

It wasn't until later that I thought to check my own car. The hood, bumper and fender were all badly dented but the engine started OK. Except, the fender had been pushed back to the front tire so it rubbed against it. I wasn't far from home so I managed to get back. Yesterday, they towed my car to a body shop and I'm waiting to hear what the damage is. I'm afraid they might total out the car, a 2000 Chevy Impala.

I have no way of knowing how the girl in the other car is doing. I truly hope she's doing OK. I thought I was doing really well until yesterday when I woke up with my mouth covered in cold sores. This is a stress reaction I've had before but never this severe. Maybe it's my body's way of punishing me?

So, anyway...

I dropped out of the blogging scene for a month solely out of frustration with my computer. It took hours to read other blogs and I lost heart for continuing the battle.

But then, I made a surprising discovery. Last year, the neighbor guy in the unit above us was unemployed. He was concerned because his son needed the internet to keep up with his schoolwork but he couldn't afford it.

Since my roomie and I shared an internet connection via a router, we told him he could sign onto our signal and use it for free. Were naively oblivious as our internet service became worse and worse.

Then several weeks ago, it suddenly improved tremendously--we could sign on in minutes. The neighbor kid was away at camp that week but when he returned, the service was back to terrible. It was obvious that the problem was with the neighbors. I told my granddaughter's boyfriend about it and he told me that computer games and downloads "suck up a lot of bandwidth".  Thankfully, the guy has a good job now and he's going to get his own internet service.

My sister was visiting all last week and we had a really good time. We did all the thrift stores and favorite area restaurants, like Keys Cafe, Snuffy's Malt Shop, The Good Earth and Mai Village. I think the highlight was when we went to the Pavilion over at Como Park for a community production of the musical, "Oliver". This is her all-time favorite musical (mine is "Fiddler on the Roof"). What was the most fun for her was that there were four songs in the stage version that weren't in the movie version.

During the busy week, we found that our oldest cat, Snuffy was failing. He was holing up under a bed and had messed himself--neither of which he had ever done before. We realized that this was the end of the road for him and took him to a vet to be put down. We brought him home again so the other three cats could see he was dead. I'm not sure how much they understand about the loss, but it just seemed that they needed to know what happened to their companion.

Rest in Peace, little fella.