Nice & Cheap

The nice guy always finishes last OR why cheap can be expensive.

Last week was another busy week and I was also preparing for a craft fair. Friday night we went out to dinner with #1 son and his girlfriend. After dinner we went to pick up a cartridge to finish printing somethings for the craft fair. We got home about 11:30, up at 6 and while I sat at the show, the man went to get more hay, feed, drop #2 son off at a b-day party, and to Home Depot. I made some money but spent some too on things like soap from Simpler Thymes as the local farmers market was closing. Then we had to pick #2 son up at 11 PM. ..another late night.

Sunday dawned bright and early and we were off again as the butcher called to say the meat was ready. A friend (we will call her D) called and wanted #2 daughter to babysit at 1 PM while she took a motorcycle ride with her husband(who we will call R).

The man left for the meat, I cut & glued the tile for the backsplash, grouted the stove area, and cut the tiles for around the toilet and by the door in the bathroom. The kids got dropped off and the man comes home and we go to work rearranging food in freezers until we have it all in.

D & R drive up the road to drop off D (she left her vehicle here) and R leaves to head home. She gathers up her kids and leaves. Within minutes she returns. I thought she forgot something but her husband broke down 1 1/2 miles up the road. The man follows her and they put the motorcycle in the back of our truck. They are just about ready to leave and a couple of cars come down the road. The man waves them around except the last one doesn't go around. The man has to jump out of the way to stop from getting hurt when the van hit our truck. The police are called and D leans on the van drivers window to tell him to turn off the vehicle as he is leaking something and the police are on their way. The man states "Oh I can't be here, I have no insurance" steps on the gas and almost runs her over and leaves.

The police are notified that he has fled the scene but say they can't make it right away and since nobody is hurt it is okay to tow the vehicle. My friend calls her AAA as my friendly neighborhood towtruck driver is not available until midnight and we can't leave the vehicle where it is that long. AAA states it will be approximately one hour so D & R leave to take their kids home as there is school on Monday. R says he will be back to meet AAA.

The police call and say they are able to come now and meet them there. The man leaves home to meet the police, AAA shows up and since R wasn't there says we have to pay $175.00 to tow it 1 1/2 miles down the road. The man comes home to get the checkbook, returns to the accident scene and pays the driver. R shows up and the driver and R argue if AAA covers this tow. The towtruck driver refuses to move our truck unless he keeps the check. It is now 1:30 in the morning so he kept the check and towed the truck.

Monday dawns early. The man leaves for work (in my mother's car as mine is in the garage) and sees the van driver going to work. He tells me to call the police and tell them where he works. I do and later in the day he is seen driving home so the police did nothing. Our insurance won't cover as I took collision off and the UIM only covers bodily injury. During the day, I find out where the van driver lives and call the police again. I have to leave a message for the officer that arrived at the scene to tell him this new information. We go to pick up my car and talk to the man at the garage about the truck and he says the frame where the door hinge is located is bent so would have to be cut and welded and he has not even had time to look at the A frame...(my tire is at a 45 degree angle) and the windshield is cracked. But basically he thinks the truck is done.

So Tuesday finds me with a 2003 Dodge 1500 quadcab paperweight....and even the price of scrap has gone down. I don't know if the police went to get the van driver but I am about sick of having to do all the work for them. I can sue the van driver but I would be dead before I collected any money as he only works off the books. D says that she called AAA and we should not have had to pay the tow truckdriver (no duh!) and she is waiting on them to call her back. Town gossip says the van driver had a suspended license which has now expired. He is a drunk and was drunk when he hit our vehicle.

So helping someone cost me a truck. I will take part of the blame as I should not have taken collision off last year eventhough the truck was payed for. I had paid for it for two years after it was paid off and decided to keep that $1500 - 2000 a year for myself. Of course hindsight now states that the $1500 -2000 that I saved this past year will not buy me a replacement vehicle. Being cheap didn't pay off. Being nice didn't pay off. I am so POed at all involved (self included)that I have a migraine and have been popping Tylenol like pez.

I would love to walk down (1 mile) and kick this van driver in the gonads just so I could vent some. I know myself enough to know I would enjoy it too much and wouldn't stop with one kick. I bet the police would show up then!

On a lighter note, when the man called me from work at lunch yesterday, I told him I took out steaks for him for dinner. He asked what kind. I told him t-bone. He said "oh you had to pick t-bone" I asked why and he said T-bone like my truck was t-boned and started laughing. He has an odd sense of humor.

And on the plus side. Nobody was hurt (but I did have insurance for that!) I do have some hay stored. I don't need as much feed since I only have the sheep and chickens now. When I do need more feed, it will fit in the trunk of my car. I have already picked up my meat which wouldn't have fit in the trunk of my car. Things could be worse I guess, but I don't want to find out.