Sunday, April 06, 2008

Getting Better...I Think.

I'm reminded of a line from an old Beatles tune "I'l have to admit it's getting better, a little better all the time...."

Friday morning I was frantic. I had just found out the previous evening that the towing company had been charging $20 a day to store my wife's car while we had been trying to negotiate with the insurance company of the guy that hit her. We owed over $400 in storage charges. The insurance guy I had been dealing with was saying that the guy who hit her claimed that she was over the yellow line and actually hit him. He implied that they weren't going to pay anything on it and were going to refer it back to our insurance company. Since we were only carrying liability on the car, we were going to be left without any compensation for the car at all.

As I said, I was frantic. I didn't know where to turn except to the Lord. I prayed harder than I have in a LONG time. I needed a miracle.

I called the insurance guy back that afternoon and apparently their adjuster had finally looked at the car and told them it was obvious that their guy was at fault and wrote it off as a total loss. They agreed to pay the towing company charges, set us up with a rental car for the next two weeks, and paid us about $1500 more than I expected for the car. Basically the situation took a 180 degree turn. Thank you Lord, the miracle is greatly appreciated!

In other news, she is looking at an operation on her arm. It was broken in several places and needs pins or screws or something. It will probably be some time this week, but we're not sure which day yet. Prayers on that situation would be appreciated. Workman's Compensation is supposed to start sending her some money in the next week or two, so that will help out a little bit also.

My youngest son completed his move from Kentucky to Ohio last night. He got all of his earthly possessions crammed into one pickup truck and an SUV. His mom and I aren't too thrilled about him moving into his fiancée's house, but he's on his own now...not a whole lot we can do about it except make him aware of our disapproval of the situation.

We're defininately not off the log ride yet, but at least we're on a relatively straight stretch at the moment. I'm just wondering when do we get hit with the big water splash? That means the ride is about over, right?

Wednesday, April 02, 2008

What next?

No posts since November? Wow, I didn't realize it had been THAT long. Lots of stuff has happened since my last post, a few good things and some bad stuff as well. Let's start with the good stuff first for a change.

My younger son is engaged to get married to a wonderful girl, the wedding is in August. He also has two new jobs in Ohio, both are part time, but between the two of them he should be making a decent income. He's moving back from Kentucky next weekend.

Um...I think that's about all the good news. Not much, huh?

On the opposite side of the coin, it's been raining bad luck on us for the last few weeks. It started with a call from the hospital to let me know that my wife had just been in an automobile accident, she had just been admitted and was awake and able to talk. That's all the nurse would tell me over the phone. Once I arrived I found out that she was fine...only a couple of scratches on her arm and a bruise from the steering wheel on her leg. The car on the other hand was history. It had rolled onto it's top and was pretty much totalled. We're still arguing with the other guy's insurance company about compensation for the damage. So that put us down to 2 vehicles for 3 people. Not a serious crimp, but that meant someone has to be picked up and dropped off at work.

She went back to work a couple of days later, had her annual performance review and got glowing comments as well as a $0.40/hour raise. An hour later she fell in the warehouse and broke her arm. Another trip to the ER, this time she came out with a splint on her arm.

A couple of days later her sister is admitted to the hospital with serious health problems, she's still there at the moment, but when she comes out we're probably looking at her being fairly unable to take care of herself with nobody but my wife to take care of her...with a broken arm.

[Edit: I have noticed I never followed up on the paragraph above. The wife's sister never made it out of the hospital. She ended up on life support for about a week before she passed away.]

Fast forward to today...the wife was driving me to work and got as far as the end of my street before realizing we didn't have any brakes! We were able to get back home and called my daughter to come home from school so we could use her car for the day. Now we're down to one vehicle for three people. Pretty much impossible to schedule everything around that situation, so I'm borrowing a vehicle from a member of the church for a while until the truck gets repaired. Both master cylinders on the rear brakes need to be replaced according to the garage...a big bill we really can't afford right now.

All of this in the space of about 2 weeks...piled on top of all of the other minor problems we always are dealing with. I'm starting to feel like Wyle E. Coyote...when is the next anvil going to drop on top of our family?

I'm looking for the silver lining, but I just can't seem to spot it at the moment. Surely there's a pony in this somewhere.