Crash

My Jetta is a magnet to people and not in a good way. Yesterday morning I was rear-ended while sitting at a stop-light. The woman who hit my car had stopped behind me and we were sitting there for awhile so when she rammed me it was completely unexpected. The light was still red, in fact! Joe suspects she was leaning over to retrieve something when he foot slipped off the brake and onto the gas. From the way she explained it, her foot got caught.

After her car bounced off mine, we both got out to check our cars and I asked, “what happened?” I initially thought she was rear-ended and pushed into me until she explained what she did. She was very apologetic and we moved to the gas station across the street to exchange info. I took the woman’s name and insurance info, but forgot to get her license plate # because I am no good under these type of situations. I even called Joe to ask what I should do. How embarrassing, acting like a helpless housewife which I am not like at all!

Luckily there isn’t a lot of damage to my bumper so I didn’t feel it necessary to call the police. Joe had me check the car more thoroughly once I got to work and all the doors are still aligned properly and the bumped isn’t pushed in, there’s just a spot really low where the paint was missing and a small dent. )Also some scratches I didn’t notice until Joe pointed them out when I got home from work.)

When I got to work my coworker suggested I call the police station to report what happened but the officer was a total jerk and advised me in a very unfriendly manner that they don’t take one-sided reports and I would need to come to the station with the woman and our cars to file a report. So whatever. I feel lucky I haven’t been in any major car accidents. All three times I’ve been rear-ended it felt pretty rough even though it was nothing in the grand scheme of things. Twice now the damage was slim to none except the last time when my bumper was pushed in and my tail light was broken. So I’m thankful it wasn’t worse. I finally calmed down a few hours after arriving to work. It was just a shock to my system and I couldn’t think straight.

I told Joe we could take the car in and get an estimate to get the bumper repaired but he didn’t want to deal with the aggravation so I guess that woman should feel lucky we’re not greedy. It does bug me to have dings and whatnot on my car that I haven’t caused, but it’s been like that from the beginning – the very first week I had the car someone in a white car left me some of their paint on the passenger side door. My trunk was keyed once too. Yay! All in all, the car still looks pretty damn good after seven years and I’m going to run that thing into the ground.

But people of the world, please leave my poor Jetta alone!

Movie weekend

The kids have been talking lately about their grandmother buying them both a Nintendo DS so they can get the new Pokemon Diamond and Pearl. Don’t get me started on how she shouldn’t be spending that kind of money on them, nor even mentioning it to them until she’s ready to really buy it. I’m just thinking if/when they do get them, I am so going to buy this case for The Boy. He has dropped his GBA more times than I can count. He really needs something indestructible.

We took my car in for an oil change after work today to a newly built Volkswagen dealership closer to home. They asked if we’d be using them for oil changes from now on and we said yes. Then they asked if they could change the license plate cover to advertise their dealership. They said if we agreed, we could bring my car in for a free car wash whenever we wanted, not just during service trips. Well what the hell? I’m advertising for someone one way or the other, so I agreed. At least they asked. The last place just changed them one day, and god knows what service date since I never pay attention. I just know the place where I bought the car wasn’t the place advertised on the plate covers anymore.

We actually rented a movie from Blockbuster tonight (although we haven’t watched it yet). It has been awhile since we’ve rented anything, so imagine my surprise that there wasn’t really anything good recently released unless I wanted drama or horror. Sorry, but for the most part I’m a comedy gal. So I got the dreaded Employee of the Month. Maybe it will be good and I’ll kick myself for taking this long to see it. Hell, at least there’s eye candy, and I don’t mean just Dane. Dax isn’t half bad either.

We’ve got nothing planned this weekend, so it’s a free-for-all. Which is nice since we’ve got stuff scheduled next weekend on for the next month. We’ll probably see Disturbia tomorrow since I have free tickets. Movie weekend it is.

No more shaking & XM update

I almost forgot to mention what happened when we took my car into the dealership yesterday. After dealing with the same guy the last two trips, we decided the next course of action was to make sure the wheels were balanced properly. Joe had also noticed that when we bought the new tire, the dealership mounted it with the treads going the wrong way. In other words, the part that said “this side out” was facing inward. The guy we had been dealing with said they’d balance that tire for free, and instead of charging us $75 to balance the remaining three tires, they’d only charge us $50.

When we came back to get the car, we were surprised to learn that they had balanced all four tires and there was no charge! That was a relief since we had already spent $485 between purchasing the new tire and replacing the wheel bearing. The car drives great now, and even the alignment feels better. I suspect the tread issue was causing the alignment issue.

In other car news, Joe just ordered a new antenna for the car. It broke off awhile back, but since I don’t listen to the radio much, and it not being there didn’t seem to affect the reception much, if at all, we didn’t bother replacing it. He also ordered this piece from the armrest that broke off about a year ago. It keeps the storage part of the armrest closed, so I haven’t been able to put the armrest up for a year or everything would fall out.

Finally, I just wanted to report that I am loving my XM satellite radio. You’re supposed to mount the antenna on the outside of the car, but Joe insisted on putting it inside behind the back seat. We got into a pretty good argument over it (see? we do argue!), but I concede that this time he wins. I didn’t want him to bother doing it that way since I was convinced it wouldn’t work, and for a little while, it was looking like I was right, but that was because we originally were using the option to pick up signal through a dead FM channel. Like the morons that we are, we didn’t notice that I do in fact have a cassette player in the car. So we’re using that FM channel for the first couple of days and the sound is going in and out and driving me nuts. Then I happened to look closely at my radio and laughed because there was the cassette player! I don’t know why I didn’t think I had one. Maybe because it’s so out-dated? Anyway, the signal using the cassette is much stronger and I haven’t had any reception issues since. I haven’t even used my cd player since getting the satellite radio. I keep it on channel 82 (trance) almost exclusively because it has the best music. That was totally worth the $165 spent (that includes activation, a year’s worth of service, and the equipment).

This and that

We had to take my car into the dealership early today, so we dropped it off and walked around Stratford Mall to kill some time before having lunch. The kids had money Joe’s parents had sent them, so they learned about tax and how it affects how much something cost. In the past if the kids had $10 they would buy toys that equaled $10 and we’d cover the tax, but they have to learn how the real world works so this was a lesson for them.

The boy is always sure what he wants, but the girl can drive you batty changing her mind 10 million times. Then she has to spend every possible cent like it’s burning a hole in her pocket. Plus no matter how much she likes something, if it’s going to eat all her money, she opts to get a bunch of little stuff instead. She’s all about the quantity versus the quality.

I was looking at skirts at one store in the mall and ended up buying two tank tops. I know, I know, like I need any more. But in my defense, they were in two colors I don’t own: white and pea green. I love pea green and I love tank tops, so what could be better? I also went back to the store and got the purple skirt after all. I am pressed for time to find something to wear for the wedding and it’s not so big I cannot wear it, so I’m going with it. I just have to find an appropriate shirt to go along with it.

Time is running out! I started a list of things that still need to be done before we leave and it’s freaking me out a bit. For someone as organized as myself, I’ve been quite the procrastinator for some things.

Anyway, we had lunch at this new place called Cheeseburger in Paradise. It was pretty good, if not very healthy. I had a ton of french fries with my cheeseburger! Good thing I didn’t have any breakfast! I’m going to have a light dinner too to compensate. I’m down to 120 lbs. and wouldn’t mind being 115 lbs. by the time we leave. I just might be able to do it too! I love being able to wear a smaller size. I didn’t mention it before, but I bought two new pairs of jeans last month that fit pretty well and last week I was able to pull a bunch of clothes out of storage that I had gotten too big for that now fit. It’s a great feeling! Plus people at work keep noticing the weight loss which is nice.

No good vibrations

Nothing like paying Volkswagen $300 to replace a wheel bearing that was supposedly the cause of the steering wheel shaking only to find it is still doing it. I am not amused.

We had the car in on Friday to have a new tire put on and were told one wheel bearing was in need of replacement and it should correct the issue. We brought the car to the dealership last night and picked it up after work today. Joe took it on the highway to test it out and it’s acting exactly the same!

I really don’t want to see those people again, but what else can we do? This needs to be fixed or we won’t be driving 4+ hours to Wisconsin in two weeks or driving out to Florida, and I really really don’t want to fly, not just because I’m afraid, but because I cannot possibly pack light enough for the airline’s requirements. Plus I do not want to deal with a nasty smelly rental car.

I hope VW stops being so stupid and fixes the problem. I’ve been scoping out the VW forums and it looks like it’s a simple case of tires not properly balanced and/or the car in need of an alignment. But why suggest that when they can go for the big guns and get $300 out of us, right? Grrr!!!