Thursday, October 06, 2005

Pet Peeve

There seems to be a bug running through the blog world right now. Its writing about your pet peeve. I had been thinking about writing about this specific one for weeks and then I noticed others writing theirs too.

I was reminded of this specific peeve of mine a few weeks ago while out on a date with my hubby. Somehow in the conversation the topic of MY driving record came up. I don't know if we saw a close call while driving, or we were talking about my brothers, or if it was that my dad is coming down with a truck for us that he just rebuilt in a few weeks.

I told him that I had only ever had two accidents and one speeding ticket.(my husband added in at this point, "that were reported to insurance") Yes thats true, those are the only incidents that were reported. NOT THE POINT!
The point is remembering one of those accidents reminded me of my pet peeve. Maybe its a peeve I inherited from my dad, I don't know but it gets me upset, thats for sure!

My pet peeve is seeing cars that are not fixed after an accident! I guess to truly show you my anger I would have to tell you about my experience.

I was at Ricks, it was winter time in Rexburg. Anyone knows that equates to dark, cold, frozen, snowy, slick, short days, and long frozen, snowy, slick, very cold nights. Its so cold its referred to as "boogar freezing weather"! I had a car at school during this semester. A 1976 Ford Pinto! No power breaks, no power steering...

Anyway in our apartment complex we had a weird shaped parking lot. You were only able to park in the designated spots or else there wasn't room to pull out. It was kinda shaped like a V. Well one night I went out to my car to go to a dress rehearsal for the Symphonic Band. I looked behind me and saw someone parked along the V NOT in a parking space. I backed out very slowly wrenching on my no power steering wheel. I tried to avoid the other car but I couldn't. I barely bumped into her. I was so upset! The car alarm started sounding and the owner of the car came running out. I got out and went and looked to see if there was any damage. All I had done was break the little reflector on the front passenger side of the car just a few inches behind the bumper. She saw it too. I noticed there was a dent and I worried I had caused that too. She reassured me that had occurred in a previous accident. I was relieved, a reflector is an easy fix. No need to report to insurance. Just go to the local auto parts store and get a replacement. Instead, this girl insisted that she needed to call insurance. Since I was in a hurry to get to my rehearsal I gave her my insurance (we were both with State Farm) and I left. That was it. A few weeks later I noticed her car with a nice, bright, shiney, new, black "Le Bra" on the front. Out of curiousity I checked under it to see if she had gotten the reflector replaced or the dent fixed. NO!!! With the payout she received from reporting to insurance she went and bought herself a nice cover-up! She ruined my driving record by reporting it to insurance just so she could buy a "Le Bra" for her car. I was LIVID! I wanted to go storm down her door. Tell her to return her Le Bra and use the money that had "black-marked" my record and get her car fixed correctly. But I didn't. I called my dad instead, I got this peeve from him I might as well vent to him about it! All he could say was it was her puragative to do whatever she liked with the payout. AHHH!!!!

I drive around town and it just makes me angry to see cars with windows covered in a plastic bag, or a tail light taped up with red duct tape. The other day while on a walk I saw a car that had the passenger side mirror dangling from a wire down along the passenger door. If it had just happened yesterday and she was on her way to getting it fixed I wouldn't care. But no, there on the passenger door was a big pendulum swing scratch where the mirror had been swinging back and forth for probably years. AHHH!!!

My dad always taught me to take care of my vehicles. Taught me how to change the oil, fix a flat, wax it correctly, put a dash cover on to protect the leather on the dash... I even helped replace the transmission on my car when it finally died, from an automatic to a manual. Okay, Okay... so maybe I learned a little more than the average daughter learns about car maintainance, but having a car fanatic/car mechanic on the side as a father you learn more than whats considered normal.

It drives me crazy to see cars treated so poorly, and on top of that, to see cars that have been in an accident but the driver is too lazy (or greedy for the cash payout) to get the car fixed properly. Isn't that considered insurance fraud? It has to be! Anyway, the random rant of a car lover's daughter. I'm done now, I feel better...
Posted by ABQ Mom :: 10/06/2005 10:48:00 AM :: 4 Comments:

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