This story begins driving with my mother from Seattle to Ellensburg. Big semi-truck to pass. Truck kicks up big rock. Big chip in Flora's windshield. I sigh and figure that I will call my insurance and get it glued, or whatever it is that they do for chips. Well, I didn't jump on that, having student visa stuff and material belonging stuff and holiday stuff to attend to. Still - it was just a chip, no big deal.
Until this morning. Now, we knew it was going to be cold last night, and it certainly was cold this morning. Before she even woke me up to warm up the car (I was driving mummy to the dentist) she sprayed stuff on the windows to help them defrost. Cold. Morning.
I haul on a sweater and boots to make a stunning nightwear ensemble, stumble in to the car, wear my down vest as a lap blanket, and get things running. As the car is warming up nicely I simply sit back. Hope that if I smash the back of my hair into the headrest that I won't have to fuss with it before I drive to Seattle today, I don't feeling like styling it in the least. Idly wonder how far and graphic the dream about Viggo Mortensen would have gone had I not be awakened when it was beginning to get naked. Car is heating up wonderfully through this and be the time my mother gets into it I am just waiting for the last bit of windshield to clear up.
As we sat there we heard a big snap.
I look out the front of my car. Yet it was the front of the car, the part allowing me to look, that was the problem. Chip had cracked wide in an almost perfect horizontal line across the windshield. Not entirely across it, but it now is taking up the majority of the window's length.
Drive my mother to the dentist, head home to load car, dress, maybe even eat. Eating might get ousted by the whole calling of insurance item that now needs to be done.
I have done this before, having had a chip or two in my driving of Snoqualmie Pass. I do not worry. The lady on the other end of the conversation is nice. Yet she tells me I have a $500 deductible. I say, how can that be? I've got that coverage option that allows for a $50 windshield replacement. Used it before even. We think perhaps they messed up when I reinstated the policy after backpacking. I am put on hold. Line disconnects. I call back. Start with another person. First lady calls back - I immediately get back to the discussion with her.
Apparently, my mechanical breakdown coverage, which is only something you can get with new cars, expires after so many years. It JUST expired then. Because I got Flora at the end of Ocotober 2001. (You remember - when after 9/11 the rates dropped amazingly low.)
Figures.
And yes, it was indeed around the zero mark in celsius when I got home and checked. Now, if you will excuse me, I need to go pick her back up from the dentist. (Those Signature Needles WILL be mine at this rate of lameness for the day. Gotta have something to mitigate the bad.)
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