I'm pleased to report that I got some good news on a few different fronts yesterday.
The biggest news is that my car is not a total loss and will be repaired by my auto insurance company. Thanks to any of you who offered prayers, hecatombs, sacrifices, novenas, or transcendental cosmic energy in that particular cause. It seems that the adjustor (a woman named A.) who reviewed the list of required repairs with the body shop last Thursday needed to determine if those repairs plus the salvage value of my car cost more than the retail value of my car. To do that, she needed to consult a company under contract to keep tabs on such things. A. got the number back yesterday. There is about $1500-2000 between the amount the body shop says the repairs will cost and the maximum that insurance company will pay. That's one huge piece of financial uncertainty off my plate; I do not need to worry about buying another car in the near future.
One of my other financial concerns lately involves my ATM card. Evidently my debit card number and pin were stolen from the computer of a large retail chain a few weeks back. I keep reading rumors that this was a concerted effort by the Russian Mafia. I don't know if that's true, and no strange charges have shown up on my checking accounts, but my bank decided that I should have a new ATM card. They sent me a letter about this almost two weeks ago, saying "hi. your old card will go dead on Feb 21. you should get a new card within five business days." At first, I thought that meant five business days from the date on the letter. Alas no, it means five business days from the day my old card was cancelled. So I spent Wednesday through Sunday without access to cash, except during banker's hours.
The car thing really had me worried. I feel like Mrs. Geek and I are just getting ready to move to a different fiscal phase in our lives. We passed out of "newly married and just scraping by" to "starting to find our financial sea legs" a few months ago. Now I'm hoping that we'll find our way to "being able to invest a little in our future together" one of these months soon. Having to buy a car would have delayed that for a while... and made a few plans we have in the works more difficult to execute.
Deep breaths. Relief.
said drgeek
on 2006-02-28 at 1:29 p.m.
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The Wayback Machine - To Infinity And Beyond
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