Answered Prayer

Well, it looks like my truck is going to get fixed. The insurance company called earlier and they are going to give me the money to repair my truck. What’s wrong you may ask? Well, let me back up a little.

A few weeks ago, I let a friend borrow my truck. He was going to get some mulch for his mom’s yard. I had no problem with it. He had done it before and I knew that he was a responsible guy, so I was happy to let him borrow it. Amy, Iliana, and I went to the lake in the mean time.

About 1:00 in the afternoon, I got a call from my friend. Actually, it was a voice mail that said, “Hey, it’s me. Give me a call as soon as you get this.” So, I call and ask him how he’s doing. He said, “I’m doing pretty good, but your truck isn’t doing so good.” My first thought was, “I hope everyone is okay. Please don’t let anyone be hurt.” Then he told me what happened, which looking back on it, is kinda funny. While he was at the lawn and garden place having the mulch loaded into the back of the truck, the bucket of the front end loader fell off of the tractor and landed on my truck. No one was hurt, and luckily, my friend wasn’t in it when it happened.

Long story short, I’ve been haggling with the insurance company of Total Lawn and Garden for the past 3 weeks. (I’d link to Total Lawn and Garden if I could, but they don’t have a website.) I have been stressing out as to what was going to happen. I didn’t think my truck was worth a whole lot financially, but it is worth a lot logistically. It may not be the best, but it gets the job done. So, I figured they were going to total it out. Which would suck because the amount that I was anticipating wouldn’t have gotten me much in the area of a replacement vehicle. And to top it off, I will have my truck paid off in about 2 months.

So, I’ve been spending a lot of time looking for another vehicle. A fuel efficient, decent condition, not to old car that has low miles. This is a hard item to find. Well, that’s not true. You can find that but not in the price range I was looking for. So, I’ve been looking for a 2007 Nissan Sentra or Versa. Both are highly recommended cars for their class. And they also get really good mileage. Evidently, the only place to find these cars at a decent price is in the Mesa, Arizona area. I’m talking about $4,000 to $5,000 cheaper. So, I got no problem dropping about $400 to fly out there and drive one back. The only problem is, I would have to do it, like, tomorrow. I’m out of town next weekend at a half marathon and the following weekend is 4th of July weekend. AND the weekend after that, I may have to be preparing to go to Boston for a week. And during this whole time, I still don’t know what the insurance company is going to do or how much money they are going to give me. So, what to do.

Well, about an hour ago, I got a call from the insurance adjuster and they said they were going to pay to repair my truck. Evidently my truck was worth more than I thought and they decided that repairing it would be cheaper than totaling it out. The only thing is that the adjuster disagreed with a few items on the original estimate. So, the adjuster estimate and the body shop estimate is about $700 off. I now have to try to go back to that body shop or find another one that will do the repairs for the price the adjuster gave.

Amy and I both feel that this is a blessing because 1) I didn’t really want to start up another car loan and 2) It allows me to get my truck fixed and possibly sell it at a higher value than originally anticipated. So, it’s good in the long run, I think.

Anyway, that’s about all that’s been going on. Good to finally get it settled…for now. Got that half marathon coming up in Jackson, MS next weekend, so that’ll be fun.

See ya.