Why I hated 2008...part three

Well, now that we have a place to live again, no worries! At home, no worries but out on the road is a different story...

It was late April and Heather was taking the boys to a play date at a play centre in the city. She learned to watch out for other drivers while opening the car door. Crunch! Open the drivers side door and some dude tries to remove it....

Her fault, says the police because she failed to do so when it was safe. OK I can see that but this kind of thing should be a no fault/dual fault collision as far as I see things because: How fast was this guy going into this parking space that he just couldn't stop? I don't know about you but when I'm in a parking lot, I watch the other drivers to kind of know what they're up to. Especially parents with small kids because they just aren't paying the same kind of attention to what's going on around them as they are to their kids. Whatever, we learned that to replace a door on a $21,000 2007 Grand Caravan costs about $3000. The local body shop had if fixed post haste! Yay?

Next comes the big car theft........

I live in a small town so I don't always feel the need to lock my work van up, however, I do usually bring in my keys. Not this night though. Things were good until October when late one night

we get a call from the R.C.M.P. asking us where our van should be.

"Um, in the driveway?"

"Well, we have just pulled your van over for driving erratically."

"????"

Apparently this dude took my keys out of my work van and drove off with Heather's van. He didn't get very far before the police pulled him over but he got far enough to do $7000 worth of damage to it. When they stopped him, he ran and they didn't catch him. I guess the whole "....pursuing on foot...." thing only happens on television. Interestingly enough he was caught about a month later a couple of towns over stealing somebody else's truck. Lesson here, if you're going to steal, wear gloves or the police will get your fingerprints. Er, wait....I think the lesson here is to always lock your vehicle. Yeah, if someone really wants to steal it, they will whether it's locked or not but don't make it any easier for them. Thank goodness the local body shop still isn't really busy...fixed, no problem.

Now it's early December and we're sitting at a stop sign just minding our own business. It's snowing so the roads are a bit slippery but not too bad if you're driving for the conditions which Merideth was not. Who's Merideth? She's the chippy who t-boned the drivers door of the van. She was turning left at the intersection but not signaling left otherwise I would have gone. She simply took the corner too fast and slid right into us. I'm glad she was only going about 20kmph otherwise I may have shit my pants. There just isn't a feeling of helplessness like watching another motor vehicle heading straight for you and knowing there isn't anything you can do about it. BANG!!! and then there was another BANG!!!! That was Heather slamming the passenger door getting out to hang a lickin' on this bitch. Nah, not really but she did give it a good slam, enough that it was definitely louder than the collision...hehe.

How much does it cost to replace the drivers side door? Anyone?

OK, that's enough. I'm starting to get all emo here.