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Health & Fitness

High Inconvenience: Higher Blessings II

In the morning, I called my sister, Michelle, relaying the events about the Surf Mobile breaking down.

    "Do you need a car? No problem.  I'm in Kansas City, but Rexx is home. Just go and get the Taurus," she said. She recently bought a home in Menifee. In the early evening, I hitched a cross-town ride from my friend, Crystal, to get the Taurus. Richard, the mechanic, called a couple of days later.

            "Lyn, you're right. There wasn't any fire damage, but the engine needs to be replaced," he said.

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            "I kind of knew that, too.  Just give me the numbers, Richard."

            "We're looking at…".  While Richard was talking, I was writing down a figure with too many zeroes.

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            "I'll have the truck towed home tomorrow. Thank you, anyway."

The Surf Mobile has been sitting disabled in my garage since then. A week later, I picked up my son from Linfield. Stopped at the signal on Rancho California Road at the northbound I-15 on ramp, I saw the BIG white pick-up truck in my rear view mirror barreling toward us.

There was nothing I could do. Ka-Boom! Crash! The Taurus thrust forward, missing the vehicle stopped in front of me by inches. The signal had turned green seconds before the collision. There were no other vehicles involved in the accident. The airbags weren't deployed. We were a tad dazed. DO YOU FEEL the miracle?

We each pulled off to the side of the on ramp, standing dirt side of the road, exchanging insurance information.  Save for our moderate whiplash injuries and secondary back pain (which didn't show up until later that night), not a scratch could be found anyone. No broken glass, no dangling fender mess, no flat tires.  Just a scrunched left rear fender and accordion trunk that remained latched.

Tiana, the driver of the Escalade, was sincerely apologetic and shaken, too.  Further, both vehicles remained operable, though the Taurus sort of felt like it was limping on the drive home. Maybe it was me. Collecting myself before I called Michelle, who was still in Kansas City, I shared the upsetting news.

      "Michelle, I'm sorry.  I wrecked the Taurus…" I said, crying.

      "Are you and Juan okay? It's just a spare car. So long as you're okay," she reassured me.

      "Yes," I said, sniveling. 

Michelle graciously calmed me. I had taken photos with my cell phone of Tiana's documents, the damage on both vehicles and her license plate. Of course, I wrote an incident report citing the facts, given my professional background and training. It made me feel better, like applying logarithmic salve on a disorderly situation. We didn't call the police, though I submitted the report to the Temecula police department the following day. Tiana carried Progressive Insurance. Progressive Insurance

Once contacted and in short order, Nena, the insurance adjustor, came to my home explaining the steps I needed to take. I chose Caliber Collision to estimate the repairs. Enterprise Rent-a-Car provided a shuttle from the body shop to their office on Jefferson Avenue. Enterprise Rent-A-Car Murrieta

       "Do you want the BMW or the Lexus?" Adriana pointed to the black, shiny, new cars sitting in the lot.

       "Aaarrr? Really? How about the Ultimate Driving Machine?" I answered, pleasantly surprised.

       "Okay.  Let's inspect the vehicle and sign the papers," she said.

Less than thirty minutes later, I took off in a 2014 BMW X1. Nice, but for the eco-sumthin', sumthin'.  The engine shut off whenever I stopped. It immediately started when I pressed the accelerator.  I read the manual when I got home learning to manually override the bothersome feature.  Otherwise, the BMW rode like a smooth mini-jet on long stretches of undisclosed highway. 

A week later, I returned the Beemer, collecting the irreparable Taurus.  It's all good, I thought, peering at the internally crippled, but appealing Surf Mobile in the garage and the disfigured Taurus backed in the driveway, ready for a spin.

To Be Continued...

Lynda StarWriter is a freelance writer and public speaker.  lyndastarwriter@aol.com ~ www.starwriterweekly.com

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