The Lesson: Never reach for a napkin when driving

Like I even need to learn this right? Well, apparently I needed a reminder. And it goes like this...

I had just helped Joe Howe and the Math team with their National Sectional Regional Math Competition...I'm not Mathy so this is foreign to me, all I know is I sure enjoy student watching of mathy people. So even though I needed to be there by 8am on a Saturday, Joe promised me coffee this year and of course there's always donuts. When I first started helping him, I had willpower. Now that I'm well into my fifties, I don't care so I had one or two...maybe three, OK? So then I felt guilty. After the competition started and I was no longer needed, I agreed to meet my boyfriend/fiance' at the mall to go WALK. That's what people in their fifties do, too, and I did just eat one or two or three donuts.

It was still fairly early and there were not alot of cars at the mall yet. I'm feeling a little 'allergy-ee' and think I better blow my nose before I go walk - I can't be sniffing while swinging my arms and getting my walkin' pace on. As I reach for my dashboard compartment where my stash of napkins are, one falls out onto the passenger side floor. AUGH - I think I could reach it. As I'm reaching I turn right into and over the curb of one of the landscape scenes. My tire popped like a balloon and I rumbled into a parking space. Of course you know what my first thought was...my boyfriend/fiance' was going to kill me.

When I fessed up, he realized I had beat myself up enough - he was so kind. Then he looked at my tire and rim and saw that I not only blew the tire, but the rim was destroyed too. And the back tire had a chunk out of it. And the back rim was destroyed, as well.

But wait, there's more...

My Malibu has one of those new-fangled jacks that fit precisely on a place in back of the tire on the car. He didn't quite get it on the precise space and as he was jacking up the car to put the spare tire on, the jack slipped off the precise space and went right into my car door. Pierced it. So now I am out two tires, two rims and the entire piece of car under the door.

After I paced, ranted and raved, thinking this was going to cost me thousands of dollars, Chris calmly says to me, "What's your deductable?" I say, "Car Insurance? CAR INSURANCE!"

"OMG," I say. "I think I have a $500 deductable so I am only out $500? I can get two new tires, two new rims and a piece of car for $500?" He said, "Call your insurance agent."

The Lesson was turning around. It was not as painful as I thought. I had a $250 deductable, not a $500 deductable and only had to pay for 20% for a car rental for the week. So for about $300, I got two new tires, two new rims, a new piece of car AND they touched up by back bumper where a student side swiped me a few months ago. My cell phone is staying in my purse when driving, and my nose will wait until I'm parked.

Lesson Learned.