Sure is quite the year!

I've been dreaming of a new car lately, but have also been wanting to get my old reliable Honda CR-V to 200,000 miles. It's a '98, and almost up to 178K, so I figured another year or two before new car payments.... as tired as I am of my almost 11 year old car.



However, Thursday I met a deer who may have convinced me that it's time to let go before that goal is reached. Unfortunately, the deer had to sacrifice her life to get the point across. She sacrificed it good too .... did you know deer can fly? At least they can fly when hit by a vehicle going 60 mph. You see, we met a little before 4 in the afternoon as I was driving into the setting sun, so I didn't even see her until about a second before I hit her. Next thing I knew she was flying about 5 feet into the air and a good 10 feet or so to the middle of the ditch where she landed. That's not a sight I want to see again any time soon.

My car was still driveable, but I could see that pretty much every part of the front end would need to be replaced - shattered headlight, bumper, grill, fender, hood. The estimate is $3000 damage, and Al (the body shop manager) says it's most likely going to be more. He didn't want to pop the hood to check inside for more damage since it probably wouldn't close again. The estimate is far more than I could get as a trade in, but still less than a dealer could sell my car for once cleaned up and repaired. Which means it's a judgment call by my insurance company. So now I just wait to hear from Acuity about whether they'll call it a total loss or still worth repairing. I should know by Monday morning.

For now I'm driving a rental car while mine waits to see what her future holds. If the powers that be at Acuity say she's totalled, my decision is made. If not, I still may decide it's time to use the estimate money as a down payment on a new one. Thing is then I have to decide.... do I want car payments again but a nice new car, or do I still live with my reliable beater with all her minor issues but no payments? Such decisions!

I must say, I'm getting pretty experienced at all this insurance stuff this year. So far Stephanie from Acuity seems as helpful as Ryan from Progressive was with my RV. But I sure do hope I don't have to test them out again any time soon.

I'll do an update on decisions come Monday.... in the meantime.... it's now November and only one more month to go of 2008. It's been a year full of crap from the very beginning with something happening every month. I've had to say goodbye to my cat, my mother, my RV, and now maybe my car. Sure hope that's if for the losses, but as I said, there's one more month to go.....