Accident aftermath

Well, got a couple of quotes on fixing the Defender after last week's accident. Looks to be around $7,250 to repair it back to its original condition. I'll probably take it to a guy in Dallas that specializes in Land Rovers. The guy that cut me off's insurance company will also pay for a rental while it's being repaired. That could take as long as 6-8 weeks. Glad it's not my money.

In other accident news: I'm in pain. Lots of pain. I've heard of delayed onset of symptoms after an accident but never really experienced them. My back is absolutely killing me. It has been for a few days but today was unbearable. I finally went to the doc. He said that it's completely normal for things to not show up until a week to 10 days later. He also said that he's sure the symptoms were caused by the accident. Oh boy. He piled me up with some pain killers and muscle relaxants. The pain is now a dull pain instead of the sharp who-the-fuck-is-stabbing-me-in-the back pain. Getting actual sleep is a challenge. He said things are likely to get worse before they get better. Shit. I'm already spending nearly every waking moment trying to find a comfortable position. If things don't improve in a week or so he said the next step is physical therapy. The crash didn't even feel that bad but he said because of the way my car was forced into a quite abupt left turn that the rotation likely ripped and tore muscles/ligaments. Nifty.

Buy A Gun Day

Yes, it's that time of year, tax day and the newest of celebrations: Buy A Gun Day. Unfortunately with yesterday's incident I will not be participating. I have other things I'll need the money for. I encourage you to use your hard earned tax returns to buy yourself a new toy. I'll join you as soon as I can.

Wrecked my baby...

Driving home from the tax preparers office after work I had a little accident. Ok, a bit more than little. I was driving north on Research approaching McNeil when a guy in a big panel van towing a trailer decided to make an illegal left turn in front of me. I plowed into the side of his van doing about 40MPH. I tried to turn with him to keep from hitting him to no avail. As we rounded the corner, he seemed to gun his engine as if to try to run. Doing this only caused his trailer to run up the side of my Defender and lock itself to me. He was going no where with 5,000lbs of Land Rover with its brakes locked attached to his tail. My son was riding with me and got to watch the trailer climb the side of the truck inches from his face. Needless to say he was a bit freaked out as was his mother who was following us home in her car. She got to witness the whole thing.

The damage is quite extensive. The right front wing is toast as is the rear. Every light on that side is broken. The heater was punctured by his trailer. Three tires are messed up, one by puncture and two by front end misalignment. Brush bar and bumper are a write-off. Plus whatever else I haven't noticed. It's not a total loss but it'll cost his insurance good. If his insurance isn't bogus that is. The paper he had had no policy number on it. The cops got all his info for me to pass onto my insurance company. Let them fight for the money to fix it.

I have no idea what it's going to cost or what I'll do without it while it's getting repaired. Matching 10 year old faded paint will be tough. The whole thing might need to be repainted. I might go for a nice Land Rover G4 Orange.

More pics of the wreck scene and damage can be seen here.

*sigh*