The history of my car

I was talking to a co-worker today who was complaining that had been hit in the Wal-Mart parking lot and he had a small ding in his car. He was frustrated with the dealings he was having with ICBC. He then asked me if I had ever had to deal with ICBC....Yes! So many freakin times. So I told him the history of my car.

I bought my car in June of 2001 from my grandma...yes everyone can laugh, and if you know me and my car, you will laugh. It is an old Plymouth sundance...very much a family car. Anyways when I bought the car there had never been a single accident or anything done to it. So here goes the story of how much I have had to deal with ICBC with my car:

1) November 2001: My car was stolen from a movie theatre parking lot while I was watching Monsters Inc. with some friends. Horrible feeling to come out of a movie and your car is gone! They recovered my car 2 days later and preceded to fix it. It had over $3000 in damages. I got brand new upholstery and paint and windshield etc. Why did they even fix it? I don't know? Call #1 to ICBC.

2) November 2002: My car was stolen, yes again, from the side road near my parents house while I was in bed sleeping off a horrible flu. It was recovered before I even knew it was missing, the policed called to tell me they had found my car. I said, "oh, thank you, was it missing?" apparently it was! There was $2000 in damages this time...and yes, they fixed it, and I got new upholstery and new paint job again! Call #2 to ICBC.

3) March 2003: license plates were stolen off my car and my car had been keyed. Brand new paint job approx $1000. They did it! Call #3 to ICBC.

4) June 2004: Car was hit in the Wal-Mart parking lot while I was at work by a VERY elderly lady who thought she was driving forward... at a good click...but was in reverse and backed across the lot and into my car pushing it out of the parking space and into another parking space currently occupied by my bosses BMW. My car missed hitting the BMW by millimeters! There was $1300 damages...and they fixed it! This was my 4th, and so far final call to ICBC.

So yes, I have had many dealings with ICBC in the past 5 years. So far, knock on wood, I have been ICBC free for 2 years! I am over due!

Moving Day

Well yesterday was officially moving day. I gathered 4 of my coolest friends and they all helped me move in the 30 degree heat! As one of them stated: "You truly know who your real friends are when they help you move in 30 degree weather." I must agree! Much thanks to Darla, Karyn, Michelle, and Andrew for helping me move my insane amount of stuff to my new place. Darla was baffled that I owned a BBQ and an Air Conditioner. Is that weird?? I didn't think so! Anyways, the day started off on a rather funny and awkward note. I went to my aunt and uncle's house to borrow their truck to aid me in my move. Their truck is standard. I don't drive standard, well at least not on a regular basis. So as I attempted to back it out of their very forwardly sloped driveway, I almost drove it forward through their garage door because of the incline. Ooops. So once my uncle backed it part way up the driveway for me I was off, sort of. I was kinda jerky and as I chugged out of the driveway my uncle yelled back at me"return it in one piece stacey, in one piece!!" Hehehe. I continued to drive through town in busy Sunday afternoon traffic, all the while talking to myself outloud on how to drive this standard beast. "Ok, Stacey, now clutch in, signal, turn corner, shift to 2nd, clutch out and gas...phew...ok made that one. Now clutch in shift down to 2nd for light, now into 1st, ok light is green, ummm let clutch out a bit, push gas...oh crap too much gas....engine revving...ok ummm less gas, less clutch...sputter...sputter...die! Ack! Middle of intersection....car stalled must get through intersection. Ok calm down! Don't panic! Just put the clutch in and start the truck again...ok it started...now a little gas, release clutch and.....yes! Jerk through intersection!" That is basically how every trip I made in the truck went. Although I only stalled it again once and I did return it in once piece but I make no guarantees about the quality of the clutch or transmission now. So after the truck escapade, the rest of the day went smoothly, I was all moved in and we had eaten some pizza in under 3 hours! Then we capped the evening off by raiding my aunt and uncle's back yard and swimming in their pool to cool off! It was a very productive day and I couldn't have done it without my wonderful friends!

Heat Wave

We have been experiencing hotter than normal temperatures where I live recently. Like the high end of 30 degrees Celsius. For some reason this causes people to act even stranger than normal. Tempers are shorter, and of course lines are longer at the Walmart where I work, even in the pharmacy, because everyone is trying to escape the heat by hitting an air conditioned building. So now the place is filled with hot, short tempered people who don't want to wait in lines 20 people deep! And believe you me...I get to hear ALL about how long they have now waited for their %*$&^(#**#$ (expletives) prescription. Also, people seem to become horrible driver's in the heat as well. I think everyone is in a rush to get home and out of the heat so they drive like morons. On my way home from work this evening I was almost rear-ended twice, and some lady cut me off and then proceeded to finger me! Yippee! I love heat waves!

New Blog

Well, Darla has converted me to this blog site. I think that it will be easier to use and it looks a bit nicer than my MSN Messenger blog space that I was using. I hope you will all find this site easier to read, and easier to comment on. Enjoy my "honest ramblings".