Good Morning All. Partly cloudy and 58° here at home sweet home. Supposed to be a cool day here with the high around 80°, OK, cool for us at this time of year. Mid to upper 80's upcoming.
It was great to sleep in my own bed last night, as well as being in a place where the windows open. Today we will continue unpacking, already did a load of laundry; and generally unwinding. After lunch we'll take the rental car to the closest Enterprise place, it's not costing us anything but I just don't want it on the to do list any longer. I have some plumbing to do this morning, as some crud of some kind built up in the water supply while I had it turned off while we were gone. The flow meter in the tankless water heater is working intermittently and a couple of faucet strainers need a quick rinse also. Train shed and all occupants seem to have survived without me for over a week, and I look forward to a return.
Regarding our unfortunate auto mishap, The other guys insurance company offered me a check for $500 for the pain and swelling in my left hand. I have temporarily declined even though it is almost back to normal. The offer is still good for 90 days if I understood the lady correctly. Taking my wife to our primary care doctor on Monday to have her checked out. She has either bruised or cracked ribs. She thinks they're just bruised, but we want to be positive. His insurance company, USAA, has accepted all liability and they say that they want us to be fully satisfied. Still up in the air is the appraisal of the car. The fellow at the towing company believes that it will be totaled based on his experience, although he is not the one making that decision. As I posted last week, if they repair it, I have to go back to Alabama to retrieve it. We need to sort through all of the various E-Mails and text messages from all of the insurance companies, car rental places, police accident reports and the Uber records to see what we will finally make claims on through our insurance company. Both Progressive and USAA have been very helpful up to now. But neither has mentioned the third person whose car we were launched into. I think that we are lucky that no serious injuries have appeared.
Tom O - Re: Dallas traffic. Yes it has gotten really bad in the last couple of years. Several different things contribute to it. First is the distracted driving aspect, way too many people texting and driving at the same time. Second is the layout, there are 4 major Interstate highways through there, IH20, IH30, IH35E, and IH45. Three of them (IH30, IH35E and IH45) all come together in downtown at the "Mixmaster". It's a huge clusterf**k. Those have always been a problem. Then there are construction issues on IH635. While there are still the same number of lanes open, people still freak out. The latest contributor is the illegal immigrants who can't read English and have never driven on anything more than a single lane dirt road. Driving over 20 mph is just not an ability that they have mastered yet. There are ways to avoid most of the real problem spots if one is familiar with the area, but even then, a single car accident throws the whole thing into a mess. Timing and destination are also a considerations. When going south, I always use IH35W through Ft Worth and make good use of the express lanes. Although it pisses me off that they use surge pricing to gouge drivers on all of the express lanes in the area. Coming home yesterday, I used the George H Bush tollway around the north side. Although 10 miles longer, the tolls are fixed and it is quicker for the direction that I was traveling.
Yes the bars in Ft Worth around the Stockyards are crazy, but so are many, many others there. I could tell some stories from my younger days.
Ken - EV's may work for you in your part of the country, but they are "iffy" here in most of Texas outside of major cities. Even then, there are charging issues. My SIL sometimes experiences a 30 minute wait for a 20 minute charge. He and the one other owner also complain about tire wear since the vehicles are so heavy. I have read that the truck is a real problem there. YMMV I've offered to install a level 2 charger in his garage, but he hasn't sprung for the cost yet.
Patrick - Our local to us fried chicken place, it's called Chicken Express; is just the opposite. Order the 15 piece meal and you almost always get 17 whole pieces.
Mike - You're right about the youth of today figuring change. And that seems to include anyone under the age of 30. They get out their phones to do the figuring for them.
Louis -
Is that why they're using mules in Western North Carolina???
John - Prayers from me for your wife Joan and her upcoming medical plans. I'm sure that everything will work out for the best.
Everyone have a great Saturday.