An Incident

Nothing much has been happening....

..... we've been relaxing and....

............. watching TV..........

....... and eating......

............. Poppa has done a chore..........

............ or two!  But, on Sunday, since it was too cool for pooling, we decided just to take a drive and we headed towards St. Cloud because there is lots to see along the way.  We were almost at St. Cloud, sitting stopped at a red light and chatting.  Suddenly there is a crash and a jolt!  Looking out the rear window there is a large white vehicle looming.  We both get out to have a look..........

......... Oh!  Poor Spiffy!  The police were called by the other man, since he was a Floridian and knew the protocol.  He readily admitted that we were stopped and he just ran into us.  I didn't hear why this happened, but I suspect that he was on the phone talking to his wife.  We waited for about 15 minutes and the St. Cloud police arrived.  They checked to see if anyone was hurt (everybody was fine!), they chatted with both parties separately, made a report and told us all to wait for the Florida Highway Patrol.  The man's wife and son came to wait with him - they lived about 15 minutes away.  Another 10 minutes or so and the Florida Highway Patrol officers arrived.  After a repeat of the same process, and another 15 minute wait while they checked us all out and printed out a very brief version of the report, they said we could all go home. Because....

.......... Spiffy's muffler was hanging danerously close to the road, we drove up the highway a short distance and Poppa went into a Pep Boys and got a plastic zip tie to hold it up temporarily, then crawled underneath and got the muffler up approximately where it belonged.  Since this all took place on Sunday, Monday was spent on the phone with insurance representatives and repair shops.  We went to Jarrett-Gordon Ford, which is about three miles up the road.  They have an in-house body shop there and an Enterprise Car Rental - so Jaime - from Jaime's Collision Center gave us an estimate and Melvina at Intact Insurance arranged for us to have a rental car today so that an adjuster could look at the car.  Right now we have a Chrysler Town and Country van.  Spiffy is over at Jaime's awaiting the adjuster.  He estimated about $4,000 damage!  Poor Spiffy!