More random thoughts

Among my many job titles at work is “archivist”… it alternates with ”curator”…  Occasionally with “director.”  I suspect the people using the terms don’t really understand the difference, and in my job, the two, three merge, blend and rapidly become indistinguishable, (and rapidly lead to taking out the trash) but, apparently being an archivist is cool… they have said so in the New York Times…   

On the other hand, cool job or not, I find myself, at work and at home, distracted… and not very productive… which in turn adds to the frustration and stress, which leads to distraction…  and lack of productivity… It’s a bad loop…

Beyond work, I need to drive to Tonopah Thursday… Need in this case has more than one meaning… I have committed to friends to present a presentation, a paper on railroad cars of the Tonopah gold boom… and driving will result in being there to present the paper… but I also want to be in Tonopah, to escape…. Because I am distracted…  and the drive, some 8-9 hours or so will be calming…  ( I may be unusual in that a long drive is calming, relaxing…  Your experience may vary, but it works for me….) A friend will ride along… there will be music shared… this should be calming as well…  

On to other ongoing issues… I Met with the insurance company, (their insurance company, aka the company insuring the car that hit the car that hit me) who determined that the jeep has about $750 worth of damage… with another $75 or so for the munched jack…   So I am on a quest for a new rear bumper… and a new jack…  Choices, choices, choices… there are something like 60 options or rear bumpers at 4Wheel  Parts… They featured one in their magazine that I like but can’t find in the catalog or on line… A visit to the store is probably in order…  Of course, while in the waiting room of the crash center, they had AutoWeek Magazine, (back, 45 years ago,  when AutoWeek was a tabloid, a good friend subscribed... it was really cool... 35 some years ago, I subscribed… sadly, no longer… I may need to rethink this...) with an article on the annual Easter Jeep rally in Moab, and on Jeeps and how large the aftermarket custom jeep parts market is… with a side bar on how one was modified for the rally…   Jeeps are a hot topic… but back to the jeep… (Klinger) the settlement offered was fair… enough for most or all of the new bumper… I be(note spectacular use of the English language…. )  happy with result if not process…

It’s late, and Dave Letterman is on, with a parody video, about Virgin America, and ordering drinks on line from your seat, and texting fellow passengers, and how this might end badly.  I am writing my presentation… the writing is going well… slowly but well… It will be a decent presentation… Dave is picking on Martha Stewart…

Back to the trip… (the near term trip to Tonopah, not the future trip to the Greek Islands, in Sept., where I now have my eyes on a book store in Santorini (New York Times Again!))  Unlike Virgin American (the best damn airline in the world) the Jeep does not offer the opportunity to text fellow passengers (and in any case the driver shouldn’t text) or order drinks (again, as the driver,  an option which should not be offered) so on this week’s trip, not an issue…  I shouldn’t have to shoot  or otherwise maim my passenger.  This should please Liza, his girl friend…

Some of you may want to question my judgment... Tonopah is not generally listed as a prime escape destination… I is more commonly a desert backwater (without water) But it works for me… 

Randy

Bits and pieces and updates “Oh my”

With apologies to Lions and Tigers and Bears…  Lots of updates and random thoughts… 

Work continues to be a challenge… I continue to be frustrated…  but there is hope… 

On connectivity and information sharing (at work), We (the recreation supervisors) have been granted remote email access… and calendar synchronization… our director approved it for everyone… there was  an approrate warning about being “non –exempt employees  and not being allowed access off the clock” but at its core it was about trust, and progress… We thank the boss…

My “work” side project, a paint report on a 1907 building is fun…  The short term goal, colors for the interior is done… the larger project, a complete paint report is progressing.  The building has a couple of distinct periods of significance… The earlier  (1907) is more interesting and more fun, (the interior was yellow with medium brown trim) but the building is now clearly from the later, and those colors are occasionally horrifying…  white with sea foam green trim…  we are compromising with a recommendation for  white with medium brown trim…  historically acceptable, and more pleasing than purely accurate baby poop green…  Good historic preservation like many things is about compromise…  Now I need to find an old door, and some other bits… and find the window sash color… searching is good.

I have a new side project… probably…  a preservation report for railroad cars in Colorado… With a couple of friends… with travel to Colorado needed… soon… unplanned… as always the travel is welcome.  The travel will likely generate at least a couple of blog posts…  I have jumped in head first, and am researching and writing the report before we have even signed the contract…   I am finding research notes written 20 years ago, filed away useful…  I am consulting the library…  It is a wonderful diversion.

The car crash and the phone calls and such is still ongoing… there have been more phone calls, one letter, one visit to the claims center with limited results (as expected)… With each step, without progress, I walk about Klinger, aka, the jeep, and find more concerns…  Saturday, we had a work day, fixing horse corrals at the farm… I tried to use the High-Lift jack to pull the posts… (the High-Lift jack mounts on the rear bumper) and it was grumpy and sticky and not working well… I had to use a hammer to move the lever to make it go up or down… This bothered me, but in the moment I just used a hammer… over night I thought about it, and it bothered me more… I looked at the factory “how to operate your Hi-Lift jack” video on U-tube… I pulled it off the bumper and tried it… armed with the official instructions… I tried the Hi-Lift jack owned by the railroad… the railroad’s jack worked… mine didn’t…  Mine had the paint scratched on the jack’s nose… I checked photos of the “middle car” from the crash… it had a mark, a significant dent where the jack hit the hood… BINGO… it was the crash, not a defective jack…  Likely every pin in the jack is bent…  and jammed and whole thing is F’ed up… 

Monday, I visited the “independent claims center” for the insurance company… They don’t know how to fix a jack… they don’t know how to do aftermarket bumpers…  They can’t help me… I got home to a letter saying “this is your claim number”  Earlier they had called me… to get information, and promised a call back… instead I get letter and a chance to call them, sit through hold music to get an appointment for a real claims agent… Next Monday…  Within 500 feet of the scene of the crime… the clueless lady on the phone needs to tell me what she needs to tell me, and ignores the fact I know where to go… I tell her that this is where we stopped to exchange information… she continues to give directions… we are not communicating…  What’s new… lack of communication is my world…

Mean while, every time they (the insurance company) put me off I walk around, climb under and find more damage… which will cost State Farm (aka the insurance company) more money…   Today I realized that the bumper is not just pushed in 1/8” on one side, but it is pushed in 1/8” everywhere and 1/4 “ on one side…  something, somewhere is well bent… but that will be someone else’s problem.

Tomorrow I am supposed to drive to Placerville to pick up railroad parts (Big, heavy railroad parts)… then drive home…  I am still awaiting confirmation…  then, on Thursday I am planning  a nice drive to Tonopah... Nevada… for a conference where I am scheduled to give a paper I haven’t written… tonight a friend, the organizer of the conference sent a emergency email, asking for a photo for his presentation at the same conference…  I had it and he has it now…  His presentation is progressing faster than mine…

 I am looking forward to the something like an 8 hour drive to the center of Nevada… I am not looking forward to the insurance claims appointment…  or work…

Welcome to the world of phone messages, phone calls not returned, phone trees and frustration…

There was a car crash… I was the lead car in a three car chain reaction…  Klinger (my jeep) was bumped hard, scratched and such, but came through with limited wounds…   The other two cars were not so lucky…  I am uninjured, but my neck hurts… This is what happens when two (or three) objects having mass try to occupy the same space at the same time…

But this is not a physics lesion… it is a lesson in bureaucracy, and business and phones…

One driver had Allstate Insurance (as I do) the other State Farm… (Research suggests that State Farm is a good or maybe even great insurance company… I have friends who work for them… I have some respect for them)  I haven’t filed a claim (as the first car in the chain, I am not at fault, the other guys are (even though car 2 was a girl) and one of them… guy, No 1, last in the chain,  is technically at fault, so He, and State Farm loses… 

So early today, car two’s insurance company (Car 2 being the meat in the sandwich, the middle car) calls and leaves a voice mail…  She (insurance lady) needs to talk to me about the accident… I return said call… leave a message…   then silence…  I try again before leaving for home… I don’t pick up phone calls on the road.. .but no phone calls came while on the road…  Pamela, Allstate’s claims agent can make calls, but so far hasn’t returned any… (note: I have Allstate Insurance, and have since 1973… Dad was an Allstate agent… money from Allstate put me through college… so this is not so much about Allstate (or State Farm) as about the 7 stages of hell which are all insurance claims systems… It is likely that Dante was inspired to write his epic (The Inferno) based on a minor traffic incident and the interchange with insurance companies that followed…))

So, late today, (well after 5:00) a State Farm representative calls… “what happened”   He will get back to me after a claim is filed… (I suspect a claim might have been filed… it is unlikely that State Farm calls and asks  a Allstate customer “what happened” without a claim being filed…  Alternately, I don’t understand the system)  

Allstate so far has not returned the call I made after they called me this morning…  (it’s that Hell thing… )

This morning, after the Allstate phone message, I took a few minutes to take a hard look at Klinger (Klinger is a Jeep… my Jeep… He/she was vehicle No.3 in the “incident”)  I took the spare tire off its mount… the tire had left a tire print on the hood of the blue Toyota which was vehicle No. 2 in the incident)…Klinger’s plastic bumper cover is scratched, maybe scarred, the “Warning, Don’t follow me, you won’t make it” bumper sticker torn…  (I also have been watching the news for information on the Boston bombing… so scratched can become scarred… it’s all news speak)…

I pulled the spare tire off… to check the carrier and door… to see anything which might be hidden behind…. With the tire off, I could see that the tire was pushed forward almost two inches leaving a print on the bumper, but the tire, tire carrier and back door on which the tire carrier is mounted seem un-damaged…The bumper is pushed in 1/8” in on the left side… I measured it… underneath the beast  (aka Klinger), you can see where at every place two parts come together, there has been movement…   So, something gave… I picked a ¼” square piece of Toyota blue paint off the trailer receiver… a bit of evidence… (but then, I have a collection of paint chips… and I know it was a blue car, specifically a Toyota, so maybe nothing new is proven…)

I put the tire back on…  I returned the Allstate phone call…   and now I wait… Take the State Farm phone call, and take Ibuprofen for my neck…  my neck hurts.  I doubt the process will do anything for my neck…

Crash! Boom! Bang!

I had a  bit of unplanned excitement while driving back to work from the hardware store today… Not good excitement...

As I approached an intersection, the car ahead stopped, for a green light?… after having ceased forward motion, turned on her left turn signal… but made no effort to enter the empty left turn lane to his/her left… just stopped…  Green light not heeded… 

I had some space, so slowed, then stopped back a ways looking for a chance to move right into the other lane… mentally I was cursing the stupid person… she/he was going to cost me a green light… maybe a bit more…  traffic on the right, so no chance to move over… so I slow, then stop… the car behind stops short… I suspect confused about why I am stopping…  likely she can’t  see the car ahead…  Then the sound of a car stopping in panic.. Sliding… a crash, “Bang, Crunch” then more noise, the “BANG” as I get hit…  Crap flies… stuff off the front seat… off the back seat…  S@#% (aka manure) flies…  

Car ahead (aka the “stupid person”)  jack rabbits… takes off.. one might assumed panicked by the noise… 

Take a deep breath…  turn off the car… get out (check mirrors... is it safe) then check the lady behind, and the guy behind her..  all ok… and head for the side street… 

We are all ok… all cars move under own power…  We park on the side street… we get out… check if we are all all right, no blood, no gore… we are all good…  (Likely tomorrow we will be sore… but we are ok now…)

We blunder about… we take pictures with cameras and phones… hand each other business cards and insurance cards and driver’s licenses… we take notes… we trade phone numbers and such… everyone is nice… no one yells… we are civil…  We compare stories… We don't blame each other (but the poor guy in the third car and his insurance company will likely take the hit...)

I notice anti freeze under the “last” car… I go to retrieve my gallon of water…  emergency water… you never know when you might need a couple of gallons of water… It is cut open (in the crash) and nearly empty… this is funny rather than a bad thing…the Jeep has a hose out interior... water, even the 99 cents a gallon water, now lost, don't matter...

For me, the best part (best as in no body was hurt... so its only bent metal) is the tread marks on the hood of the middle car… and the hole in the bumper…  The tread marks are from Klinger's spare tire... the hole from the trailer hitch... or in this case the carrier for a clevis that was in the receiver, the clevis having been stolen while in Death Valley... The tread marks are Panamint Mountains dirt... acquired during the recent trip (reported on this blog) to Death Valley... dust is an acquired taste... but Klinger has acquired such a taste... and passed said dust onto the poor blue Toyota...

Klinger didn't take much damage... her bumper was bent in about 1/8” on the left side… there is a wrinkle in the sheet metal beyond…  the bumper cover is warped a bit and scared… my “Don’t follow me, You won’t make it” bumper sticker, a gift from a friend, is torn… but Klinger the Jeep won the battle… 

So now, there will be phone calls…  I get to have discussions with insurance investigators, insurance claim agents… they may want to record conversations…   I don’t need a new project, but don’t have a choice…  I don’t need this…I am in pretty good shape… I didn’t cause it…  I am the victim… and a witness… eventually I will get to decide what to do about Klinger’s bumper… 

If the bumper ends up being replaced, I will probably do an aftermarket bumper… something beyond common jeep… likely less expensive than “official” jeep…

A new, time consuming adventure… I think I will take another dose of Ibuprofen and ask the daughter to rub my neck…My neck hurts... what did you expect.