Ask and ye shall receive...

A few weeks ago, as my partner was driving himself and our little girl to my work to pick me up and go shopping, he got into a car accident.  It was technically his fault, though he did what any parent would do.  It seems our little one let out one of her patented blood-curdling shrieks for no apparant reason.  My man, quite naturally, turned around to see if she was hurt.  Seeing that she wasn't, he turned back around and promptly ran into the rear of the car ahead of him, that had stopped suddenly. That car, in turn, ran into the one in front of it.

Now, any parent would have done that, I think.  But,  him running into the car in front was his fault because it wouldn't have happened if he hadn't been following too close to it. Everyone was ok. Everyone at the scene was also very nice and understanding; no fights ensued. My partner was shaken up, but my little girl was back to her usual bubbly self within minutes.

The cop attending the scene deemed the damage to our old car to be in excess of $1000, even considering that it was strictly cosmetic: the grille was smashed in, the front bumper was damaged, one of the headlights was smashed, and there was a dent in the right side panel that makes opening the hood difficult.  This is on top of the driver's side mirror having been smashed off by vandals months' earlier, which inturn caused the window to not work right. And the car leaks oil from something that happened to it a year or so ago.

It's still driveable, though.  During the day anyway, because one of the headlights is skewed (still working, but crooked). Our choice, however, was: fork over the money for repairs, or buy another beater car.

Anyway, a good friend of ours heard what happened, and knows we can't really afford to do either of those options, so he has given us his old car! Sure, it's been around the block a bit.  It's the same year as our car (oldsmobile though, not chevy), has the same engine, it's intact, and doesn't leak oil.  The only thing needed is a new glass for the passenger side mirror, and a tune-up, which is much less than repairs or purchasing another beater!

Yay!