As you may have a heard, I hit a deer on Friday night. Actually, I've decided, based on a careful survey of the evidence, that the deer saw the Japanese deer stocking cap in my rear window (thank you, John Grigsby) and was hoping to free its friend from a life of imprisonment.
Instead, it freed my rear bumper from my car.
So now I'm driving around with a duct taped on (thank you, Barrett Mohrmann) rear bumper. It seems to be holding up well, and as I don't have a ton of disposable income at the moment (or really any moment) I sort of plan to continue in this fashion for at least a month.
But the incident has served as yet another reminder of the fact that I have ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA how to be a grown-up. I did not even think, as I rejoiced in my state of still being alive and apparent lack of sever car damage, to stop and see if the deer was still alive, alert authorities to the dead deer in the road, take photos of otherwise do anything to prove that a deer had in fact run into my car.
Why is this significant, you ask? Because apparently, according to some quick 2 a.m. Googling, deer accidents are often covered by your insurance. I have talked to my car insurance man and learned that this is in fact the case, but I'm now concerned about the act of actually filing the claim because:
1) I have no actual proof that a deer hit me. There is a rear bumper hanging half off my car, but I could've just done that in a fit of rage.
2) Said bumper has, as mentioned, been thoroughly duct taped up to my car, so I can't even photograph it now without removing all of the duct tape and redoing it. I'm still sort of planning on doing that because I want to buy some really heavy duty tape, but I haven't yet and don't want to go through all that ridiculousness.
3) I also don't want to take the car in for an estimate or anything until I am totally ready to fix it, because I don't want them to tell me it's dangerous to drive with a duct taped on bumper and force me to leave it there and fix it NOW. Plus, doing that would also require removing the duct tape.
4) The deductible, according to Mr. Insurance Man, is $500. According to extensive Internet research and talking to one person who had similar damage, the cost of my new bumper plus installation will be between $500 and $600. What is the point of going through all this hullabaloo if it's going to save me exactly $0?
The biggest challenge, though, is that I just don't know how all of this works. As noted, I've learned a lot of this from the Internet, or excessively asking friends and family for advice/instruction. I've always patted myself on the back for my independence (which I stand by, still) but there is still many a scenario that I am just completely and totally unprepared for.
This is one of them, and I hate it. If someone just wants to become my personal assistant and handle all of this for me for a salary of nothing other than my everlasting love and appreciation, you are welcome to. I will continue being a half-grown post adolescent whining about how being an adult is hard.
My mom has a theory that being an adult is nothing less than knowing that you have to do something because otherwise it won't get done. This doesn't mean you know how to do the stuff you have to do, or that you won't be overwhelmed. It's just knowing that you have to be responsible and that you are capable enough to get through it just fine. And by that definition, you have been an adult since I met you fall term freshman year. <3
ReplyDeleteAlso I hope your car is okay because car trouble is the worst.