My grandmother passed away on Thursday, the 14th, which coincidentally is James’ birthday. My brother met me here Friday and he drove up to WV for the funeral on Saturday. Saturday was also Jenny’s birthday and James’ official last day of work (retirement).
Jenny couldn’t come with us to WV since she had to work. I called her on Saturday morning on her way to work to wish her a happy birthday, and during the conversation she told me she thought the heater was broken. Immediately I could feel my stomach knotting up… thinking I was going to have a huge repair cost. Then she explained that it was the heater in the car, and that it was the knob to adjust the strength (1,2,3,4,etc.) of the fan. I told her not to worry about it, and that I’d look at it when I got home. It’s a 10 year old car. It’s not the first switch to break, and I wasn’t that worried about it. We hung up and I started getting ready to leave the house.
Jenny calls me back approximately 10 minutes later, “There’s smoke pouring out the dashboard.” I told her to get out of the car and dial 911. She called me back 10 minutes after that, “I can see flames now.” The fire department was on their way, and got there shortly after that. They extinguished the fire.
Since I was in WV, she went ahead and contacted GEICO who sent a tow truck out. They towed it to the house, and Jennifer (our neighbor) came and picked up Jenny. GEICO initially told Jenny that since it was on fire, they were probably going to total it. They did get her a rental car which she was able to pick up on Monday morning. On that paperwork also, they said the car was totaled. Jenny went ahead and emptied out the car, took the license plates off and everything before I got home. They told her that if I wanted to keep the supercharger, I could, I just needed to put the stock parts back on.
I then began weighing my options… do I want to buy the car back and take on the project of fixing it? What kind of fire damage, water damage, etc. might be back there? I don’t know what they were going to offer me for the car, but I honestly didn’t want it. I’d rather have my car fixed. 
Anyway, I talked to the adjuster on Friday, and explained the damage. He drove out to the house to inspect the car, and agreed with me that it probably wasn’t totaled. However, without being able to remove the dash and inspect the damage, it was impossible to tell. They went ahead and towed it to a repair shop last night to inspect it further.
I’m crossing my fingers….
( photos)
1 January 1970
 | | |
Note: To see the pictures in the original Picasa album, click here
This makes me sad.
