Heavy

Boy, the world is heavy right now.

Middle East War, ugly election, Hurricane Helene, and now Hurricane Milton.

Being in North Carolina, I am bombarded with pictures and stories that are heartbreaking. It's so heavy and tragic. It's getting a bit cold, and there are people with only the clothes left on their backs after the storm, and some have lost shoes. So now I saw where the helo pilots were changing gears from water and food to warm clothing and shoes. 

Now on to Tampa/St Pete where a good many of my family live.

I spoke to 2 of them last night. They were making plans when I was on the phone, they had not finalized their plans of where they were going and who was going with who, etc.  Lots of extended family.  

I can't fathom how they deal with this. I saw this morning that the mayor of Tampa said , "do what you have to do to prepare and then get out of the evacuation zone or you will die."  Holy Shit.

Okay, this is far worse than snow. I am beginning to think shoveling is better. And I don't miss shoveling snow.  But it's looking mighty fine right now.

Sunday morning I was going to run to the new grocery store nearby and pick up some milk and cereal that Rick was out of. Just a quick trip was my thought until Wednesday when I get my check and go shopping.  

Oh boy, I blew it!  

I pulled out of our garage very slowly as always. I have two mirrors on the side of my SUV. I make sure I can clear those two mirrors.  Rick pulled in funny and he told me when I was leaving to straighten out the car. I did that. I was slowly going along and I cleared both mirrors when I heard a crinkling car parts sound. OH, GOD.

I jumped out of the car and saw my bumper lying on the driveway.  

Apparently, my bumper was grabbed by the garage doorway just right and ripped it clean off.  My mirrors were absolutely fine. But my bumper ripped off from the passenger side.  How the hell I did this I don't know but I dreaded going into the house to tell Rick what had just happened.

Rick wasn't feeling good and he was in his ugly chair about to nap.  

I walked in and he immediately said, "Forget something?"

"No Rick, I ripped the bumper off the car"

"What do you mean you ripped the bumper off the car?"
"I didn't like it there so I ripped it off. I'm sorry"

By this time he was up and walking to the back door.

He says NOTHING. This is not like him. I'm thinking to myself, "Just shut up, maybe this is new from the stroke"

He looks at the bumper hanging by one small light and says, "Well you did a very good job, Margaret"

"Thank you. I'm really really sorry Rick"

"Shit happens. It's okay Margaret"

OMG, who is this? If this is what happens after a stroke I'm all for this symptom!  Normally he'd be in dad mode and yelling, "Why didn't you look, did you do this? we can't afford this! yada yada yada"

NOTHING. He said, "Well I think if I get this one piece unscrewed it will be driveable.  He got down on the ground and all I could think of was, "Dear Lord let him get up"  Since the stroke that is an issue so I was praying it wasn't going to be a big issue this time. It wasn't pretty but we got him up.

Rick did all that he wanted to do for the car.  He removed the bumper and the bumper bits and put the whole bumper in the back of the car.  He drove it down our long driveway down the street and back. He said it was driveable. We just don't have turn signals in the front. (so it's not really street-worthy driveable) 

That allowed me to run to the store and hurry home so I didn't get stopped.

I made all the calls needed. Insurance, car rental, body shop, etc.

Rick got it in for an estimate on Monday on the way to the gym. 

It was $2,400. 

I pay my deductible (250) and it goes into the body shop on the 14th of October. It should take a week they told us. 

Now in the meantime, I am being picked up by Enterprise Car Rental Wednesday morning to get a rental vehicle. Thank God for insurance.

I like that they pick me up as well. 

What we found conflicting was the auto body told us it was driveable.

When I made the claim and told them they disagreed. The agent asked what was wrong. then she pulled up our estimate and said, "No it's not driveable. I realize nothing is dragging or leaking but if  you have no signals in the front of your car you should not have it on the road."  I repeated I had signals in the rear and said I could use hand signals (which is what I did when I stopped at the grocery store). My agent laughed at the hand signals. Hey, I learned that in driver's ed - it can't be all bad. 😃 

Enterprise Car asked about the car and what was wrong beside the whole bumper being gone. I told him and said you can't drive that without signals. I said I had them in the back. He laughed at me and said, it wasn't legal.

Now, I don't know if that is true but I have the insurance money to rent a car for 30 days so I'm not fighting them about this. I'll take the car. 

Besides driving this with no bumper is embarrassing.

Rick told me, "We're in Johnston County NC, we fit in now"

Oh dear, I don't want to fit in.

So I'm getting a new car to drive around tomorrow. I planned on going full grocery shopping along with a Costco run so I appreciate having a car to use. Rick's first thought was the gym. I don't know this man anymore.

Honestly, the gym? I'd think, Yeah an excuse not to go to the gym.

As I have said, The After Stroke Rick is so different than Before Stroke Rick that I find it amusing. 

Later on Monday, we decided to take things out of our car before we dropped it off. 

As we were cleaning it out Rick said to me, "I'm sure glad I didn't do this"  

"Oh, I'd have preferred that actually."

"Yes, but you'd think it was a stroke issue and not think I should drive. So what is your excuse?"

Stress I tell him -  from my husband having a stroke.

Nice try.   His only comment made along with a chuckle.

Whew.