Golf, Yaris, and everything in between.

I went golfing for the first time this year. A few friends and myself headed out for a 8:10 AM tee time.
That's pretty early for a Saturday morning for me. I usually like to leave the alarm off on Friday night, and sleep until my body tells me to get up on Saturday.

Now I am not an avid golfer, but I do enjoy it when I get the chance. I shot a 118, which I have no idea whether is in line with my normal game, since I don't have a normal game yet.
I do plan on golfing a lot more this year, so we'll have to see how much that score comes down.
We also had lots of fun loosening the strap on one of our friends golf carts, and his bag kept falling off the cart as he accelerated. Quite funny from our perspective.


On the car front, I still have the Yaris. I have to take it back tomorrow though, so one more sleep and bye bye Yaris.
Yes, the inspector from the insurance company looked over my car, and decided it would be a write-off. I was offered an amount, and went down at the end of the day to sign the papers.
I arrived 2 minutes before closing, but they were already closed.
I did manage to get my belongings from the car, as that section of the place was still open another few hours.
Afterward, I went home, and spoke to my next door neighbor (he's a mechanic, and quite in the know on a lot of different subjects. He's usually a good sounding board for problems).
My neighbor was very upset I hadn't told him what the write-off offer was earlier, previous to going down to sign the papers. Luckily I hadn't signed the papers, because my neighbor explained I was getting low balled on the offer. They didn't even consider the recent (within the last 8 months) work and new parts put in to my car.
So tonight I called another friend of mine who also happens to work at the insurance company, and asked him what I should do in terms of getting a better settlement.
I don't plan on using this friends name or anything, I just wanted his opinion, since he is already in the business, and is a car insurance inspector himself.
He said yes, they should have taken the value of the parts into consideration on the total amount of the claim.
So tomorrow I will calling back my adjuster, and seeing what sort of compromise we can attain.

Keep in mind also, I work in a big call center company, and have been on the receiving end of customers feeling they were just ripped off, or screwed on their bills. So I am not about to go "postal" on these guys. I know going in the best way to get what you want is through politeness. People respond better to calming, peaceful conversation, that they do to yelling and cursing.
So I will be calm, cool, collected, and in the end I will get a fair price for my written off vehicle.


As a parting thought, one which I plan on writing more on in the future, I want to say how much I am a fan of the old series from the 60's called The Prisoner. It starred Patrick McGoohan, and I am so happy they are making brand bew series based on the original.
It's being made for a British satellite company called Sky One, and should hit the airwaves in January 2008.
Cross your finger, I think it will be a great new series.

And to give you something interesting to watch, here are a couple videos with the Prisoner in mind.

Here is The Arrival, the first episode in the series. Watch, and by hook or by crook, you will be hooked.

Episode 1, part 1


Episode 1, part 2


Episode 1, part 3


Episode 1, part 4


Episode 1, part 5



Laterz.
AH

Yaris and Me.....

So, I woke up on Friday morning, got ready for work, and stepped out my back door to head for my car.
But there was a slight problem with that idea.....my car was not there!
Yessir, my car was stolen.
I was, and am still, pretty calm about it. There was wasn't much of value in the car, just the usual car things like windshield washer fluid, shovels in the trunk, rubber boots....you get the picture.
So what's to be mad about? I took a cab to work, called the police and MPI (Manitoba Public Insurance), and this morning went to Enterprise Car Rentals and got my rental car (I have the rental insurance on my Autopac, so I'm covered up to $39.02 per day on a rental).
And as it turns out, I get to drive around in an orange chicklet for the next little while.....an orange colored Yaris.
I am pretty sure this is the smallest car on Earth. Well, it sure felt like it when I got in to drive it today.
But what the heck, it's a free car for a while, and I'll have fun with it.

So this will speed up my car buying process, especially if my car comes back and is written by MPI.

If you want to see what sort of power this Yarris has, I will be accepting challenges starting Monday. You have to run, and I get to drive the Yaris....should be close races.

:P



Laterz.
AH