What is up with my car?

So I finally get my car past inspection and registered in Maryland, when what happens? I get hit by a tour bus turning left in front of my office!

I was sitting in a "left turn only" lane in front of Union Station, waiting for the arrow to turn green and direct me on to E Street. A bus pulled up next to me and discovered too late that it was a single lane. In the process, he did some minor damage to the right front fender of the little car.

The bus driver felt terrible. He apologized and admitted that the accident was his fault. He thought I was parked! We exchanged information and he promised that the president of the bus company would call me to make amends. I'm still waiting to hear back from him.....

Stay tuned,

Dianne

The Saga Continues

What's a girl gotta do to register her car in this town?

First, she's gotta pass Maryland state inspection. Easier said than done, I found. In Maryland, vehicle inspection is contracted out to a network of garages -- private businessmen whose main objective is not necessarily the safety of Maryland roads, but to make a buck. Needless to say, the little car failed.

I wasn't totally surprised -- I've had a stone chip in my windshield for some time, and was expecting the mechanic to tell me that I'd have to get it fixed before he'd pass me. I was surprised, however, when he told me that I'd need two tires, one rotor, one brake disc, one wheel bearing, and one license plate light. Oh, yeah, and that crack in my windshield... Smiling at the new girl in her Tennessee-licensed car, he told me that he could fix everything -- depending on how good a deal he could find on my non-standard sized tires -- for about $800.

He was not expecting me to answer that my insurance company would take care of the window, and that I'd order the tires from the Internet and take the car to my long-time mechanic in DC for the rest of the repairs. Phillip, who is the most meticulous of men, had put new brakes on the car in November and surely would have told me if there was anything amiss with the wheels. Sure enough, my "bad" rotor was bad by .003 of an inch. Hardly unsafe, but technically under the industry standard. "Fix it," I told him, "along with everything else so the car passes inspection."

So $425 later -- plus $96 for the tires from Discount Tire Direct (gotta love that free shipping) -- the little car was ready to go.... Or so I thought.

I made an appointment with Safelight Glass, an auto glass company affiliated with my insurance company. The guy came out on Saturday, prepared to fix my stone chip at no cost -- not even my deductible -- to me. Except it turned out that the stone chip was masking a hairline crack that ran the length of the windshield. The glass guy told me, "You can't see it because there's no air in it." Aaaaugh!

So this Monday morning, I'm working from home while I wait for the another glass guy to come out with a new windshield. This will cost $100, the amount of my deductible, for the replacement. They told me to expect them between 8:00 a.m. and noon. I'm betting that they arrive closer to noon. At least it's a sunny day!

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that by the end of the morning, I'll have a car that will pass muster with even the most picky of inspectors and that I can FINALLY get my Maryland tags.

Dianne

Emergency Road Service

I'm giving the emergency road service on my insurance policy a work out. Last Wednesday, the timing chain (it looked more like a rubber belt) on the Miata broke. I was driving highway speed, when all of the sudden, the little car lost power and the "Check Engine" light started flashing madly. I was able to pull off the side of the road -- New York Avenue, almost to Route 50 -- though there wasn't much more than a break down lane to protect me from the passing cars.

I called Geico's 800 number to report the break down. Amazingly, it took less than an hour for the tow truck to arrive. He pulled up only minutes after Shawn did. We towed the car to Phillip's garage and left it for him with a note. He called me the next morning and told me that for $550, he could fix my car as good as new. Okay, I said, fix me up.

That should have been the end of the story, except on the way to work this morning, I started noticing an inordinate amount of white smoke blowing behind my car. When the heater stopped putting out warm air, I started worrying. When the temperature gauge spiked, I knew I had a problem. I pulled off the highway and into a parking lot, where I watched steam billow from under my hood.

Once again, I called Shawn, Geico, and Phillip to report my busted radiator hose. As the Geico claims rep was calling the tow truck, she told me, "You know, we only pay for one tow per repair." I laughed and assured her this was a completely different break down. It took a little longer for the truck to arrive this time, but to make a long story short, the little car is back at the garage for the day. When I pick it up after work, I hope this will be the last time I see Phillip until I'm due for my next oil change.

Dianne

Sitting...

The west-bound commuters' worst nightmare:

"An accident reported on inbound New York Avenue. Traffic on Route 50 is backed up to the Beltway."

Guess what I did this morning?

Total commuting time: 1 hour, 33 minutes.

Silver lining: I missed an early morning fire drill in my building.

On the whole, I can't complain.



Dianne

Searching

It seems since we moved in to our house, we've been on a quest. It doesn't matter that we threw out, gave away, recycled, or otherwise got rid of truckloads of stuff when we left Knoxville. It doesn't matter that our closets are full of things we don't have room for. It doesn't matter that we already have so much stuff.

We keep realizing that we don't have the RIGHT STUFF. So we look for towels to match the new bathroom. For curtains to cover the windows. For shelves to hold the thousands of books we didn't give away. For cabinets to display our treasures. And now, we're looking for a dresser and a narrow chest of drawers that match our bedroom furniture.

In the process of all this looking, we're finding our way around Annapolis, the Washington Beltway, and the greater Baltimore area. Though it's frustrating to come up empty after an entire day in the truck, we've been having fun looking.

And of course, once we find the perfect bedroom furniture, we'll move on to looking for the perfect boat...

It's always something!

Curtains

Or, um, rather, "window treatments."

It seems every place I've ever lived has come with curtains/blinds/shades/shutters already in the house when I got there. Not this house. So we've been looking for curtains, shades, tie backs, valences, rods, finials... if it covers a window, we've probably looked at it. And after pricing "window treatments," I realize now why I should have paid better attention to Ms. DeCan in eighth grade Home Ec when she was trying to teach me to wind a bobbin....

I'll share pictures when our windows are fully treated!

Dianne

Commuting

I don't think I'll ever get used to driving 39.4 miles to get to work. On the best days, it takes 45 minutes. Today, it was closer to an hour-and-a-half because there was an accident on the road with the only bridge across the Anacostia River.

My trade off for sitting in traffic is that I get to watch the sun rise over the Bay every morning. Most days, it's worth it. Today, I'm not so sure....



Happy weekend,

Dianne

Getting Settled, Chapter II

The boxes are unpacked! There are only a couple boxes left in the house -- those that we haul around from move-to-move, never unpacking, but never discarding; and those that are full of pictures yet to be hung on the walls. Because there are so many windows in the new house, we have a lot less wall space than we did in Knoxville. We're still deciding what will hang where. Other than that, we've got to hang curtains and put a few more finishing touches on the place before we're MOVED IN!!

We had our first house guests this weekend -- Daniel, Tiffany, Cory & Jacob flew up from Knoxville to hang out with us. I think the verdict is that if we have to live some place other than East Tennessee, the Chesapeake Bay is a pretty cool place. We had a great time showing them around the area, though there is still much left for us to explore. Check out Shawn's blog for pictures of Jacob's great adventure in the Bay!

Dianne

Getting Settled

The movers are long gone, but we're still wading through boxes. As the piles get smaller, I get happier about the way the new house will flow when we're finally unpacked. Last night, Shawn hung shelves in two closets off the kitchen, making a pretty good pantry out of precious space that was being wasted. I promised him I'd finish unpacking the kitchen today, now that everything will have its place.

My goal is to have all the boxes gone next weekend before the kids arrive. We bought 'em all super saver plane tickets -- I got very good at watching united.com for the best deals between Washington and Knoxville when Shawn and I were dating -- and are looking forward to introducing them to the area.

We're still figuring out the neighborhood -- Shawn found a Trader Joe's in Annapolis, so I'm thrilled that I won't have to drive to Virginia to get my fix. But I think we're going to like it here.

Dianne

Driving

I'm a commuter now!

My first day as a DC-metro area commuter -- to Capitol Hill in a little less than an hour -- wasn't SO bad. I'm pretty sure I'll miss my 15 minute walk to work, until I look at the water view out my back door...

I'm still not sure how long it will take to get to work, door-to-door, in rush hour traffic. I had to make a stop this morning to see the insurance adjustor about some damage to my little car. Can you believe that on my last day in Tennessee, someone broke into the Miata by cutting through the cloth top?!?!! This is why I've always kept a low deductible on my comprehensive coverage, why I never keep anything in the car, and why I never lock my doors. I don't think my thief was very smart...

After making a police report, I called the insurance company to report the claim. I couldn't get an appointment to see an adjustor before I left Knoxville, so we set it up for today in Annapolis. It will take them a couple days to send my check -- it has to come from Macon because my car was insured in Tennessee when I filed the claim -- but the little car should have a new top before too long. In the meantime, I've fixed it with duct tape. How cliched is that?!

Whatever works, I suppose.

Dianne

Waiting...

Okay, maybe I should have waited before singing the praises of professional movers... I am still waiting for our stuff, almost two days after it was supposed to be here. The movers called on Friday afternoon to tell me that they were having mechanical problems with the truck, and asked if we wouldn't mind a Sunday delivery. Fine, I said.

We decided to leave Knoxville on Friday night as planned, but with the pressure of a Saturday noon delivery off, decided to spend the night in Harrisonburg, VA. We highly recommend the Red Carpet Inn -- it's a throwback to the golden age of motor travel in every way. The salmon and baby blue tiled bathroom alone was worth the $45 we paid for the room!

We got to Arnold by mid-afternoon and let ourselves into the house. We brought a few things with us -- including the cats, who still aren't sure what to think of a big yard, the water, and the next door neighbors' friendly dog -- and it took no time to get settled. Instead of unpacking boxes, we spent a leisurely Saturday night watching wild card football games in Annapolis.

I had just rolled off our air mattress this morning when the movers called to tell me they were stuck in Roanoke and promised they'd call when the truck was ready to go. I didn't hear from them until 4:30 this afternoon, triumphant. The truck is fixed, but they said they wouldn't be able to make it to Arnold until Monday. Would that be okay?

Fine, I said. What choice did I have?

Shawn repacked his suitcase and headed back to Knoxville for his last week of work, secretly happy, I think, that he'll miss all the moving fun.

At least the cable gal -- yes, she was a she -- made it to the house today. She was four hours late, but she was able to get everything hooked up with a minimum of fuss. Of course, my TV is on a truck somewhere in the Blue Ridge Mountains... So I find myself on this Sunday night, sitting in an empty living room with my HD cable box, blinking modem, and laptop computer, still thankful that I didn't have to carry any boxes...

Stay tuned to hear how it turns out.


Dianne

Moving Day

To quote Miss Scarlett, with God as my witness, I will never move myself again! Professional movers rock! I suppose I should withhold judgment until the job is finished and all our stuff is safely in the new house. But I gotta tell you, the process on this end has been pretty painless.

When Cornell told us that they'd pay our moving costs, we were elated. Shawn met with three companies who walked around the house and sized up our worldly possessions. They provided estimates -- all under the maximum we were allowed -- which we sent to the University business office. My "financial consultant" wrote up a purchase order, we contacted our favorite company and scheduled the move. Yesterday, three guys spent the better part of 12 hours packing everything up. They did a great job -- especially in the kitchen, which is always the WORST room to pack. This morning, two guys came over and built a couple of crates for the TV and the glass shelves on the TV table. This afternoon, four guys are loading everything on a big truck.

In a couple days, we'll meet them in Arnold, where they'll unload it all for us. When it's over, the company will send the final bill to the business office.

I could get used to service like this!



Dianne

Home Again

I created this blog so I could comment on Shawn's Chesapeake Life blog.

The name comes from the e-mail I sent to my address book when we decided to move to the Washington, D.C. area, not quite two years after I moved to Tennessee. I wondered if I'd been gone too long, or if anyone would remember me... Good to know that my fears were misgiven.


I may post independently from time to time, but probably won't update as frequently as Shawn is sure to. I will, however, add lots of pictures as I take them. If you come visit us in Arnold, be prepared to have your image blasted into cyber-space!

Hope to see you all soon,

Dianne