It's been four days and I already want the year to be over

[oloriel]

Man, I'm not someone who believes in using all-lowercase in order to express depression and exhaustion, but if I did, this entry would be written in all-lowercase. And without punctuation.

We visited Julian's godmother this weekend. On the drive back, we succesfully circumvened most of the traffic jams and drove through heavy snowfall with the utmost care. Only so some FUCKING STUPID BELGIAN ASSHOLE WOULD CRASH INTO US.

I mean, there are two types of car crash, the kind that's unavoidable and the kind that's just brainless. In heavy snowfall, you'd expect someone to skid on ice, or brake too hard or too late. But noooo, it was some idiot to be distracted by his passengers (IT'S DARK AND SNOWING, WHAT ARE YOU DOING) and NOT CHECK WHETHER THE LANE IS FREE BEFORE PULLING INTO IT.

I know I should be grateful that our car is heavy enough to be shaken but to stay in its lane, rather than turning into a 90-km/h billard ball on a rather crowded highway. And that nobody was hurt, aside from overdoses of adrenaline (and a young policeman was hit on the hand by Felix, who did not appreciate the intrusion. I have really polite kids.). And that the idiot actually followed us onto a lay-by and gave us his name etc. And that the police arrived in a timely manner and explained to the idiot's elderly passenger that no, they didn't believe that we had in fact swerved into them, and no, the damage didn't look old, either. But aaaargh, more repairs and money we don't have and struggles with insurances (internationally, woo hoo) and HONESTLY, YOU BASTARD, WHAT KIND OF IDIOT DOESN'T CHECK WHETHER A LANE IS FREE. ESPECIALLY IN FOUL WEATHER AND ON A CROWDED HIGHWAY. (It was not a "blind area" thing, either. We had almost overtaken him when he pulled into the lane we were occupying.)

If this is a general trend for 2015, I want a new year, please.

Comments

[ellynn-ithilwen.livejournal.com]

Sorry to hear this - you surely feel awful. :( I just hope that everything will go smoothly with insurance and repair. *hugs*

[maglor-20.livejournal.com]

That's awful. :( My year started out pretty lousy, too. Waiting for that part to be over. I hope you manage to get your car fixed. *hugs*

[lindahoyland.livejournal.com]

I'm so sorry to hear this, but glad you and your children aren't injured. Idiots like this could kill someone and should not be on the road. Hugs.

[fallingtowers.livejournal.com]

Ach ne, was für 'ne Scheiße. :(((

Ich bin allerdings froh, dass wenigstens niemandem was passiert ist.

[http://users.livejournal.com/macalla_/]

Zum Glück geht's euch allen gut!
Aber besch..eiden ist sowas natürlich schon. *ganz fest drück*

Ich hoffe, die Sache mit der Versicherung lässt sich einigermaßen problemlos klären.

Something completely different: VIELEN lieben Dank für deine Karte! Wir sind seit gestern Abend aus dem Urlaub zurück und ich hatte endlich Zeit die Post durchzusehen. Deine beiden kleinen Jungs sind ja wirklich zum Anbeißen :)

[nelyo-russandol.livejournal.com]

Argh! What a load of unnecessary stress and expense. I won't offer a comforting cup of Belgian hot chocolate in this occasion. *Hugs*

[independence1776]

Oh, no Lyra! I'm very glad everyone's okay. And I hope everything goes smoothly with the insurance. *hugs*

[hhimring]

Oh my god!
I'm so glad you didn't get hurt, but yes, of all the unnecessary, stupid things to happen!

[cowboy-r.livejournal.com]

Well, look at it another way... maybe you've gotten the worst of the year out of the way early!

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

Luckily, we found out that with damages of this category, larger garages offer you to yield claims to them (no clue whether those are the correct legal terms!). This means that you won't be paid compensations, loss of earnings etc. because those go to the garage, but in turn they repair your car and give you a rental car for free. This is a serious relief, because otherwise we'd either have to wait until the Belgian insurance agree that they have to pay and grant a repair and compensations plan, or we'd have to pay for the repairs up front (which we can't, it's a five-digit sum) and hope that the Belgian insurance is going to repay in full (+ compensations)... in the distant future. (Insurances tend to take their sweet time, and probably even more when there's a border and a different language involved.) In practice, we'd probably get the entire money back + a few hundred Euros in damages (which are now going to go to the garage), but we have neither the resources nor the energy to wait that out. So we'll let the garage deal with it, they've got experience (and lawyers)...
So under the circumstances, we're lucky.

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

We seem to be lucky - we found a garage that is going to fight the insurance fight while also repairing the car (so after that, it's their damage and they are going to get compensation etc., but at least we won't have to expend further energy and money on this). Technically, I'm aware that this is going to cost us a few hundred theoretical bucks, because otherwise the garage wouldn't do it, but in practice, I'm just glad that we're going to get the car repaired and we don't have to deal with the insurance hassle.

Hope your year is going to get better ASAP, too!

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

The weird thing is, while it was happenign I didn't actually feel like our lives were in danger. The car is so heavy and Jörg reacted so well that all I felt was the jolt when the other car hit us, a slight drift to the left, and then all was back to normal. In hindsight, I realise that if he had hit us a bit further back (more leverage), we might have spun out of control. If there hadn't been a layby a few hundred kilometers on, we'd have had to stop in the highway and further cars might have crashed into us. If Jörg, who caught the other car's movement from the corner of his eye right before it happened, had tried to swerve away - or if he hadn't corrected the drift right as it started - it could have been a disaster. I know that, so I'm grateful it didn't happen, but it's all theory -- because the actual accident, when it happened, was just a bump and a crash and some colourful curses.
*hugs back*

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

Ja, das sind wir auch. Das Bizarre ist allerdings, dass die Angst, wir hätten bei dem Unfall verletzt (oder schlimmer) werden können, bei mir eine rein theoretische ist. Der eigentliche Unfall war für mich nur ein heftiger Schlag in die Seite, dann ein Ruck, und dann hatte Jörg das Auto auch schon unter Kontrolle und fuhr den Rastplatz an, der freundlicherweise nur ein paar hundert Meter später kam. Da war für mich gar kein Anlass, um mein Leben oder meine Gesundheit zu fürchten. Ich hatte Angst, dass wir jetzt auf dem Rastplatz einschneien mit den beiden kleinen Kindern, und als die vier Leute aus dem anderen Auto ausstiegen (3x Typ Baseballspieler, 1x Typ Mafioso), hatte ich Angst, dass die Jörg jetzt noch zusammenschlagen. Das war real. Aber das Wissen, dass auch der Unfall, wenn nur eine Kleinigkeit anders gewesen wären - der Winkel, die Aufprallstelle, Jörgs Lenkreaktion - tödlich hätte sein können, ist rein theoretischer Natur. Deshalb kommt darüber gar keine echte Erleichterung auf. Klingt komisch, aber so ist das...

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

Gott sei Dank hatten wir die Möglichkeit, mit der VW-Vertragswerkstatt unseres geringsten Misstrauens einen Abtretungsvertrag abzuschließen. Heißt in der Praxis, dass die unser Auto reparieren und einen Ersatzwagen zur Verfügung stellen. Dafür treten wir unsere Ansprüche an die gegnerische Versicherung an das Autohaus ab, so dass die dann am Schadensersatz, Ausfall usw. verdienen. Sollen sie. Ich bin so froh, dass wir nicht in Vorkasse gehen oder uns monatelang mit der gegnerischen Versicherung (+ Gutachten, Übersetzungen usw.) herumschlagen müssen. Dafür haben wir zur Zeit weder die Energie noch die Kohle...

Bittesehr! Freut mich, dass dir die Karte gefällt. Manchmal sind die Jungs auch einfach nur zum Beißen, aber da haben sie sich wirklich gut in Szene gesetzt...
Hoffe, ihr hattet einen schönen Urlaub!

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

I'll take Dutch, it's just as well and doesn't carry the connotations. ;)

Fortunately, we've found a way of minimising the stress and expense. It seems this is going to cost us theoretical money only, and that no further nerves will be strained. Huge sigh of relief, here.

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

I seriously hope that's the case!

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

Seriously! The weather was really bad and the road was really crowded and it was dark, so there are a dozen things that could've gone wrong. To add yet another risk just by being inattentive... ARGH!

Well, the driver was young - I'm hoping he learned something from the experience. >_>

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

Fortunately, we were able to yield claims to the garage that's going to repair our car, which means that we won't have to pay for the repair up front and that the garage is going to fight with the insurance. (They've got experience, and lawyers...) On the minus side, we're going to lose the damages and compensations money that we're theoretically entitled to, because that is now going to go to the garage for their troubles. Since it's only theoretical money, and since I was honestly terrified of the energy-leeching, nerve-racking hassle with the insurance, I consider this a solution where everyone's a winner. (Except for the driver of the other car, but I can't be too sorry for him.)
*hugs back*

[fallingtowers.livejournal.com]

...als die vier Leute aus dem anderen Auto ausstiegen (3x Typ Baseballspieler, 1x Typ Mafioso), hatte ich Angst, dass die Jörg jetzt noch zusammenschlagen.

Ack. Ich glaube, da hätte ich mir gleich nochmals in die Hosen gemacht. Wenigstens waren die ja offenbar harmlos.

Und gut, dass die Werkstatt den Versicherungskram übernimmt! Trotzdem: ich hoffe, dass das neue Jahr ab jetzt für euch aufwärts geht. ♥

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

Jedenfalls waren sie nicht gewalttätig. Sie haben allerdings versucht, zu behaupten, der Ältere wäre gefahren (das wär uns ja noch egal). Und die Beulen an unserem Auto wären ja wohl Altschäden. (Genau, und die sehen auch nach einer Fahrt über die verschneit-matschige Autobahn noch ganz frisch aus.) Und überhaupt hätten wir ja wohl sie gerammt. Aber mit sowas kann man ja noch umgehen bzw. die Polizei hat ihnen denn auch ganz klar gesagt, dass sie das für Mumpitz halten.

Ja, da bin ich auch sehr erleichtert. Und danke, das hoffen wir natürlich auch! ♥