Body shop

Oh my gosh, where do I even begin? Such a week I am having, and that is all I can say because the bad-week-having is work related and smart people don't write about work on the internet except in the most vague and mysterious language. Anyway, the already-interesting week just got more interesting. I'm waiting for a tow truck to tow away my poor car with its injured side panels and its flat tires and bent rims. Everyone is fine, but the car can’t go anywhere except on a flatbed. 

My younger son is learning to drive. He’s doing reasonably well, except that he tends to veer to the right a bit. I talk to other parents of teenage drivers, and this is a common occurrence. Oncoming traffic is scary to a new driver and they try to stay as far away from it as possible. I've been teaching him to adjust his position on the road, and he’s gotten much better. He’s been driving us back and forth between home and school for a few weeks now, without incident. Until today, when he veered too far to the right to avoid oncoming school buses on a narrow part of Baltimore Road. Just as I started to scream “too far to the right, too far,” I felt the car run the curb and scrape the guardrails on the passenger side, where I was sitting. That is a horrible sound, by the way. Both passenger side tires blew immediately, and we bumped along for the next block or two until we were able to pull into the parking lot of an apartment complex around the first corner. 

Teenage drivers have to have their first accidents, and this was a good one, if there is such a thing. No one was hurt; not physically, anyway. My son, to his credit, remained calm as he followed my instructions to get us off the road and into the parking lot. Only after the car was parked and he saw the damage and the holes in the flattened tires did he break down a bit. I sent him home with my sister-in-law, called the insurance company, and waited for the tow truck. 

It’s Sunday now. My car is in the body shop, the insurance claim is filed, and tomorrow, I’ll pick up a loaner car from Enterprise. My son is ready to drive again. I’m not ready to allow him to drive again, but I’ll have to get over that. I have a few days–he’s not allowed to drive the rental, so I won’t have to allow him behind the wheel again until at least Friday or Saturday. Maybe longer. I’m told that body shops are backed up right now. Something about labor shortages and supply chain issues. It seems that everyone is having a week. The whole world is having a week.