Ups and Downs

Unsurprisingly, Allstate completely low-balled me in the settlement offer. They won't budge. They tell me my options are arbitration or filing suit against them.

I was super pissed yesterday when they called. Now, I simply don't care. Fine, you can screw me, Allstate. I only care about putting this behind me. I can't fully heal and move on until this is done . Allstate counts on people like me to cave. It would take weeks or months of dragging it out via arbitration or going through an attorney with the hopes of getting more money. At this point, it's no longer about money.

There's a special place in hell for you, Ms. Insurance Adjustor.
Right up there with meter maids.
(This would be a fine time to rant about the parking ticket I received from the snakes at Oakland Parking Division. (Fuckers!) They fined me $50 for parking in a red zone, when I hadn't. Part of my front bumper bled into the red zone, ever-so-slightly. However, there's been a car parked in the same spot that has been WAY bleeding into the red zone....and yet, NO TICKET!!!)

Uh, I'm feeling ranteriffic right now.

Anyway, Allstate is fucking me, but they are giving me enough money to get a new bike. I put down a deposit on a custom frame from Steve Rex of Rex Cycles . A frame that will fit me exclusively, to resolve the fit issues of long femurs and short torso and arms. I'm getting the Carbon and Steel frame. I'm going to put my REI pro-deal abilities to their fullest use and deck this bike out in the top of the line components. Hell, yeah , I will no longer have to deal with the squirrely chatter of an aluminum frame. Or of having a triple. Nor will I be riding a bike who's top tube is 5cm too long! Aside from the cost of this beauty, the only downside is this frame takes four months to get. Steve makes each frame himself, by hand. Soooooooo worth it.

Oh, and the other joy of parking in my hood? I often drive around a lot, never to find parking. So, occasionally I park in the Church lot near my place. No issues, I move the car first thing in the morning when I wake up. This moring I forgot to move it, and ran outside at 10:30am. Shouldn't be a big issue on a Thursday morning, right? WRONG! I ran out to find my 4Runner being loaded onto a tow truck. Yup. Yes, it was my own damn fault. The tow truck guys were not going to release my car! After conducting a huddle up by my front bumper, they decided to release it for eighty dollars . EXTORTION MONEY!

Oh, and guys, you can join the insurance adjustor and the meter maid in hell, okay?

I'm a firm believer in karma , folks, and you'll get yours.

Really?

Has it really been 20 years?

I received an email today about my 20th High School Reunion. Oy.

The internet must be a powerful tool, I don't know how else they found me. I was MIA for the 10th reunion, and then, I was still on the East Coast. I come from a place where people don't leave. Or if they do, it's a couple towns over.

More alarming, I am actually considering going to the reunion. Only vaguely considering, but still. I was one of those total outcasts. You know the type. Arty. Sullen. One of two punk kids in a sea of upturn collars and feathered hair. I grew up on Cape Cod. Politically liberal, socially stifling. Land of the cookie cutter people. So I find it surprising that I'm not rejecting the idea immediately.

Why would I pay to torture myself by seeing these people again?

Partially because I've knocked that Outsider chip off my shoulder. Partially out of morbid curiousity. There are a couple people I'd like to see. I haven't been abck to the Cape for years and years. I seek no closure from my high school years, so there's none of that.

But damn, has it really been 20 years?