Tuesday, November 20, 2007

The first stoppage is the hardest

I suspended Marge's insurance a few days back. Which means she can no longer venture out onto the streets. I put it off for a few days, but I know it is going to take me a few months to get everything fixed properly, (front and rear brakes, emergency brake system, front steering, windshield wiper motor, turn signals and hazard flashers, door windows - all need attention). Most of this equipment is original equipment. So after all of this, she will still look like hell, but should be safer to drive around town.

Now we are not spending the money to keep her insured. But of course, the insurance company has figured out a way to keep a little of the $ for themselves. Instead of a couple of hundred bucks a year to keep liability insurance on the truck in case I hit someone, the company is making me keep a theft and fire policy on Marge, since she will be stored in the garage. $18 a year for worthless coverage with a 1K deductible.

Of course, if the house burns down, Marge will sadly be the last thing I am worrying about.

I could have canceled the insurance outright. But when I signed up the truck originally the company had a hard time getting all of the paperwork correct. Because I am sure you want to know, modern cars and trucks have a standardized format for ID numbers. Cars and trucks this old did not have a standard format or number of digits in the ID number, each manufacturer set up their own format. And our company's computer REALLY wanted the truck's ID number to match up to the current standard.

Now that the truck is listed properly, I really don't want to hassle with that again. I guess it is worth $18 a year to skip that fun. Anyways, I am hoping that Marge is back up to speed by Spring Break, but $$$ may keep it from happening until summer. My rough estimate shows that I need about $1000 in parts to get all of this done.

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