On with the car story...

So, I left my car outside my apartment and went inside to start calling body shops. Guess what! They are all apparently only open from 7:30-5:30 Monday thru Friday. Seriously, I'm driving to and from work that whole time. Apparently, you have to skip work to take your car in! That really frustrated me, but I researched companies around and wrote down some numbers.

On Tuesday during my lunch break, I called a few of them. The one that is like 3 blocks from my apartment didn't answer, which was really frustrating because the next closest one is a 1.5 miles away. The one that's there though was really kind when I talked to him, and he explained all that I needed to do if I dropped it off at night.

So, my project for the night was to get my car there, and then somehow get back to my apartment. I looked on Google to try and find the best way to get there without going on a highway. I really didn't want to risk having the hood fly up on me. That reminds me...

A quick aside:

When I was like 10, I was riding in a car down a country rode, and the hood flew up and crashed into the windshield. It didn't crack into the windshield, but it made a really loud bang and scared the bejesus out of me. Also, there was no way of easily getting the hood down after it flew up, so we had to drive back to the house out of the windows because we couldn't see out of the windshield. Since then, I've been a bit scared of that same thing happening to me.

I found a way to get there that didn't require highway usage (I thought). When I started to drive there, and it turned into a highway, I was so pissed off. I ended up getting to the actual car place okay, and I left my car there for them to look at. Then, I was kind of stuck because I couldn't go back the way I came, and to make things more interesting, there's this big river called the Mississippi between me and my apartment. The twin cities is like a city of highways and there seemed to be no way of getting across the river without jumping on the highway.

I did like any other person of our generation would do, and I asked someone (my wonderful boy) to look it up online and tell me how to get back. He first told me I should jump on a bus, and 9 minutes and $1.50 later, I'd be a block away from my apartment. The cheapness of my family kicked in telling me I could walk that distance without wasting my money, so I insisted on walking there instead. Because there were no pedestrian bridges, the walk back was more like 2.5-3 miles! It took forever and it was getting dark, but luckily I had company on the phone.

After that, I headed to bed to read, but fell fast asleep instead.

This morning, I rode with another person who lives in my building to work, and I waited for the call from the body shop. When it came, I was a little surprised. Keep in mind, there was no damage to the other vehicle and my car still worked, so I was expecting at most $1000. He first told me that the estimate was considering that he'd use used parts on my car because I said that I might be wanting to pay this on my own and not turn it into the insurance. Then, he quoted me the price.

Anyone want to guess?