Car
Well, there's no mechanical damage to the car, only body damage. I found all the parts except a replacement front windshield at a pull-a-part place, and am still looking for a windshield. It's going to be substantially less than I expected to repair the car, so this makes me happy since the other driver had no insurance, and mine was only liability (well, it's a 14 year old car!). Since it was his fault, and he has no insurance, it falls to me to pay for his stupidity. Isn't that always the way it is?
Itzl has health insurance, so his vet bill for his 2 days in the ICU and follow up care for his concussion and ruptured ear drum was well within my ability to pay.
My injuries were simply stress fractures and deep bruises - the bruises are still working their way up to visibility. Both kneecaps were broken, one thigh (the same one I broke last time) has stress fractures up it, the shoulder socket (not the rotator cuff as we earlier thought) were cracked, a couple of ribs got cracked, and I have bruises from neck to shins in all stages of color from angry red and purple to virulent yellow. I'm not supposed to drive for at least 6 weeks, but since I reckon it might be that long before I get a windshield to drive my car anyway, I'm annoyed but resigned to being mostly homebound. Fortunately, my daughter still lives with me and works only 2 blocks from where I work, so we can carpool.
It could have been much worse, and it might have been had I been going the speed limit when we hit. I was slowing down because a) it was an intersection, even if I did have the green light, b) traffic was heavy and I couldn't see past the line of giant cars to my left, and c) I've seen too many people driving carelessly lately so I always take extra precautions - just in case. Evidently, I didn't take enough in this case.
I'm really getting to disliking all these careless drivers. There was no reason for this driver to jump the light the way he did to make a left turn against oncoming traffic. He bet he could make his turn before any cars reached the intersection and we both lost. He risked 2 people and an innocent, hard-working animal just because he was selfish and in too much of a hurry to care about anyone but himself. A part of me wishes he'd been hurt, too, just to teach him a lesson in taking care. But he'll get out of this practically free - a broken headlight, but no dents in his solid steel old Cadillac, no need to pay for my damages because he had no insurance, and a relatively small fine for causing the accident. If he bought insurance after the accident, the fine for not having it will be waived, so he won't even have to deal with that.
What's the point of taking driving tests if no one obeys the traffic laws except, apparently, me and my friends? I've seen so many people running red lights, turning left agaisnt a red light or during no left turn times, speeding or (almost worse) driving more than 10 miles below the speed limit, turning from the wrong lane, and driving the wrong way down one-way streets. They hog parking spaces, taking up as many as 3 spaces, speed through parking lots, park in no parking areas, and block exits just because they can.
I like driving, but if we had a decent public transportation, I'd so take it just to avoid all these bad drivers. We don't have anything approaching a decent public transportation, though. If I wanted to take the bus to work, I'd have to spend almost 3 hours each way getting to and from work - a trip that takes 15 minutes by car (and 55 minutes by bicycle or 3 hours walking, except it's not safe to bike or walk that distance). And I'd be about 2 hours late to work since the buses don't start running early enough to get to work by 7:00 a.m. If public transportation only took me half an hour or even 45 minutes to get to work and ran early enough and late enough, I'd be so there. I grew up taking buses or walking everywhere.
