Crazy Old Lady Who Should Not Possess a Driver's License!

So yesterday afternoon I am at work, and one of the ladies comes and tells me I better come look at my jeep. Stomach sinking feeling.....

See, at work, we don't have a "real" parking lot per say. On the left side of our building is the dry dock where trucks back up to unload products. Well, one of the places we have to park is parallel with that side of the building, so that when the trucks back up, they are backing up between our "car line" and the building. I hate having to park there but a lot of days I have to because most people get there before me. So I am always afraid of a semi truck scraping up my side or something like that.

Anyways, Malisa and I head quickly out to our cars (she was parked in front of me), and I am imagining the worst. So we get out there to find, not a semi-truck & driver, but an old lady and a boat of a car that has side-swiped my bumper and is literally about 2 inches away from hitting the back of Malisa's car. I wish I had the pictures right now, because I can't even begin to describe how it looked. (Pictures are at work, I'll post them next week.) I cannot for the life of me figure out what this old crazy woman was trying to do and how she got herself in this predicament. Finally after some talking to her we discover, she had come to pick up something for her church (probably more likely for herself, just using her church's account) and had driven up to the dock, got her tea, backed down a little ways and then decided instead of backing all the way down, she was going to try and cut through Malisa and my cars and go out the alley on the other side of our cars. Now, there was not enough room for a small car to fit through our cars, especially not this old lady's huge, ancient boat of a car. I think this would be a good instance of an elderly person who has no business driving. Her judgement obviously is not good enough for her to be out on the road. And if you're not convinced, she said she didn't even realize that she had hit me!

It was probably a good 10 minutes into the incident/discussion, before she even got out of her car enough to turn around to see where she had put a nice dent in my bumper and an even better dent into her own side (got what she deserves!). So I ask for her insurance information... she can't find her insurance card. Great. So I ask to see her driver's license so I can just jot down her information. She doesn't hand me the card but tells me the information, so I write it down, hoping she is not lying. But she's really old and spit it right out, so I thought I was safe (I was safe, by the way, about her name, address, and phone number at least.... she said she had State Farm insurance, so I am assuming that is correct as well).

And then, we are not about to let her try to get herself out of this predicament, so after we got plenty of pictures, I move my Jeep and Malisa moves her car. We have everything we need from the lady, so she proceeds to back her car down the rest of the way. Let's just say, I'm glad I moved my Jeep a good 20 feet away from her. She nearly hit the building trying to back out. This lady really should not be driving. Malisa also noticed that on the other side of her car, on her bumper, you can see where it's all dented up and there is red paint on it, so this is obviously not the first time she has hit something/someone.

Now, you can be proud of me, I didn't cry during any of this. (Don't worry though, I did bawl when I got home and told Anthony, apologizing over and over, even though it's not my fault.) Not saying I didn't want to or that my eyes didn't get a little watery, but I held it together, it's just a bumper after all. And of course I was thankful that I wasn't in the car or it wasn't something worse than what it was. After I worked a little more and composed myself I even called the insurance company to report it. Life is so much simpler when you have parents to take care of these things for you. :) So Sarah at State Farm (who I love by the way) got all the information and told me someone would call me about it (and I plan on telling them that this woman should not be driving) and I should go ahead and take it to the shop on Monday morning. Okay, good plan.

Fast forward to today, just a little while ago. I am gathering up the trash so we can take it to the dump, and I go out to the Jeep, and go to take a look at the dent..... and there is no dent. Did I dream this whole story? Did crazy old lady not really hit me? No, you can definitely see where it was dented, but apparently it "undented" itself. You know, plastic bumpers. Maybe plastic bumpers aren't so bad after all. They fix themselves. But I'm thinking I should still go ahead and take it to the shop Monday morning just so they can make sure there wasn't any damage underneath the bumper (is there even anything under there?) or anything that I am not seeing. I wouldn't want something to come up a while from now and this be the cause of it but then it be too late, you know? Any thoughts on this? Would you go ahead and take it in just to cover yourself? It seems like the right thing to me, since I did file the claim, just so I follow through all the way.

So I guess this is a blessing, my bumper fixing itself, but I really wanted them to sock it to that old lady! Maybe they will still evaluate her or something. Way to be Christ-like, Tara. :( But honestly, I'm sure she'll be hitting someone else and hopefully it doesn't take someone getting hurt for something to be done about this.

So that's my crazy story for the week. I think I can do without that kind of drama in my life. Now that I have procrastinated enough, I should go do something productive, like wash clothes, clean the bathroom, etc, etc. Although I think we'll be headed out here soon to have lunch at El Puerto and do our grocery shopping! Yay!