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September 6th, 2002

First, I want to apologize because there are no pictures. I simply forgot to take my camera, but that is no excuse. Sorry.

This morning I got up bright in early and to dusty to the dentist for the third installment of his root canal. After which I took into the barbershop, forced him into a chair and got him a nice haircut in preparation for the trip to America. Then we went together to the kindergarten and I taught some English songs and dances to his class.

When I came home I settle down in front of the computer and started to chat with my brother John in America.  As we were speaking my pocket telephone rang and Mary tells me that she has wrecked the car.  She is safe and the baby is okay, but the car is broken and she needs a ride home. I rushed out of the house (without my camera) and drove to Shibata to find her.  When I got there she was talking to the police.  The police asked her what happened, and the story goes like this:
Mary was driving her car across the Kajikawa bridge when the baby in the back seat began to cry.  She turned around and reached back to soothe him when the car in front of her stopped unexpectedly. Bang.  She wasn’t speeding but she was clearly at fault.

We called our insurance agent who in turn called the auto repair shop which sent a transport truck to carry her car in for repairs. They gave us a loaner car and we waved goodbye to the Daihatsu Move.

Update:  September 7th 2002

The auto repair shop called me tonight at about 8:30 p.m.  It seems that because this is Mary’s second accident claim that her full coverage insurance will not cover the full cost of repairs. The repairs will cost about 300,000 yen and she will have to pay 100,000 of it. I’m sure I’m not understanding this correctly. I mean, full coverage insurance should mean full coverage, isn’t that right? I like my students in tomorrow’s English conversation class in Uchino. They are always very helpful and will probably clear up this misunderstanding.

Update: September 8th 2002

I talked to my students today, one of them even called upon a repair shop for me and confirmed what I hoped was a misunderstanding. Mary does have to pay 100,000 yen by next week.  Now, I have to call the insurance agent on Monday morning.  Just to confirm that my full coverage insurance doesn’t mean full coverage but in fact means partial coverage if I ever make a claim against it.  Maybe I would save money if I just opted for a huge deductible. The monthly payments would certainly be cheaper. Or maybe we should switch companies. I don’t know yet.