November 7, 2022
Daily Diary, Day 797:
“So that happened.” This is a quote from State and Main, the movie by David Mamet. We just re-watched this the night before last. One of our favorites. And this morning that is exactly what quote popped into my mind when we discovered that our catalytic converter had been stolen from our old (2007) Prius.
The past few weeks on Nextdoor, the on-line neighborhood site, there have been daily reports from the people living in our immediate neighborhood of stolen catalytic convertors, as well as break-ins (people finding a door open, stealing purses and car keys, then stealing the cars.) We live in a very staid residential development built in the 1970s, so this is rather new for us all.
As a result, everyone is trying to remember to keep their doors locked at all times. However, that didn’t do anything to protect the car, sitting there in the driveway. Neither I, my husband, nor our dog heard anything. Our neighbor across the way heard what sounded like a car dragging something about 3 am and got up to see a car going up the street. So that was probably it.
We might not have even known that anything had happened for a week if my husband didn’t have a bone density scan scheduled this morning. He had driven the car yesterday (for his weekly jaunt to keep our battery running), so when he went out to go to the appointment, he thought it was odd that there was a piece of broken concrete up against the back tire (as if to keep the car from rolling.) We instantly suspected what this meant. Sure enough, when he turned the car on, it roared (instead of being silent, which is what you get with a Prius.)
Long story short, that pretty much shot the morning for both of us. Calling to cancel the scan (which took nearly 45 mins on hold), calling insurance, talking to the claims adjuster, filing a police report online, and finding a basic estimate for replacing the converter (which will cost more than the bluebook value of the car.)
And, discussing whether this isn’t a sign that it’s time to consider buying a small electric vehicle.
We hate buying cars—the reason we still have the 2007 Prius. But it also seems silly to replace the converter, only to have someone steal it again, which is also what has been reported happening in the neighborhood.
And wouldn’t you know, we had scheduled someone to come at noon to give us an estimate for remodeling our bathrooms, to make them better for aging in place. Needless to say, learning the possible expense of this, on top of the expense of getting a new car, was not good timing.
It was, however, a time for gratitude for the fact that neither of us have to scramble to figure out how to get to work tomorrow, that we have the resources to get another car if that is our decision, and that we have insurance that will help out.
Nevertheless, I did not feel at all like writing. Instead, this afternoon when everything had calmed down, I decided to do the work to update my sales data for August, something that had been on my to-do list for some time.
So, word count for NaNoWriMo today was 0. But tomorrow I should have all day to work. It is also supposed to start raining tonight and through most of tomorrow, so a lovely day to just sit at home and drink tea and use my imagination. Unless we decide to go off looking for a new car!!
Decisions, decisions, decisions.