I’ve had this one on my list to post for a while…
My friend (financial counsellor) Joe wrote about almost buying a restored vehicle (wrecked, declared totalled, restored to DOT standards by a mechanic, sold for a fraction of blue book value). I have seen both the good and bad side of doing this so I want to tell about it.
My family knew a guy who restored vehicles and we bought a handful of them from him. Through the years I think we bought 5 vehicles from this guy. Out of all of them I think mine was the only one from hell. I’d have to let my brother and sister speak for their own. Here’s my story…
It was a Jeep Grand Cherokee – loaded. Nice for a college kid – which I was a sophomore in college at the time I bought it. Got a great deal on it – probably eight or ten thousand off the “blue book value”. But it was a restored total. So how much are those really worth? I guess it depends.
I drove it for about 6 months when a bad woman driver swerved in to me on the interstate. Before all the women make negative comments to me I didn’t say all women are bad drivers – just that this particular one definitely was. It was her second wreck in two weeks and what she did to cause this one was an unbelievable swerve from the on-ramp to the middle of 3 lane interstate – swerved all over me going about 45mph and I was going about 80mph. I tried to miss but needless to say I clobbered her with the jeep. It was her fault because of the stunt-woman swerve.
Now the problem. We both had the same insurance agent who of course wanted the easiest way out for the best interest of the insurance company – not the best interest of me the customer. Normally I wouldn’t mention any names but even though I’ve forgiven this situation in my heart other people deserve to know who the culprits were because they’re still in business and for all I know they could still be doing people wrong. Dan Combs was the agent. He has the largest State Farm agency in
Anyway, enough about the insurance people. What happened was at a glance my Jeep looked like it could be repaired. The repair estimate (mechanic and adjusters job) must have been about half done because once the repairs started they found more than double the damage they estimated. To keep a long story short I can sum it up by saying if they had done a thorough job of assessing the damage up front they would have totalled my jeep rather than tried to fix it.
I drove a rental on State Farm’s tab for 5 months while they went around and around with me trying to fix that Jeep. The reason I wouldn’t accept it is because there was a popping sound in the suspension and the frame was bent (it went down the road crooked like a puppy walks). They tried and tried at multiple mechanics but it just couldn’t be bent back in to proper shape. By the end of the
You’re probably wondering what we did about it or thinking to yourself what you would have done. Trust me every bad thought possible crossed my mind at that time – including driving the whipped puppy Jeep through Dan Combs front door to see if they would claim it totalled after that.
The problem was my dad and I didn’t have much of a case when Combs and Painter claimed pre-existing damage since the vehicle had been totalled and then restored before I bought it. Our hands were pretty much tied. It looked like the only thing we could do was risk major legal costs to take the case to court.
It was definitely a bogus claim of pre-existing damage because I would have known if my vehicle was going crooked like a puppy before the wreck. I think Dan Combs and Chad Painter (and probably the mechanic too) were wrong and should have eaten the cost of the mistakes they made on the front end damage assessment. They should have replaced my vehicle.
My dad was handling all the dealings with State Farm since I was still in college and still on his policy, so he basically made me back down and drop it. I was stuck with a wrecked Jeep for over 4 more years. People would ask me “what’s wrong with your Jeep?” and I would get pee’d off all over again remembering what happened as I explained to them how I got screwed. More problems developed because of the frame not being right, and there was always a popping sound in the suspension that wasn’t there before.
For a while I had Shawna and Devin riding around in this unstable vehicle. Finally one day I guess my dad felt sorry for me and helped me buy the mini-van we have now. So I was able to get rid of the Jeep.
Just so you know I was completely honest with the college kid who bought my heep – I mean Jeep. I told him everything wrong with it and recommended that he stay off the interstate with it. He just needed something to get around town so it was a good buy – at about a quarter of what it should have been worth without the damage.
Moral of the story – think long and hard and do some very thorough research on any vehicle you consider buying ‘restored’ and on any person who is selling it to you. Get references of other people who have bought from them and do not buy from them without talking to the references. You can get CARFAX reports, let other mechanics take a look, probably even research the accident the vehicle was in to see pictures and reports from police and/or insurance claims so that the ‘restoration’ can be assessed for how well it has been done and how good of shape the vehicle is actually in.
As for me I don’t want to say I’ll absolutely never buy another restored vehicle but I will say it is almost completely unlikely. I think mechanics who do that kind of work for the most part probably take pride in getting it right and selling a sound restored vehicle. But after it’s bought you can’t control what an insurance company is going to do if some moron runs in to you.
Can You Believe The Youth Groups of Today??
You mean they didn’t go on choir tour??
They didn’t compete in Teen Talent???
They didn’t go to general assembly????
Did the kids cold call businesses to sell and deliver lasagna dinners to pay for the trip or did you have an after church dinner where the adults paid for their plate and tipped the kids for being their servers – or did you do both those things?
How many car washes did the kids do?
Were you able to raise much money at your church-wide yard sale?
Did your youth pastor’s wife coordinate and participate in all that fund raising? Is she still sane or did she drive the youth pastor crazy? Are they still married?
Just what did these kids do to EARN these priveleges? Did you at least make them unload all the heavy sound equipment and portable stage etc etc when you got there?
What are you talking about??? You mean those kids literally walked the streets of NYC and talked to people about Jesus!!!!
Did they hand out ‘gospel tracs’ or was the “literature” you mention something else?
What do you mean you took the kids to
What do you mean that trip wasn’t for missions it was to minister TO the youth?
Well I can’t believe you made them get baptized in the dirty ocean and the parents and grandparents weren’t even there to see it. How did you play the organ during the baptismal service out on the beach?
Oh, and by the way, I saw those pictures and video clips of you wearing that sun visor cap out on the scorching hot beach – that’s irreverent while you’re talking about the Lord. And you should be ashamed wearing that sleaveless shirt.
Maybe I shouldn’t be so sarcastic making fun of the way church used to be when I was growing up. But what is really not that funny is that a lot of churches haven’t changed much if any at all. I’ve been reading or hearing a lot lately that every different church has a role and will reach different types of people with different types of needs according to their own vision etc etc. I want to agree with all that and understand that not every church can be like a NewSpring or a RockBridge. But I don’t think churches should be using that to justify never changing if they haven’t reached anybody new in decades. Take what makes you different and do it in a way that reaches people. I’m just a regular guy calling it how I see it.
Rock Bridge Community Church
I mentioned in this post that we visited our family in
Anyway, I got to meet the pastor, Matt Evans, very briefly. He was standing at the front door kinda to the side greeting people as they came up the side walk. Perry used to stand out in the lobby when NewSpring was meeting at
I remember when Shawna and I first started going to NewSpring I said “What if there was a church like this in Dalton?” Now there is!! Matt is mentoring with Perry which is very cool. Rock Bridge is doing a lot of things similar to NewSpring and a lot of things unique. The worship is great and the message was well planned and communicated. I can tell why Rock Bridge is probably the fastest growing church in the Dalton area.
Rock Bridge meets in the old historic Winks Theater in downtown Dalton. It has been renovated on the inside with new seating and carpet and such. The architecture is all pretty much still the same with the detail around the sides of the stage, the entrance to the building that stands out like the old stage theaters you see in the movies. It is really really cool. Also, they have like a coffee shop at the front of the facility. What’s up with that Perry and crew at NewSpring? We don’t have a coffee shop. Just kidding, but not really. Why don’t we have a coffee shop? The kids facility is kinda tight but they’re adding more facilities across the street in the old historic downtown Dalton. How cool is that the new generation of ministry is taking over the old downtown area…
I’m really excited for Rock Bridge. They’re attracting people who wouldn’t go to a traditional church, like my brother in law who has been saved for a couple of years but hasn’t had a church home.
Oh, right here I just had a thought. Perry mentioned a couple of things this past Sunday I’d like to agree but disagree with (I can love him and NS without being a “yes” man – ok). He said that people shouldn’t say they don’t go to a particular church because they aren’t “being fed” because even a 2 yr old can feed themselves (analogy meaning your personal relationship with Christ is how you feed yourself). I agree with his spurring us to not think that way, but continuing with his analogy I have to ask – but why go to a church that ain’t got no dessert?(that was southern for ‘don’t have any’). A two year old is smart enough to go where the good food is…. Also, Perry mentioned something about people have been calling the church to see if he is going to be preaching the upcoming Sunday because they don’t want to come if he isn’t and that’s like worshipping the pastor and all that blah blah blah. Well, I grew up a pastors kid, married a pastors kid, and have known probably a million pastors in my little lifetime of 29 years and I like it when they try to ‘humble’ themselves. I’ll second whatever Perry said by saying preachers ain’t all that – Perry included. They’re just people, respectable and commendable for what they do, but not praisable or worshippable by no means. Besides Perry sweats and stinks like none other at the gym – and he wears ugly shoes sometimes (short story – I told him his shoes were ugly in the gym one day and I could tell he wanted to ‘punch me in the throat’ – he had heard a rumor I didn’t know about some stupid women discussing how much he pays for the ugly shoes – I just thought they were ugly and it was funny – I don’t care what they look like or how much he paid – for goodness sake if you spend as much time as he does on a stinkin treadmill you need some dang good kicks – that’s shoes for those of you who have never lived in Atlanta).
Anyway, I’m rambling now. Rock Bridge has a good thing going on and I hope I get to visit again. When we’re in Dalton I’m torn between going there or to the church I went to when I lived there, not to mention my father-in-law is the current pastor – Crosspoint Christian Centre. I’m subscribing to the email list of Matt Evan’s blog and plan to learn more from his lead at Rock Bridge. GOD is doing great things through creative churches. It’s very exciting to watch.
Health Insurance
One of the blogs I read is this guy, mymoneyblog.com – I read it because my financial counsellor recommended it. Mymoneyblog has some pretty good stuff to read sometimes. Like recently he linked to this article (Young Adults Fastest-Growing Group of Uninsured) which I thought was very interesting. My young, healthy family was in the “uninsured” group for three years. We recently got some high deductible coverage though. Even though I still don’t like the seemingly high premium I do feel a bit more peace knowing that if something bad happens I won’t have to live in a van down by the river.
Anyway, if you happen to be in the boat I was in and you realize you need to find some form of health insurance I know the best place to look – www.zanderins.com. They get the best quotes from several providers. I couldn’t find a better deal.
Check out that article linked above. If you’re like me it will remind you of how ridiculous healthcare is becoming…
Weekend Prophet
This past weekend has been so busy. We seem to like it that way…
Friday night our kids went to play with friends (the Baughman family) while Shawna and I enjoyed dinner together and grocery shopping. Wasn’t what we would like to call a date night but it did remind us of what it must have been like to grocery shop together before we had kids.
Saturday morning we went out with some of our newest friends – Eric & Kim Lee. They took us out on their boat with our kids and theirs (Olivia and Haley). It was a great time – the most enjoyable moments I’ve ever had on Hartwell Lake and we’ve lived here almost 7 years. We can’t wait to do it again.
Saturday evening we had our first gathering with our new home group. We’ve been trying to start a new group for months and the challenge is that we’re trying to gather on weekends. The challenge being it is difficult to organize a group of more than about 3 couples at a time on the weekend because of everyone’s other plans. That’s ok though. We got together at our house. It was fun. Can’t wait til the next time we get together and see who else can show up.
Sunday we went to the lake again. This time it was for a picnic with some people Shawna works with. That was nice but short lived because we had to be back for church. We go to NewSpring which has a 4pm and 6pm service. We attend the 4pm service and volunteer at the 6pm. We wish we would have gone to an early service so we could have stayed at the lake longer, but part of me is glad we didn’t wear out the fun all in one weekend.
At church mine and Shawna’s volunteer role is usually to take care of all the volunteers who work in all the children’s rooms (basically we serve them drinks and snacks and help them in any other way we see fit). This time I filled in for the regular sound man (Lenny), which I’ve done before so it wasn’t a big deal. But it turns out the acting team for the children’s production needed someone to play Elisha. You guessed it – I was Elisha.
Being Elisha was particularly funny to me because I often joke with Shawna about being a prophet. I can’t help it I have God given prophetic gifts. I’m only joking but what’s funny is when I’m right. Sometimes I’ll say “I’m a prophet” when I know what somebody is going to say or do or react. But the majority of the time my prophetic gift is only good for predicting things like “Devin is going to spill that” or “Skyler is going to get hurt if she doesn’t quit”. Sometimes when the phone rings and I know it is Lenae (Shawna’s sister) without looking at caller ID.
Anyway, it was a great weekend so I just wanted to share a bit of the events. Now I’m predicting a very good week ahead – I’m a prophet.
Defining Moments in Life
When I think about the fact that I’m almost 30 years old I sometimes wonder where the time has gone. What have I done with my life? What am I doing with my life? Why am I where I am? Why is it taking me so long to get where I want to be? What am I supposed to be learning along the journey? Bla Bla Bla. So I will sometimes think back on the things in my life that had significant influence in my life and defined who I have become. Here’s a list I came up with just really quick off the top of my head (partially in order of events but not really).
Playing Soccer.
Playing T-ball and baseball.
Playing football.
Girlfriends.
Playing trumpet.
Being the best trumpeter in the state at one time.
Being region champs in soccer in high-school.
Being known as “Do-It-All Asbell” in the newspaper and local TV for football.
That football team being a losing team for 3 out of 4 of my high school years.
Setting the field goal record that still stands at that high school (49 yds).
Graduating High School.
Graduating College.
Being a “Who’s Who” student all through school (whatever that means – mom was proud).
Getting married.
Devin being born.
Skyler being born – 13 months after Devin.
Paying for 2 kids in that amount of time.
Going broke along the way.
Learning how to get un-broke.
Owning a mobile auto detail business.
Four year learning process in BWW (no detail necessary – I’m so much wiser now).
Working for Delta Airlines – best part was flight benefits – I was still in colllege at the time.
Working for Milliken & Co – tough company to work for.
Working for SGP – another tough company to work for.
I could probably add a lot more to this list but I’m starting to get bored of this. Live and learn. I guess that’s the best thing I’ve done with my life. Anyway, I’m going to go have a life for the rest of the day rather than think about the past…
Growing Up as Kids
I just read my pastor’s blog for today and just had to share it. I’m only a few years younger than Perry, ok maybe about 6 years younger, but I still remember what it was like to grow up. This lighthearted email he shares is sooo true.
We recently had an incident here in Anderson where a 3 year old opened the car door while it was going down the street. She got hit and killed. After a lot of thought I pretty pissed about this because the mom doesn’t even have a drivers license. But it wasn’t a matter of whether or not she can drive.
Part of me wants to blame the mother for not having the kid in a car seat, but I’ve been guilty of sneaking a trip to the store without my kids in a seat. So part of me wants to blame the mother for not being smart enough to use the child locks her vehicle was equipped with. But that thought got me thinking…… WAIT A MINUTE… When I was a kid we didn’t have car seats or child-lock. I sat in the front seat of all my dad’s chevy pick-ups through the years and I don’t even remember being made to wear a seatbelt. About the closest thing you could get to child-lock was to lock the door and screw off the little knob so kids couldn’t unlock it (my dad never did this but I saw other people who did).
When I was talking to my friend Lenny, who he and his wife Tathie raise their kids very freely if you will – the way our generation was raised, he used a term I’d like to borrow right now. He said something like “I guess when we were raised it was SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST.” I don’t know if our childhood was as extreme as ‘survival’ of the fittest but we sure as heck didn’t grow up dumber than dirt with a remote in one hand, a game controller in the other, a 24oz soda between our knees, and a bag of chips on the coffee table.
Anyway, back to Perry’s post. Maybe I’ll write one of my own about this another day, but what Perry shares here is fun and frustrating to read – if you have kids. It is quite humorous but serious at the same time. What happened to letting kids be kids and learn some things along the way???
Recent Reading
Some recent learnings from reading Michael Masterson on a daily basis:
What you want in your career is the confidence that follows accomplishment, not the pride that precedes a fall.
No matter how good you are at what you do, there’s someone out there who can teach you something.
Human beings are designed to get better through practice.
Nothing in nature stays the same. If you are not getting better, you are surely getting worse.
Humility is a strength you should cultivate.
Confidence will come to you when you deserve it.
Avoid boastfulness and pride, because they will slow you down.
Little House on the Prarie
Don’t ask me how it relates, but my friend Shane got me thinking after he posted this. It got me thinking a lot about the things we give priority in our day and time. From time to time I think about what it would have been like to live in the old days. I’m talking “Little House on the Prarie” times when all you had time to focus on was raising farm animals, crops, and keeping the log cabin in good shape. And that was living the American dream back then. They were enjoying a life of freedom. I’m so guilty of getting things out of order the way we live in todays society. I think I could have been a better husband and father in the LHOP (Little House on Prarie) days. There are too many distractions and messed up ‘priorities’ now. It isn’t enough to just recognize them any more either because it is a tremendous battle to fight off all the forces (people and their mentalities and loud opinions) who want to make you feel stupid for not living by the standards our society has put in place.
We think we need 500 channels on TV. I personally have refused to pay for it so far. We have the most basic cable you can get but we’re debating whether or not to add on to it so the kids can have Nick and Disney or something. What did the LHOP kids do without TV? They learned to read and write and their dad told them stories and taught them how to do stuff. He probably read the bible to them too. Imagine doing that instead of watching American Idol.
We think we need cell phones. This has changed in just the past 20 years or so. Now I wouldn’t even be employed if I didn’t have that blasted cell phone. But imagine calling up LHOP dad on his mobile phone (or sending him a text message) while he’s in the field. Wouldn’t happen. There was either the good faith and expectation that he would be home at a certain time or they knew where to find him and took their happy ass out there to get him. Emergencies were true emergencies back then. A man could get some work done cause he wasn’t getting distracted all day long. They didn’t eat if he didn’t get his work done.
We think we need nice cars. I can’t say I’ve done too bad in this area either, but I think about LHOP days and they had one carriage. I bet that carriage wasn’t costing much – in payments or maintenance. Maintenance is where I’ve been getting bit with the nice car thing. If the LHOP dad (I don’t remember the characters’ names) had to pay as much to maintain his horse as I have lately to maintain my car, he probably would have shot the horse.
We think we need vacation. Vacation back in the day was probably the equivalent to a carriage ride to town to visit the general store and if you were lucky you could afford to have a beer and stay in the town hotel overnight rather than get back to the farm before dark. Now days we haven’t gone on vacation unless we’re gone at least a week to somewhere more than 200 miles away where we will probably have to spend about a month’s income to ‘enjoy’ it. We slave to make money, neglecting family, so we can afford ‘vacation’.
I think I could go on and on. Share some ideas with me of other things we could compare now to then – way back in the LHOP days. House, entertainment, eating out, internet…. What other ‘necessities’ do we have that the LHOP folks would have been amazed by? And if it annoys you that I can’t remember the characters’ names feel free to remind me.
Disneyworld Secrets
Another quickie. I have this google adword stuff set up on my site becuase it’s a good way to make pocket change. Once in a while I’ll look at what is popping up on this site as advertisements because I don’t like it when the “web crawler” (evil artificial intelligence) scans my site and posts an ad for something opposite of what I’ve written about (aka – advocating the “d” word I’ve written about or lawyers who help with it). Let me put this disclaimer on here for the web crawler – I said I look at what is popping up as ads but I don’t click on them. I’m not allowed to because then I’m paying myself for my own clicks and that will get me in trouble.
Anyway this isn’t turning out as quick as I thought. I noticed an ad for this site so I copied and pasted it in to a new window (you can feel free to click on the google ads – I won’t get in trouble for your clicks – in fact I get some pennies for your clicks so check some of the ads out and let me know what you find). I didn’t read all the marketing copy but it looks like a good deal – $20 bucks for some info that could save me thousands. Shawna and I did pretty good on our trip to Disney but we only got 2 day passes to the parks. Next time we’d like to get 7 day passes and stay in