Waiting

I'm not  patiently waiting for the insurance appraiser to show up and determine the extent of the damage to my van (aka the Big Brown Beast) after it was rear-ended the other day.  He said he'd be here before noon; he's late.

So I was driving home from picking up some overseas visitors from the airport.  It was about 5 pm and traffic was slowing  but not stopped on the 401 and a lady trying to change lanes ran into the back end of the BBB.  No one in my care was hurt or injured, just a little shaken, cos really who wouldn't be?  Not a very pleasant welcome to Canada.

We managed to pull over to the side of the road - luckily we were at a part of the highway that was only 3 lanes and not the 12 lane nightmare it could have been a few kilometres earlier.  I gathered my license, ownership, etc and headed back to the other car.  I felt bad for the poor woman - she was in tears and all upset.  Brand new car, never had an accident in 30 years of driving, blah, blah.  I was all for just exchanging information and driving off but she was going to call the paramedics because her neck felt kind of twingey and she wanted to get it checked out.  Fair enough, but now I just couldn't drive away.   

By the time we had finished our conversation of no more than 3 minutes, 2, count 'em 2, tow trucks had shown up.  These guys are like vultures circling the carrion at the side of the road.  They must drive up and down the highway looking for some poor bastards stranded on the shoulder.  Anyway, short of telling the guy who decided to pester me to fuck off, I tried to ignore him.  He kept telling me about unseen damage and peace of mind.  Oh please.  It was what we used to call a fender bender.

So the lady must have called 911 because shortly the emergency services began to arrive.  2 fire trucks, the big kind, you know, with all the reels and ladders, 1 ambulance and 1 OPP officer lined the shoulder.  If you had been stuck in the ensuing traffic jam, you would have thought there was some horrific crash, corpses littering the road, totalled cars, absolute chaos.  No.  There I was pacing back and forth trying to shake the creepy tow truck guy, no visible damage to either car.  One fireman and the OPP both told I'd be able to drive.  In fact, the police said he'd meet me at a car pooling lot at the next off-ramp to take my statement.

Now, I'm sitting waiting for the appraiser to come and tell me how much it will cost to fix the paint scrape in the 10 year old bumper that we have no intention of getting fixed.