Today was a snow day and also my houseguests arrived, so you will forgive me for showing up so late to the NaBloPoMo party. I am wrung out from Being With People all day, even if those people are people I love and I just want to curl up in a dark, quiet room for awhile.
Here are a few very random things floating around in my brain tonight.
- My windshield needs to be replaced. On my brand new car. Well, the car isn’t so much brand new anymore (although it’s still pretty effing new), but the crack in the windshield started when I hadn’t yet had it a month. Due to the placement (central) and intensity (intense) of the crack, the entire windshield needs replacing, which means that I will be submitting an insurance claim for the very first time in my life. I called my insurance office, and the person I spoke to transferred me to some sort of claims call center, and the claims call center person took my information and said they would contact my “shop of choice” (the dealership, because this car is leased; they will only allow me to replace the windshield with factory glass). Then I didn’t hear anything for three weeks and today I got a voicemail and two emails and my husband also got two emails. All of which said that they had not been able to contact my “shop of choice” and I need to submit a bill or estimate. So… I just get the windshield replaced, right? Like, I don’t really have a choice, right? The insurance company will either cover it or they won’t; I can’t really get a second opinion when I am bound by the terms of my lease to use factory glass. I feel very out of my depth here.
- I have finally learned how to wash my face without drenching my entire body. As with most things in life she chooses to comment on, Nicole has turned out to be right about face washing. (Elisabeth: look away.) Due to a combination of laziness and misplacing my stash of washcloths during the move, I have been resorting to washing my face with my hands for the past several months and I am not going back. It is so much better! The key, I have found, is to keep my arms perpendicular to the sink rather than parallel, as I originally thought. I was trying to wash my face with my elbows jutted out to the sides, to prevent water from sluicing down my wrists. But it wasn’t working. Turns out it was the arm position! In trying to prevent the cascading water, I was making it worse! Even though it’s counterintuitive, at least to me, a person who overthinks all things, keeping my elbows close to my trunk really keeps the water from splashing me all over. Today, I even washed my face whilst wearing a long sleeved shirt and my sleeves did not get wet. At all. And now I don’t have to deal with pesky washcloths! Woo!
- What is the best book you’ve read lately? I am listening to The Paper Palace in the car, and it’s interesting enough. The writing is good. Through no fault of its own, however, it is the third? fourth? book I’ve read in recent months that takes place at a beach house, and I’m a little weary of the whole situation. Adultery, swimming, complex family relationships, quaint cottages – it’s all kind of blurring together for me into one endless story and I need a fresh storyline. Probably doesn’t help things that all the names kind of bleed into one another: Happy Place, The Summer Place, Same Time Next Summer. Which book am I reading again? Speaking of books with similar titles: Physical book reading has been extremely infrequent since the move, although I did get a wild hare over the weekend to reread The Secret Place by Tana French and I am loving it even more on a reread than I did when I first read it in 2014. Anyway: what non-beach-house book should I listen to next?
That’s all I can do tonight, Internet. Catch you on the flippety flop.
I am kinda sorta attempting to complete NaBloPoMo, with the full expectation that life will make it impossible any day now. If you want to follow along, or join the fun, check out San’s blog here.
Thank you–I always use my hands to wash my face (hate washcloths) and often get wet. I’m not very aware of where my arms are. I do so hate insurance companies and the run around they give us after we pay them SO much money. Grrr.
windshield: Harry had to replace his this summer after a basketball in the driveway incident (LOL LOL LOL), and he went to Safelight. It was less than our insurance deductible (kind if high at $500 for his car– mine is much lower because I am a clumsy parker), so he could afford it on his lifeguard salary. You’ll be ok– it’s not as terrible as it sounds. I also had to replace mine but it was Honda problem, and they did it for free– is your car manufacturer on the hook maybe?
Okay, I have much to say.
First, WELCOME TO THE FACE WASHING SIDE!!! Wait, that sounds wrong. Well, you know what I mean. Yes, once you get the hang of it, there’s no cascade of water!
Second, I was driving to my parents’ and got a rock in my windshield which cracked the whole thing TWO WEEKS BEFORE WE WERE LISTING IT FOR SALE. And you’ll remember that this was right at moving time, etc., so it was extremely disheartening. We were doing a private sale and had to replace the windshield at our own cost because…we had always opted out of windshield insurance. It was a huge extra cost on insurance and we always thought, well, we’ll roll the dice, never had to replace a windshield before…RIGHT BEFORE WE WERE SELLING. Anyway. I think it was $500 or something.
I liked the Paper Palace a lot but I can see your dilemma. I was on a five or six “meh” book streak and was getting a bit bummed about it. Is it me? Why do I hate all these books? But now I’m reading You Could Make This Place Beautiful and it’s exactly right, I’m enjoying it so much. Thank god the streak is broken!
I am reading four books simultaneously now. I usually have more than one going, but four is a lot. In the order I started them…
Palace of Desire, the second in a trilogy of Egyptian novels. We read the first one in book club years ago, and I thought I’d have a hard time picking up the thread, but I fell right back into it.
A collection of Christmas stories by Charles Dickens, which is my current book club book. I am enjoying it but I will be lucky to finish it by tomorrow night. Maybe I shouldn’t be reading four books right now. (Also, if you’re curious, none of them are nearly as good as The Christmas Carol, which I think is a near perfect story.)
The Golden Spoon, a mystery that takes place on the set of a show based on the Great British Baking Show, with both kids. Very fun, light read.
The Historian, a very long vampire novel, with Noah. We aren’t very far into it, so I have no verdict.
I’m going to try this: keep my arms perpendicular to the sink rather than parallel. Never thought to do that yet if it keeps me from getting drenched… brilliant.
The best book I’ve read lately is Cultish, a nonfiction book that is a look at the language of cults. Totally engrossing and fascinating.
I have replaced windshields a couple of times and have been incredibly impressed with how quick it is and how relatively inexpensive it is. Maybe because you have to go the dealer it will be a little more, but it’s an easy errand! You can do this! I mean, even if the insurance won’t pay for it, it needs to get done. (Speaking of insurance, I’m in a tricky time in which I am covered by my employer’s health insurance, but do not have the new cards yet. But I had a dental appointment yesterday and they couldn’t figure out my insurance and insurance is so frustrating.)
I’ve read For Small Creatures Such as We by Sasha Sagan recently and found it a delightful meditation about the power of ritual, even (maybe especially) for secular folks. I also really liked the social commentary of Kill Show, but that’s a lot darker!
Yeah… I guess you just get the windshield replaced, submit the bill and hope for the best? In all my years of driving, I’ve never had to replace a windshield! And I’ve never leased a car. So I guess what I’m saying is I’m no help here.
I’m STILL reading Happiness Falls. I like it, but I’m just reading it so slowly. That’s one good thing about November ending- I’ll finally have time to read more.
Car stuff is so annoying. It’s more complex when it’s a lease situation and you have to follow their protocol. I would schedule it with the dealership and submit for reimbursement – although it is odd that the insurer can’t contact your dealership to start the process? Then you would just have to pay the deductive to the dealership. But it sounds like that is not an option. But how frustrating!!
Maybe you would enjoy Kill Show since you kind of like thrillers? It’s told in an oral history style – it’s about a situation where a child goes missing and the parents are approached by a reality tv show to see if they can document the searching process in real time (how awful, right??). It’s sort of a social commentary on the true crime genre.
Well for a streak saving post this was excellent. Grrr to having to get a new windshield. The Paper Palace was a DNF for me because about halfway through I was just so…bored. I know the feeling when you get a streak where each book seems to be identical to the next.
I’ve been very much into comfort re-reading for the past few weeks. Somehow I’ve gone a few years without rereading Nevil Shute, so I have a whole shelf full of old favorites to snuggle up with.
Suzanne, I am not just looking away I AM ROCKING BACK AND FORTH IN THE CORNER IN THE FETAL POSITION. I just…can’t. (But it made my heart SING that you referenced me looking away. Isn’t it crazy in this little blogging community we know about one another’s face-washing habits. I mean, my own siblings, parent, and spouse know less about my face washing than the interwebs do).
Ugh. Car issues are the worst. Just the worst. I 100% couldn’t function where I live without a vehicle (very limited public transportation), but I just hate dealing with cars when they need fixing. Hope things get sorted out quickly and without a giant hole being burned in your wallet 🙁
“Isn’t it crazy in this little blogging community we know about one another’s face-washing habits. I mean, my own siblings, parent, and spouse know less about my face washing than the interwebs do).” HAHAHA – I was just thinking the same thing!
What caused the crack in your windshield? It sounds like a manufacturer issue to me if you had only had the car for a month when it started, unless it was hit by a rock or something.
I’m currently in the middle of two books that I am liking a lot:
The Violin Conspiracy, by Brendan Slocumb. This is my current audiobook, I got it from the library through my Libby app. I think I read about it on Stephany’s blog.
The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek, by Kim Michelle Richardson. My neighbor loaned me this, and then coincidentally I read about it on Tobia’s blog.
Both are really good, at least so far…I’m about 2/3 through the physical book, and I have no idea on the audio book because I am lame, but I’m a ways in.
You and I normally have non-intersecting book tastes, yet I am going to recommend a book, because it was also enjoyed by my co-worker whose tastes don’t intersect much with mine. It’s called The Quiet Tenant, by Clemence Michallon. I checked it out almost against my will, intrigued but assuming it would be like so many other books of this kind. I chose it from my To Read pile only so that I could give it 30 pages and return it to the library. But I liked it a lot, and felt it was different from the usual plot of this type, in ways I appreciated. My co-worker listened to me talk about it, then she read it, and that month we BOTH put it as our Staff Pick of the month. So. I will not be hurt if you don’t like it, because we are alike in many ways but not in book ways—but it would be interesting to see!
Leave it to Nicole to explain it (face washing with your hands properly) (that’s one of the many reasons we love her). And I second Elisabeth – you guys know more about my face washing routine than anyone I know in real life (including my husband) does.
The best book I’ve read lately is a folk horror book called Knock Knock, Open Wide, or Birnam Wood by Eleaner Catton , but I LOVED The Secret Place. Tana French is so fucking good even when the books make me sad (Broken Harbour, gaaaahh).
Still team facecloth and only facewashing topless over here, but I’m happy for you.
Insurance stuff makes me go fetal even secondhand, but yes, replace it and then go with God.
I’m reading The Covenant of Water. It is very long and you’ve probably already read it, because I’m never on top of these things. I like it. Have I mentioned, it’s over 700 pages. It’s really well written though.
I’m dying laughing at Ali’s comment above. She’s a hard act to follow. I wash my face in the shower. Or I roll up my sleeves and I manage just fine, no raincoat or anything. Maybe I’m not thorough enough or something, because I don’t wear much makeup.
*I’ve put my blog on private as I was wisely advised by fellow blog friends. If I find your email address, I’ll add you to invited readers. No idea if that will work or if I’ll do it correctly, but I’m alive and well. Reg attended his first b-ball practice tonight. He was upbeat and excited to be back on the team. Fingers crossed there are no more issues.
I get my car serviced or repaired at the dealer always, and in my experience, they should be able to take your insurance info and submit the info directly to the insurance company. Sometimes they receive the reimbursement as well, so won’t actually charge you. Glass claims are usually super simple and not even subject to the deductible.
I have not had issues washing my face with my hands but I will pay attention tonight regarding my arm position. LOL I never thought about it. I am glad it’s working for you.
I think you could submit an estimate from the dealership for the windshield replacement, just to get an “ok” from the insurance before you get the work done.
I have had to replace my windshield a few times in my old car. It happened TWICE within a year where I would merge onto the highway and a rock would crack my windshield. So annoying! My insurance company had a really good system for windshield claims, though. I was able to do the whole process through their app! I’m sorry that your process seems a lot more complicated.
I am Team Washcloth forever over here. I treat it like a hot towel treatment at a spa because I like to pretend I’m bougie for those 30 seconds. 😉
Last year, we had to replace three windshields; one in my car, twice in Coach’s truck. It was easy peasy calling my insurance company and setting up the replacements with one phone call. Sounds like that is not the norm.
I recently listened to Tom Lake and The Dutch House, both by Anne Patchett and I liked both. No beach houses in either.
I am sorry you need to replace your windshield. Andthen when the car is almost new.
I just finished a book that I really enjoyed: The Change by Kirsten Miller.
The paper palace was okayish but I also don’t much care about adultery in books. So exhausting.