On Sunday, one of my Sunbeams, accompanied by his mom, came up to me after church and invited me over for to their house for popsicles on their porch. It was so cute, and I looked forward to it for the three days I had to wait. I went over, and found, to my pleasure, that we were joined by the other teacher. I didn't realize that his grandparents (who are serving in the mission office) were in the house, cleaning up after dinner until they came out to leave. I had thought it was strange to see four vehicles when there were only two drivers who live in the house. I parked perpendicular to the driveway, and I remember being hyper conscious about how far I pulled up. I remember making a choice, but don't remember what I chose.
I'll attribute it to the Spirit because, as the grandparents were backing out, we all heard a crunch and stood up to see that they had backed into my minivan. They busted a tail light and knocked my mirror out of the socket. It didn't even crack, and I thought I'd be able to pop it back in. As it was, I have mailing/packing tape in my van (it's come in handy often enough for me to not bring it in; also, I have some inside). I told them not to worry about it, and I didn't even want to exchange insurance information. That's a lot of unnecessary hassle, as far as I'm concerned. Unless they're anxious to meet their deductible or want their rates to increase, I see no need for it. My van's old enough to buy alcohol.
She was going on about how important of a piece it was, and it is, but also, it's fixable. And I don't need to travel a lot; most of my driving is for Passporting. I could even walk to church PRN. He mentioned that it might be difficult to find a part for something so old. That part is pretty universal, especially on minivans. At the time, I didn't even think it would need replacing, since the mirror itself wasn't cracked at all.
So I put off taking it in to the shop until today. I got called in to work (kind of; they asked and I volunteered, so they let me go at 11 instead of noon) and I headed off to my regular mechanic. I did a routine oil change there the Tuesday before Labor Day, and went in just this Tuesday for a headlight change. The guy who gave me an accidental oil change (and therefore remembered me) did what he could. I could tell he was kind of new. He determined that the screw had busted that adjusts it to go up and down, but wedged it back in to adjust it pretty well. I wasn't entirely confident about it, but drove off. He hadn't even charged me (he probably realized, deep down, that it wasn't really fixed).
Sure enough, I went to the Arboretum to finish reading a book and do some meandering, and knocked it loose when I shut my door. I sighed, pulled out the mailing tape and headed to my neighborhood (secondary) mechanic. The guy who helped me out with my brake line and subsequent issue took a look at it and pretty much determined the same thing. The components holding it in had broken. They'd have to order a part, and it'd be a couple of hours worth of labor, which they didn't have time for today. He told me to call at my convenience on Monday and get it all sorted.
Which means I'll probably drop it off Monday after work and pick it up when they're done with it on Tuesday. I might try and duck out a few minutes early to get there, although that's not really necessary. I was able to walk there within 20 minutes the last time, so. I did a quick google search on cost estimates, and it's probably going to run $200. Which bums me out because they insisted on reimbursing me. Which is why it's going to cost so much. Otherwise, I'd leave it taped for a while until I could get a part and try my hand at it myself (before asking my dad and/or his handyman friend and/or my roommate's family who are mechanics by trade; they just live far away) and go about my business.
But, because there's someone else involved, and I don't want them fretting, I'm rushing it. So I missed out on Passporting today and may miss out on Tuesday as well. Hopefully they can fit me in before noon and I can squeeze in the Quilt Museum and Bakers candies, which close at 4 and 5, respectively. In retrospect, it's the inconvenience of dealing with the consequences that bothers me more than the actual mishap. That was easily, and instantaneously, forgiven, no questions asked. But I didn't go anywhere today because I didn't want to tape my mirror a third time.
It's also September, and I had a bit of a breakdown on Thursday. It was my first day of bleeding for the month, and this whole week, Boomer (the other receptionist) and I have been on the receiving end of all of the things that aren't getting done. When, in reality, it's Boomer who is doing (or, more often, not doing) the offense in question. So, I'm getting blamed for things Boomer is responsible for. I get that she probably didn't get the best training because the girl training her was also still kind of training the new tech in back. But Boomer doesn't help things by not learning or putting effort into fixing her mistakes. Ever. I'm guilty of sweeping some things under the desk every once in a while, moreso lately than I'd like to admit, but not to this extent.
For instance, we told/reminded her to start saving the insurance benefits/auths as a doc in the charts. She knew about this before because she would scan the hard copy instead of printing as a pdf to save. And she stopped doing it, until it became a problem when we'd go in to the chart to look for it. Now, for about a month, the only task she really does is chart prep. And since she does 4 days worth of charts (while I do 5, and also invoicing and checking email and occasional contact lens orders, and answering 60% of the phone calls), she found herself weeks ahead on charts. Now, when we told her about saving the auth/benefits, do you think she went back through the ones she had already done? No. She just made the change going forward. Now, I could see that being one approach if you were only a day or two ahead, but it remained an issue for weeks.
Her three month review is coming up, and I hope their honest with each other about it. (The only critique I received...no, I didn't even receive any at my three month. We did office-wide annual reviews in November, and the only critique was to be there before the 8:00 patients more often than I had been.) She said to me yesterday that she was kind of questioning whether this was what she really wanted to be doing. I didn't make much of a response because I've learned it's better to say nothing when you can't trust yourself to be nice, and I didn't say anything about that when I worked with the office manager up front this morning. Although, I did mention that the Boomer had considered calling out Friday as a mental health day.
But, Thursday morning was rough, and I lost it just before lunch. Went to the bathroom, took off my mask and splashed my face. Went home for lunch as soon as it was convenient, cried a little more, and just took a bit of a breather. I knew the majority of my problem was that I was in a "even Convoy is going to make me cry today" kind of place with my hormones, which is why I went home. Because, sure enough, going home, taking care of it, and taking 65 minutes instead of 60, pumped me back into productivity.
I need to start taking my vitamin D again. It's that time of year. I also have some ants in my bedroom. My dad gave me a bag of candy for my birthday and I brought it into my room to show off to my Zoomstacking crew. I left the suckers out, and I guess that attracted the ants. It's not as bad as earlier in the pandemic when they came out of nowhere. I'm thinking moving the suckers and wiping with vinegar ought to do the trick. And I've already spent longer at the computer than I planned. I might still go get the mail, but I'm probably going to skip writing and dishes. Again. Which really need to be done. I meant to write after Labor Day, because I've got to get that scene while it's still relatively fresh. (Although....I suppose, no, I ought not to justify the fact that I know I can jet out there and back in a weekend's time.)
