Fondling the tail

My head hurts, my feet stink, yada yada.

Yesterday afternoon, after finally getting the right sizes jeans at Old Navy for J, as I was on my way home to meet his bus, I got rear ended. It was my first accident since 1982, when a crazy woman sideswiped me.

I have this funny habit. I actually stop on a right on red. And I don't pull out if I might any way imped the oncoming traffic. I do think of right on red as my right to turn, but as my right to not be in the way of oncoming traffic. It had previously occurred to me that my by the book style of right on red would earn me a rearending.

I am very conservative in my right on reds and Mr. Kato, the driving teacher for ex and I and the whole county, would be proud. Ex and I would be forced into driving maneuvers and the skilled driver of the day would exclaim, "Mr. Kato would be proud!" I often see people and think to myself they should have had Mr. Kato. The man's been riding on my shoulder for over 30 years.

About yesterday, I am proud that the car didn't get pushed into oncoming traffic. I'd pulled up for a right on red. At this intersection, I was on a ramp, trying to get on a four lane road. Looking left, though, there's a tall chain link fence with a bunch of overgrowth; add to that, the road angles back and it's tough to see. You have to get right up to the edge of the corner to see around it all. The woman behind me didn't see me stop. Maybe she didn't know it's a tricky corner.

She was very polite. It was a relatively pleasant transaction. She let me use her phone, as I'd walked out without mine. J has a key to get in, but he didn't answer. Bugger.

My bumper does not appear damaged, but I'll find out next week for sure.

I'm mostly concerned, but not really, about my head, which hit the headrest twice. I had a headache immediately and it's migrated to the front as well. No damage to bumper, no air bags deployed, but she hit me very hard. The change holder released its contents and a mini-glove box I didn't know I had flew open. That was all around my left knee, which hurts, too.

Hopefully this will all go away in the next few days and I literally won't have to bother my pretty little head about it anymore.

Through this, I learned that I only have $2000 in medical coverage. In this case, anything could be filed with the other insurance. However, if I'd hit a tree in a single car accident, there'd only be $2000 for treatment (I don't think that'd even be per occupant?), yet the range available is only $500-25000. Just how much medical coverage is that anyway? I guess the assumption defaults to using a personal health insurance policy? I'm going to inquire about the cost to increase it. I'm thinking of it as just essentially covering copays.

Insurance is so confusing.