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As I posted previously, we lost our home to fire on the 21st of March, 2010.

We stayed at the Days Inn courtesy of the Red Cross for four days, after which were were able to locate a suitable apartment that accepted our cat. We have a provision within our homeowner’s insurance policy to pay for temporary housing up to one year after a catastrophic incident such as this.

The leasing agent, as well as Comcast (for the crucial internet) streamlined the process so that we could move in right away and have services up and running. There are a lot of steps and the light from my bedroom windows has very much turned me into a morning person, but I find it difficult to complain about much. I will openly complain about the low quality appliances though, and the use of primer as paint on the walls, otherwise it’s almost starting to feel like home.

There are still lots of boxes, mostly full of stuff that inevitably is thrown away because of smoke and/or water damage. My strongest advice to anyone who would be unfortunate enough to lose their home to fire is to simply leave it all there, and don’t waste your time or emotional well-being trying to recover things; it’s all ruined anyway.

The paperwork has been signed to rebuild our home, they are actually scheduled to do the demolition today. Last week most of the trees were cut down, there are two very tall trees left that will eventually be removed. I neglected to tag the Lilac bush, and unfortunately it was cut down too. Oh well.

The process of claim submission for personal property has been a long and confusing one. We’re still not quite sure if we’ve done it correctly. Either way though, it’s now in the mail to the insurance company, hopefully next week we’ll get a check, ideally anyway. I’ve pretty much exhausted my credit trying to get the household up and running again. The $5000.00 in advance money goes by extremely quickly when you have nothing left, beds alone took half of it.

There are lots and lots of errands to be done when you have nothing, and there are lots and lots of atrociously bad drivers.

I’ve been in two automobile collisions since the house burned down. Neither were my fault, both were instances of the other driver smashing into the rear of my car while I was stopped at traffic signals.

The first collision occurred on April 2nd, totaled our car, killed two people, and destroyed a building. I was taken by ambulance to the hospital for the day after having been extracted from my vehicle. Allegedly the man driving the vehicle that hit mine suffered a seizure, after having a history of seizures and just that week receiving his driver’s license back. He was taking his neighbor to the hospital as her son was there for some unspecified emergency reason. He hit me, hit a parked car, drove down the sidewalk and parked inside the Shippensburg Sentinel newspaper office.

By the grace of god I was able to avoid hitting anyone or anything after the vehicle hit me and pushed my car 450 feet. My brakes completely failed, I finally pulled the emergency brake, did a little Tokyo Drift action and came to an abrupt halt. While attempting to stop I saw the other drive barreling down the sidewalk and witness the impact into the building and instant structure collapse. I was shocked and so thankful to hear that no one on the sidewalk was injured, nor were the two people in the building hurt. Apparently the vehicle stopped within a mere six feet of one woman.

The trip and stay at the hospital was one of the worst I’ve experienced, mainly due to the cervical collar I had to wear for the entire stay. I had CAT scans, with contrast, ultrasounds, IVs, blood draws, pretty much your standard collision affair I guess. I’m happy to report I suffered no major injuries such as broken bones, etc, but unfortunately I do have a badly sprained neck and back.

After a week of driving a rental base model 2010 Sonata, desperately trying to find a replacement car we finally purchased a beautiful 2011 Hyundai Sonata SE on April 9th. My family was down to visit and help with the property recovery at the house that weekend, so Madalayna (my five-year-old niece) and I decided to go to the pet store to try and find our cat Gabbie a replacement pet bed. She was excited about riding in the new car, so much so that we had to have a little discussion on the importance of her safety seat and wearing her seat belt before we left the pet store.

On the way home I came to a stop at a fairly major intersection nearby the apartment. I look up in my mirror and see a truck approaching at a speed inconsistent with stopping… there was not enough time to react, I sort of felt like a deer in the headlights. I knew what was going to happen, but I couldn’t do anything at all to change the outcome… and BAM! The jackass just smashed into the back of our brand-new, not even 24 hours old car.

The damage is relatively minor, but I had a complete emotional breakdown on the scene. The asshole state trooper just wanted us to share information, and was going to leave without taking down anything. I told him to stay put, called an ambulance, and made sure everything was done as it should be.

Madalayna was checked out by the EMTs, and I got to turn this into a teachable moment as to just why I made a fuss about her wearing the seat belt and sitting in her special car seat.

My injuries from the previous collision were greatly exacerbated by the second collision. I’m now seeing a Physical Therapist twice weekly, taking medication for pain thrice daily, and anti-anxiety medication. Traveling through that intersection, which is nearly a daily necessity, breaks me out into a sweat, and being a passenger in a car makes it twice as bad because I’m not in control at all.

The Sonata SE has been in the repair shop since last Wednesday. Apparently there’s some problem now with matching the paint color correctly, which I feared would be the case. I suggested they have pre-painted panels flown in from Hyundai before they even took the car in. I tell you, the world would be such a smoother-run place if people would just do what I tell them to do. Everytime somebody goes against my suggestion we end up in a clusterfuck.

I cannot stand a single day extra with the massive piece of shit that is the Chevy HHR. Are all American cars junk? The American auto industry really should have been allowed to fail if this is the shit they put out.

So, that’s my life right now. Shitty rental car, weird apartment, significant pain most of the day that prevents me from performing most daily functions, and I basically live in fear of being hit again anytime I leave the house.

The bright side, in a few months we should have a basically brand-new house, with insurance money to fill it with all of the necessary stuff of life.

I lost my house to fire sunday night.

My mom and I are okay, and the firefighters rescued my cat. My aquariums did not survive.

The Red Cross had arranged for a motel room for the past couple of nights, and we’ll be able to move into our temporary apartment today.

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While I find myself caring not at all about my aquarium, I do find myself hardcore into knitting. I especially like to watch reruns of The West Wing on Bravo while knitting away. I’ve decided that I want to learn how to knit many more things than just scarves and hats. Of course I have also made a couple of hats and a scarf, but I find myself fixated on socks. I’ve made two pairs of worsted weight socks, fantastic for the cold weather I have to say. Socks allow me to use interesting or otherwise bold yarns that I would not otherwise wear. I splurged the other day and bought a whole bunch of sock yarn while it was still on sale at knitpicks.com.

My most recent project is a pair of toe-up socks in actual sock weight yarn on fairly small needles. Unfortunately I goofed a little when I was measuring just how many stitches were in an inch of my knitting suffered some sort of complete inability to properly use a measuring tape. It turns out that I made this current sock too big, by about ten stitches in width and length. It is wearable, but really quite loose. As I’m at the juncture of whether I rip out days of work and start over, or continue on making a matching loose sock, I’m quite torn as to what to do. It’s a significant amount of work to abandon if I’d choose that path, but making a second sock that fits poorly seems equally silly.

I called the Jo-Ann store that I originally bought the needles from. They were unable/unwilling to help unless I’d come in. I asked about going into the local store and was told they’d be able to help me. Okay, fine.

So, the first thing the woman at the local stores says is ‘why should we fix their problem?’ ….gah!

Then she was all ‘well, let’s see if it’s really on sale.’ …gah, again, as I followed her to the back of the store.

Finally she did a return and then I repurchased them at the corrected price. I should point out that the needles didn’t ring up for the correct price at that store either. The whole procedure was ridiculous.

The cashier’s bad attitude negated my buying the rest of the needles I was interested in. I was so disgusted when I left that I doubt I’ll go back. I thought about just buying them online, then I discovered that the free shipping coupon had expired. So, screw it, I’m done with you Jo-Ann! I’ll just buy what I need with 40-50% off coupons at Michaels, or AC Moore!

I bought two knitting needles tonight at the Jo-Ann’s in Hagerstown. I didn’t really look at the prices, seeing as they were allegedly on sale for 25% off and I was going to get them regardless of the regular price.

Unfortunately one of them didn’t ring up at the sale price and I didn’t notice it until I was already at home, points against me for not paying enough attention. In my defense I was headachy and hungry at the time.

The difference in price isn’t that great, only $2.25. It’s not enough to go back to the store, gas would cost more than that. The thing is, though, if I didn’t want to save the money then I’d not have waited until they were on sale.

I hate this position, where I’m going to be frustrated by a mistake that will cost more to fix than to just live with.