Wednesday, December 6, 2006

I wish he had flown.

Mr. Squirrel is okay, but got in an car accident tonight, 10 minutes from his (job interview) destination.

Minor injuries: whiplash, burns from the airbags... nothing big. Although whiplash hurts like a bitch, it does. I warned him.

The car is probably in trouble. It was towed to "Ed's Exxon," (that's not a joke) and awaits a mechanic in the morning.

It was dark, and there was a lot of traffic. Then, apparently, there was a cinder block in the middle of the freeway lane, and nowhere for Mr. Squirrel to go, to avoid it. Cinder block + underneath of car = Not A Good Thing. The car behind him hit him, and then veered into the median. All drivers are okay. For this I am very thankful.

Update: All seems fine, health-wise, this morning. I was worried he'd wake up with some horrible slow-acting injury, but all is well. The interview is at 2pm, but he's lost most all of the prep time that driving down early was supposed to give him. (He teaches six courses, so there hasn't been a lot of free time to prep before now.)

He doesn't want to tell the interviewers about the accident, lest they think he's making excuses... I told him he has to, even if he couches it as "a funny thing happened on the way to the interview."

Further update: Why must it be so damn difficult to get someone from point A to point B? After probably an hour on the phone - on hold, of course - with Enterprise, someone finally told me "oh, we don't do one-way rentals." Huh? Unfortunately, Enterprise happens to be the only company that has a deal with State Farm... so our $20/day rental coverage is pretty much useless, for today.

[Would you submit the car rental receipt to the college in expenses for the interview? Mr. Squirrel drove instead of flying, and the rental will still be far less than the plane flight would have been... and they explicitly said they didn't mind paying for airfare.]

Anyway, I've finally managed to find him a rental car, and set up a long-term rental through the Enterprise office here starting tomorrow.

No idea on the status of SquirrelCar, which is still at Ed's.

6 comments:

luckybuzz said...

How awful and scary. I'm SO glad that Mr. Squirrel is okay (though the whiplash and other stuff sucks). Give each other a hug for me.

comebacknikki said...

Oh no! I can't believe there was a cinder block on the road - that's so scary! I'm glad to hear he's relatively okay. Give him lots of hugs!

Margie said...

Thanks :) I just want him back home, now, interview be damned.

BrightStar (B*) said...

I'm so glad he's okay.

Totally submit the receipt from the rental car, no matter what, and tell them about the accident -- just to check in. It will be okay. It's okay to tell them. Colleges and universities care about their candidates as people.

Artistic Soul said...

I thought I was the only one who did this!! I got in an accident going to my first job interview. I hope Mr. S is okay!!

Artistic Soul said...

And yes, you submit for reimbursement of the driving expenses!