Counting my hailstone blessings

You might recall that a mighty hailstorm blew through town many months ago while we were watching Star Trek in the movie theater. The Subie remained undamaged, but the Island Corolla did not fare as well.

I didn't think that I'd repair the body damage, as it was entirely cosmetic, and she's getting up there in years--nearly 8 now--and nobody really cares about a little body damage on an older vehicle. But I called the insurance company to report the damage and get an estimate for the repair.

A week or so later, I received a sizeable check in the mail. I might have even danced a little jig around the living room after I opened the envelope. The best part was that the check was written to me and came with no requirements on how it had to be spent.

There were some caveats, of course. Insurance companies don't give checks like that without getting something in return. My insurance rate didn't go up--hail is considered an act of God, and God can't be billed for it, and I certainly can't be billed on behalf of God--but if I didn't spend the check to repair the damage, the insurance company was going to deduct the check plus my deductible from their valuation of my car. It seemed like a reasonable trade-off to me. I deposited the money into a savings account, sat back, and waited for disaster to strike.

Disaster is supposed to strike, after all, after you've received a windfall--right? I lucked out, I suppose, because no disasters have occurred thus far. However, soon after I received the check, my mechanic pointed out some maintenance that I should consider.

He asked if I planned to keep my car for a while, and I said I planned to keep it for as long as I could. Life without a car payment is fantastic! Plus my roundtrip commute to work is close to 75 miles; there's no point in buying a new car only to start racking up the miles. The Island Corolla is the best mode of transportation for me right now. And I love her.

Back to my mechanic. He praised me for wanting to keep her, and said that she was a great little car and that she's still worth a bit of money, relatively speaking, and that people who drive those Corollas love them and never want to give them up. Amen to that. But he did say that if I plan to keep her for a while, I might consider replacing her struts. He said that struts help keep her balanced and help keep her tires in the right place on the road. I said that I was planning to replace my tires before the upcoming winter, and perhaps I should just have my struts and tires done all at once. He agreed it was a good idea.

And so that's what I had done today, tires and struts and a new serpentine belt and an oil change. There was also a rattle in my exhaust that he took care of.

And what, might you ask, was the grand total of all of this work? Well, it was exactly $19 more than the check that I received for the hail damage. Sometimes windfalls come to you for a reason, and I'm glad that I was able to resist temptation (spending it) long enough to realize that money that comes to you for an item is best spent on the item, even if you spend the money in a different way than originally intended.

Lesson learned: Hail is not so bad after all.