Tone Parsons

First and foremost, thank you for all the comments and emails on my previous post. I really appreciate it!

I was in full panic mode when I wrote it and have calmed quite a bit since then.  I’m going to let the appeal process run through it’s course, and if that doesn’t work, I have a few plans of action (thanks to everyone who wrote me with suggestions).

I have the name of an attorney who specializes in exactly this kind of thing, and I’ll be making a formal complaint to the insurance commission (apparently, insurance companies hate it when you do that and it lights a fire under their butts to get things fixed quickly).

Financially, I’m ok for now.  My wife and I had been saving cash like mad for the last 8 months, and between us, we still have enough to float things for a while (even though we had to pay for a new roof and some concrete repairs for the house).  We’ll be ok as long as this gets sorted quickly.

Again, I can’t state enough how much I appreciate your concern… it really means a lot to me!

*sniff*

I have the best reading audience EVER!!

For those who haven’t been following along, let me give you the cliff notes for the past 8 years or so of my life.  This is a pretty long post, so I’m putting in a “more” tag (just click it to read the rest of the story).

October, 2000 – I was hired by a fantastic company for even more fantastic pay!  They have a fantastic culture, the benefits are amazing, and my position of Senior Applications Engineer is both challenging and rewarding.

June, 2002 – While doing charity work for Habitat for Humanity, I injured my back.  Actually, I was shoveling rocks and felt the disk at L4-L5 go crunch.  Intense pain began to appear in my left leg.

May, 2003 – After a great many tests and MRI’s, I went in for surgery.  They performed a discectomy on the herniated disk, removing the chunk that was pressing up against the nerve that went down my left leg.  The surgeon told me there may be complications from the procedure, as he had issues getting the nerve out of the way to cut.  I felt pretty damn good… for about 6 months. Read more

My eldest son turned 19 a few months back.  He’s got a job and finally got his drivers license a couple of weeks ago (who ever heard of a teenage boy who didn’t like to drive?).  The next obvious step was for him to save up money to buy his first car, which he did.

He had one particular car in mind, and had been searching Craigs List until he found it.  Last saturday, we drove out to Athol, Idaho to pick it up:  a 1968 VW Beetle.

As you can see, the body is in damn good shape for a car that’s 40 years old.  It also runs fantastic!! The interior and electrical are a different story.  So, the project began!

We went through the wiring (which is a spaghetti cluster of patches and re-wiring that makes little to no sense) and have it somewhat under control.  We’ve got the headlights, turn signals, running lights, gas gauge, and windshield wipers working now (they didn’t before).

Next, we need to get the brake lights, backup lights, and brakes in working order.  After that, it’s the suspension.  Once that’s all done, we need to get some good seats for it and it’ll be drivable.

The goal is to restore it to it’s original condition.  At the rate we’re going, it’ll be mechanically sound and ready for paint in about a month or so.

I’m really enjoying the time with my son working on the car.  There’s a lot of things I can’t do because of my back, so I’ve been explaining to him how it needs to be done and have been watching him do it.  It’s going to be a sweet ride once we’re done (and worth about 8x what we paid for it!!).