Digital Gee

It's really getting discouraging...

A few days ago my daughter had a car accident and totaled the car I bought her four months ago. She tried to over-correct and ended up doing a 360 into a guard rail. She is okay, thank God. The car is wasted. In a few days, I'll learn what the insurance company considers fair value. I'm sure I'm out quite a bit from the "fair market value" I bought it for (Kelly Blue Book).

Today I was out cycling, and got home only to discover my bike bag was open, and the keys were missing. They must have fallen out. I check that zipper EVERY time I ride; I'm obsessive about it. Obviously, I forgot today.

As I waited for my daughter to come by (she was with a friend) to let me in, I began thinking about what else can go wrong since these things often come in threes. It was only then that I realized I'd also put my wallet in the bike bag -- and sure enough, it was gone.

Naturally, I had just gone to the ATM this morning and withdrawn $200.

Tonight I'm calling the credit card companies and so on. But what worries me is that I have business travel next week, and I don't know whether the DMV can do a replacement license that quickly. Their website talks about an interim license valid for 60 days -- but that's no picture ID, so now what?

I really, really need this business trip!

I am pretty discouraged. Nothing but bad news lately. I am grateful my daughter wasn't hurt, of course. But she starts a new job this week, and junior college next week, and I just don't know what's going to happen...

If I don't post with my usual feeble attempts at humor for a while, perhaps you'll understand. (Maybe even be relieved!)

bkaapcke

Read "The Message of a Master" by John McDonald, New world library. You can order it at Barnes & Noble for $8.95. It will change the way you think, and you will be way less distracted. bk

Jet Travis

This too shall pass, Deeg. And when it does, I'm gonna hit you up for a loan.

Old School

DG,
Hopefully an honest individual will find your wallet/keys and return them to you. Best of luck!

Tom Bombadil

I just know I'm going to leave my bag zipper open some day and lose my keys/wallet/cell phone/etc. I've already left it mostly open once and got lucky when nothing fell out. And I've been known to leave certain other zippers open from time to time.

Hope you get a fair settlement on the car and that your daughter is truly okay.

And maybe someone will return your wallet. That happens, oftimes sans cash.

Mojo Slim

I found a wallet while riding just around the corner from my house. I must have been the first person to go by. It was right in the middle of the street, one well-traveled by walking kids. It had $260 and credit cards. The only way I could get it to the owner was the lucky chance that he had a pay stub with his employer's phone number on it. No where in his wallet was an address or phone number. A lesson for us all.

Just today, I scanned every item in my wallet and have a copy of the two pages in my file box. I will have all the info I need if I should have the DG experience.

I feel your pain, DG. I hope the wallet, keys and daughter are all returned to you in good shape.

zymans

Money, ID and keys always go on one of my jersey's back pockets not in the bag!

Big Paulie

Gary,

The past six months of my life has been one negative event after another, just as you are now experiencing. Some small things, some big. There are times when I really wonder if it's worth going on. Nothing works. Money barely trickles in, then it goes out again before I even know it's there. I go for bike rides, and they are fun "in the moment." But deep down, I know that so many things are wrong in my life that I can't truly enjoy the ride.

I even went through a period where I broke a spoke on three successive rides...with only one broken spoke in the previous 11 years. But my problems aren't on the bike...but rather "real problems." Relatives seriously ill and refusing to take care of themselves. Financial matters going south at every turn. People I've known and worked with for decades suddenly not returning calls or e-mails. In-law conflicts after being married almost 30 years. Totalling my car in the first auto accident I've ever had.

I couldn't be more different than my father, and yet, I'm having the same bad experiences at the same period in my life as he did, 35 years later. I deliberatley took a different turn at every critical juncture of my life, for the sole purpose of not falling into the same traps he did...and yet here I am, having the same experiences and feeling the same bad feelings about myself and my life as he did. How can that be???

I think the times we live in are strange, but that's not unusual. Things always change, and older people are left in the dust.

I think that by now, surely, I should have a handle on money and happiness and self confidence. But I don't. I really believe that the culture and economic system we live in sets us up for expectations that can't be fullfilled. We will never get a handle on life and the problems it throws at us. A "relaxed retirement" is pretty hopeless for most people. "Old age and wisdom it brings" is a load of crap.

My mother, who is 89, moved into a retirement community...and moved out 6 days later. The politics and cliques were overwhelming to her. It was, as the saying goes, "high school with wheelchairs." She realized she'd rather take her chances living in her home by herself.

It's funny how the little things really get to us. Losing your keys is small, but becomes huge when it's combined with losing your wallet and your daughter wrecking her car...all with a business trip jeopardized because of it.

I have no point in saying all of this, really. Just letting you know you're not alone, and that we really appreciate you and your creative energy. This forum would totally suck without you...

Oh, by the way, your ex has a new line of t-shirts...

cranky old dude

D.G. I'm sure your resourcefulnes and humor will get you and your daughter through these
bumps in the road. Your posts have certainly helped me over some of my own. I'll understand
an absence but will also greatly look forward to your return.

Big Paulie. Hang in there. Remember, only you can be you, and only you can know
how to be you. I often get very depressed, in fact it seems to happen every three months or so, I don't know why but it seems to be cyclical. I share many of the same regrets you posted. Don't like who I am, can't stop my too small income from gushing out through my family's spending habits.
One lousy raise in 13 years after 36 years of service with great performance
appraisals. Then for no apparent reason, none of that stuff matters anymore...(for
about three months anyway). I'll assume that you and I are normal and we should just
keep slugging along through the fog that is this world we live in. Gotta go to work now, they're handing out packages this morning....annual Christmas downsizing again. 6% of the workforce this year. Sighhhhhh.

Digital Gee

The responses here have really been special. Thank you all! I realize all this stuff I'm complaining about is just stuff, but it's still tough sometimes and like Big Paulie, I get to wondering what's the point? I get one step ahead once in a while, and then WHAM! two steps back.

Maybe I brought it on myself. After all, I bought a white bike.

cranky old dude

Remember D.G. (as I'm sure you're aware) had any harm come to your daughter,
all the other stuff would have been strickly incidental. How careless of me not to
mention how great it is that she, the most important person mentioned in you post,
is O.K. !!!!!!!!!!!! Poor thing, I bet she feels terrible.

Best of luck to you both.

Wildwood 

+1
Just showing up for life everyday with a smile on your face is what it's all about. If you want that bad luck to turn to good you have to keep 'showing up for life'.

BluesDawg

Hang in there guys. Just hang in there.

maddmaxx 

You will get over this. You teach people how to get up and get moving right.

Next order of business. Ride pack: no wallet, ID (is it legal to carry a laminated copy of a drivers liscence if you are not operating a motor vehicle), 1 credit card (I have one card designated for risky use....limited carry, internet parts etc, use it for no regular business), 1 key (have a secret key somewhere near home but not near doors), medical information if necessary and a card with names of people to call if your down. The pack should be designed to minimize problems when lost.

Glad to hear your daughters ok, thats the one that really matters.

stonecrd

Sometimes bad things happen to good people, just hang in there. Maybe someone nice will find and return your wallet. I assume that you don't have a passport, otherwise you could use that for your trip, rental car would be a problem though.

Terrierman

If I find your wallet I'm going to go to Tijuana and party down.

Beverly

Glad to hear your daughter is okay...the car can be replaced.

I think many of us have been through those periods where everything seems to go wrong. The best we can do is just tackle one problem at a time and continue on. Hopefully some honest person will find the wallet and return it.

For future reference....make a copy of your identification and insurance card to place in your bike bag. I also have a Road-Id bracelet I wear while riding. I usually carry just enough money for the ride and a credit card for emergencies.

hoss10

DG, It all (the car, the wallet) can be replaced. In a couple of months this will become an amusing story. Keep smiling.

divingbiker

Echoing what the others have said--sometimes bad things happen. But we just pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and start all over again. Glad that no one is hurt, physically at least.

Re the drivers license, around here, if you're patient enough to wait in line for several hours at the DMV, you can get a new replacement license with picture issued on the spot. Replacement ATM cards can be overnight mailed to your bank (no fee at at my bank--this has happened way too often.) For a fee, a new credit card can be overnight mailed to you. No reason that business trip can't happen.

Good luck to you now, DG.

WillisB

Have you re-ridden the route you took? You might find them. Stranger things have happened.

I am glad your daughter wasn't hurt. Things can be replaced.

Praying for you and her.

Willis

serotta

200 dollars!!! TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS!!!!

He withdrew 200 dollars.... CASH!

I'd be tearin' up the route I rode, checking every pothole and storm drain.

Sorry DG.

*****walking away shaking head and thinking about the 22.50 in my checking account********

OH306

Hey DG, THINGS can be replaced. Inconvenience for sure and possibly some monetary loss, but in the big picture it's just another bump in the road of life. Your daughter is OK, you're out a couple bucks and you learned yet another life lesson. Three years ago cancer took my wonderful wife of 40 years. She died in my arms. I found cycling and golf can temporarily numb my brain but I can't do that stuff all day and all night .. those empty hours are really bad. Some people may say you should be over it by now .. those people don't have a clue! If you saw someone on the street without arms or legs you could feel compassion, but you can't see a hole in someone's heart. So buck up mate, figure it out (I know you will) and get a new fly for your nose.

George

They say it could always gets worse and it did. After my wife had a stroke, we got home and she kept falling. Long story short, all last week she was in intensive care. Before the hospital bit we were in doctors offices for 4 out of 5 days, once for 7 hours. She was low 4 units of blood, bleeding ulcer. Then besides that, all those people you don't care to meet, are everywhere. I think Houston is like the united nations, but that's another story. For what it's worth, while riding, and I haven't been doing much of that, I found keys. It took me some effort to get them to there owners, but they where pretty happy to get them back. But don't take it to hard, I know, it always could be worse, I could go on, and on, and sometimes I wish I could crawl into a hole, but that's the golden years I guess. I hope everything works out for you Gary. Oh, you can get a temporary license, I've been that road more than once with my kid, good luck.

Louis

I think most of us have gotten this far in life because of our ability to laugh at ourselves and life in general.
Keep yukking it up, you've all been through this kind of crap before. It ain't nothin' new

solveg

Sometimes there are stretches where everything possible goes wrong or turns bad. This happens whether the rest of you life is feeling good or hopelessly sad. It's like hitting a giant pothole for a couple days before things return to whatever its normal state is. If you're lucky, you can just stay in bed.