UPDATE - WEEK FROM HELL: Welp... here it goes... knowing full well that life does not care about your plans, I still wish I could catch a break sometime soon! So, last Friday my wife had her scheduled C-Section and we took delivery of our beautiful, awesome son, 9 lbs! Wife = healthy Son = healthy (a HUGE difference from our previous delivery, where my wife went into an emergency c section, delivering our twins (boy and girl) over 3 months pre mature, causing a long grueling emotional time in the NICU - long story short, our daughter caught an infection from the hospital and passed away after a month of life, extremely tough subject for me/us. Our son is still with us and kicking major ass at catching up!)
ANYWHO... I stayed/slept at the hospital with my wife (this time only 3 days!) and we came home sometime on Monday.
Monday Night - our oldest son (mentioned above - 20 months old) came down with the flu... puke and poop EVERYWHERE...
Tuesday - triple the poop and puke, my wife and I caught his flu...
Wednesday - House of sick, trying like all hell to keep our < 1 week old son from catching it as well. My neighbor (brother in law to be, and best friend) returns my weed whacker (4 cycle, convertible $350 whacker) to my garage after having used it, explains to me that it "made a horrible noise then just quit", I popped the plug, drained the oil.... and at the same time drained a handful of pieces of carnage... possibly piston pieces, rod pieces etc etc... ugh... also, took a quick ride up to the gas station and noticed/heard my brake pad wear tabs hitting.... ugh (was hoping to stretch my current brakes till i had the money to replace them with the wilwood kits)
Thursday - was feeling slightly better than the rest of the fam, so i headed out to grab some supplies (pedialite, imodium, gatorade, crackers... the works), swung by my local go-to shop for welding and work i cant quite knock out in my own garage, and had a buddy weld up my O2 bung for the wideband, threaded it in and wallah! works great! (so far, readings look good, just need to finish wiring up the connector for logging the data...) on my way home, I was stopped at a red light, waiting patiently, happy to be bringing home stuff to help the fam feel a little better, and also very happy the wideband was working etc etc. and then...
BOOM - felt like someone punched me in the back, neck and shoulders... I got rear-ended... 21 year old girl, texting... for the most part everyone was "okay", she had double air bag deployment and her passenger went to the hospital for a minor head injury, I'm fine... however, the back of the only non human non canine thing i care about was effed up... hitch cover/panel destroyed, rear bumper cover destroyed, lift gate gouged pretty good, step pad and chrome strip - gouged and scratched pretty bad, exhaust tip slightly bent... Michigan being the only true "no fault" state, I'm responsible for my insurance deductible which is $500 I dont have lying around... the appraisal/adjuster from the insurance company comes on monday, and i am far from looking forward to arguing with him or her on whats what and making EVERYTHING right...
So Now What... - As with anything in life, trying to spin this into a positive... I spoke with the insurance company today and they asked me if I wanted them to cut me the check directly, or write it out to the shop I am going to choose to do the work... I have never been in an accident before, so i guess this never even came to mind... but maybe i go that route, use the money to go for the escalade bumper swap... do the labor (minus the painting) myself... and maybe, just maybe (all depending on the appraisal quote and what the labor comes out to) I'll have enough to come close to doing the Corsa exhaust along with it and come out on top??? Fingers crossed... I'm wondering, if any of you guys know, just how much of the stock exhaust system is different and what parts/numbers are needed (between muffler and tips) from the premium escalade and the denali... like what pipe piece is needed and where the split happens, in case I cant afford the corsa just yet... wish me luck, I/we could sure use some!
"you should see the other guy!" photo...
and finally... the... "if ONE more person tells me "ohhh... its not that bad!" I'm going to lose my shit" photos...
