The funny things we do.

by InsInvestigator » Fri Nov 07, 2008 05:34 pm

I'd like this section to be something like America's Funniest Home Videos. The accounts will be things we didn't really have any control over and hopefully didn't cause anyone a great deal of pain.

Total Comments: 17

Posted: Fri Nov 07, 2008 05:55 pm Post Subject:

I'll start:

This involves my very responsible, 4.03 GPA, oldest daughter.
When she was 17, she, her boyfriend, one of her girlfriends and her boyfriend, all took off for a day at the Santa Cruz, CA Beach Boardwalk. This is roughly a 2 hour drive and involves 1 potentially treacherous mountain pass (Pacheco Pass west of Los Banos).

After spending all day on the beach, everyone came back to our house at around 11:47 pm (12:00 curfew) and, unfortunately for them, woke up dad. As I strolled into the living room, my daughter informed me that her friends were all going to crash in the living room because they were too drunk to go home.

"Too drunk to go home? What in THE H-E - double hockey sticks are you talking about? Yes, she replied, they were drinking all day but not me, daddy, I was the designated driver. Honey, I asked, how many of your friends are over the legal drinking age? Ummmm, she replied, none but they didn't drive.

Times like this are a perfect example of why some animals eat their young.

Posted: Sat Nov 08, 2008 07:08 am Post Subject:

Great story Mark!! Thanks for starting this thread. I'm sure that stories will pour in from all the community members.

However, isn't even carrying alcohol in the car a punishable offence? I once had suffered a great deal for my stupidity, but, anyways, I was young ;) and since I belong to the ‘most danger prone sex', the insurance too has cost me pretty dear.

However, once burned twice shy….I had learned the lesson from my experience ;)

Thanks,
Rupert

Posted: Sat Nov 08, 2008 05:04 pm Post Subject:

Rupert, you are absolutely correct. Unless you are a gubment official, the Sheriff's brother (a whole new story) or have a great body and are willing to use it to get out of trouble (different story) you're going to get nailed for having an open container in the car.

Posted: Sun Nov 09, 2008 05:04 am Post Subject:

All right, you want to talk about teenage daughters? I have three teenagers, two girls and a boy (thank god for the boy) who's right in-between the girls in age. The oldest girl, of course, got her driver's license the earliest. Mom decided that I was going to be the one to teach her how to drive. My initial reply to that edict was "She's not driving MY car!" :!:

Time passes, she gets her license, and can only drive mom's car. About two months after she get the license, I'm at home watching a game and my phone rings. It's the oldest daughter, in tears. "I smashed into the back of a pickup truck!" :shock: I immediately ask if she's ok, and thankfully no one was hurt at all. So, I get in my car and drive down to where she is, pull into the parking lot and see mom's car. I see my kid and the truck that she hit, so I park next to them and get out. My kid comes running up to me and hides behind me, still crying. I start talking to the lady of the truck, and she feels terrible. She's more concerned about my kid than anything else. Of course, she had a huge steel rear bumper and there wasn't a scratch on her rig. I looked at the front of mom's car and couldn't help but say "Oh....man. That's not good." We exchanged info with the very nice lady and never hear from her again. So, nothing on the daughter's permanent record. We have a high accident reporting threshold where I live, too! Lucky day #1.

6 months later, I get home from work, and mom is standing in the kitchen with that "somebody's gonna die" mom look. :? I wander in and ask what's up, and she hands me an envelope. I see on the outside it's from the county that we live in, and open it up. Inside is a citation from photo radar with our oldest daughter behind the wheel in stunning black and white clarity, clocked doing 52 in a 40. The instructions on how to take care of the ticket were on the back of the ticket, and there was a section that dealt with the concept of the driver not being the registered owner of the vehicle, which our daughter isn't. It was an escape clause :D for lack of a better term. The county sent the daughter a warning letter, but nothing went on her "permanent record" so to speak. Lucky day #2.

About three months ago, I'm at work and my cell phone rings. I don't recognize the number, so I ignore it as I usually do. A few minutes later, my office phone rings and the caller ID is from the same number that was on my cell phone a minute ago. I answer the phone and it's the cops, and they have my oldest daughter with them. The cop says "she wants to talk to you. Try to find out what happened, cuz she's not talking to us."

"Dad???? Sob. Someone stole mom's car! I was at the store to get a ice cream cone and when I came out- the car was gone!" Sob. "So, I called the police on my phone and they came down to the Dairy Queen and I asked them if they would call you and tell you." The DQ is about 6 blocks from our house.

"Honey, you're telling me. They just dialed the phone." :? Silence on the other end. "Are you ok? Tell me what happened, all right?"

Sniff. "I was in talking to sis (our other daughter works at this DQ) after I got my cone. I walked outside, the car was gone and I freaked out." I ran inside and told sis and she just stared at me. Then she said 'mom's gonna kill you" and she just, she just...walked away!" The last part of that sentence was kind of a wailing sound.

So, I told her to put the cop back on the phone and finish their report, and told them I'd be down to pick her up. I drive down there, pull into yet another parking lot, and see her standing there with her mother and the car. Slightly confused, I park and walk up to them. "What is going on here?"

Well, it seems that mom was out on a walk with the dog and saw her car in the parking lot, walked by the car and saw the the daughter had left the keys in the ignition! Mom thought it would be a good idea to take the car and teach the daughter a lesson she wouldn't forget for while. Kinda backfired. Mom thought that the daughter would call her or me first if something like that happened, and she called the police first instead. Now they're all freaked out about the cops (they left before mom got there). I start laughing, which was the absolute wrong thing to do at that time, but what can you do. Lucky day #3.

Luckily I live in a smaller town, and it helps that I'm a city commissioner, so the cops were nice and just dropped the matter. One of them said that she wished she would have thought of it first. The other two kids have never had a ticket or accident to this day. BTW- all three are honors students, the two older ones are in school, my son, now 18, is a freshman at the University of Oregon (go DUCKS! :!: ) The oldest daugter is working and going to community college, and the youngest is a junior in high school. A few more years, and they'll all be moved out!

InsInvestigator, just remember you started this daughter stuff. :P

InsTeacher 8)

Posted: Sun Nov 09, 2008 07:48 am Post Subject:

InsTeacher, now that's what I'm looking for!! Great story!
My mom lives in Canyonville. Several times each year, I fly up there and usually land at Myrtle Creek. If the weather is bad, I head up to Roseburg. It's funny how the weather can be so different between the two airports.

Posted: Sun Nov 09, 2008 10:49 am Post Subject:

Ok, another bad driving daughter story (or 2)....Dad, thought he'd teach daughter to drive, she came home crying from the first lesson, because, ''He won't quit yelling at me!" so figured I would teach her, besides, girl is in the tip top of her class (graduated #3)...and drivers's-ed cost about 500 bucks...so no problem...first outting, I know why Dad was yelling, so was I, mostly the same phrase, ''WATCH OUT!"...oh my gosh, my right leg hurt so bad from pushing the 'imaginary' brake on my side....

Anyway finally gets her license (Dad took both kids down for that, oh and he did teach the boy to drive but that's was NO issue, the kid had been on a riding lawn mower or tractor since he was about six years old)...so she gets her license....and talks me into letting her drive (my car of course no way we EVER let her drive one of the trucks....still wouldn't)....to go to the tanning salon, which is like six blocks from where we lived then...ok, I say come RIGHT back...and she did...she left the car outside, was afraid to put it in the garage, so I did when she got home no biggie..

Next morning I'm leaving for work, and think you know I didn't look the car over when she got back...walked around to the passenger side, rt fender is totally smashed in rt head lamp and turn signal smashed, fender is into the door...Right back up the stairs I STOMP, (I've been a mom nearly 30 yrs..and I'm very good at it)...throw open the door turn on the lights and yell, 'what the hell happen to my car?".....groggy eyed 16 yr old says, 'what?'...all I can muster is 'GET UP'...I STOMP back to the basement garage, assessing the damages again, trying to figure out who or what she hit...anyway finally she gets down there, she's as surprised as I am...I'm yelling, 'where else did you go?" she swears no where...I say there isn't any way this happened and you didn't know about it....she says something along the sleepy lines of, ''you know when I was backing out I thought I heard something, but it stopped and I just thought the car was making a funny noise :roll: :roll: " I go directly to the tanning salon, and there on the gas meter is my car's paint color! I go back home, get her back up and ask, 'Was that gas meter there when you pulled in or did they plant it there while you were tanning?"....oh my gosh THE DAY the girl got her license...


The summer I had turned sixteen the previous Decemeber, my Dad was going to be gone for three weeks at Hawg Head school (rr engineer)...and was going to give me his truck while he was away to drive...(my folks were divorced when I was young) I was so happy...I didn't have a car...what a cool thing for a Dad to do! He used to let me drive alot starting when I was about thirteen so he was 'too cool' in that regard, IMO...anyway this would've been about 1976 or so I think his truck was about a 73 chevy, there was no fuel injection then and it had great dual exaust...anyway everything went fine...He came back....I gave his unharmed truck back to him..He called me about a week later, and say, Lodie, (that's what he calls me that or 'baby') did you do any racing in my truck while I was gone? I said, (duh) 'course not dad why?' then he goes on to say, that he took the truck out of the highway to 'blow the cobs out' (those of you too young to know what that is ask your dad..) and there were none"...playing stupid, I said, 'well dad I dont' know why'...course no way I was telling him I didn't come to a stop light that I didn't rattle the crap out of those pipes, and I did win 20 bucks while he was away...never lost one race... :wink:

Posted: Sun Nov 09, 2008 10:34 pm Post Subject:

I can't figure out whose storiy is the funniest. They all have me laughing my butt off. I know one thing I am now VERY VERY scared. I have one daughter who in four years will be getting her license and after reading these stories I am going to have nightmares up until and probaly even after she gets her license.

Posted: Sun Nov 09, 2008 10:36 pm Post Subject:

Other than a very small fender-bender in which I was only a passenger, I have never experienced a car wreck. Good thing too. I think being in the seat when the airbags go off would be one of the most sobering experience one could ever imagine. Motorcycles (racing motocross) and airplanes are my downfall - 13 broken bones. God, I hate it when the weather changes - I'm a vegetable.

Posted: Sun Nov 09, 2008 10:42 pm Post Subject:

Take it from someone who knows Investigator. Don't put your arm up to block an airbag when it goes off. Never thought one could do alot of damage until I got hit with one. Now I have a practically useless right arm and had my jaw knocked out of line. Not fun at all. Hope you knocked on wood when you said you were never in an accident. Do you fly these airplanes?

Posted: Mon Nov 10, 2008 06:12 am Post Subject:

InsInvestigator said:

My mom lives in Canyonville. Several times each year, I fly up there and usually land at Myrtle Creek. If the weather is bad, I head up to Roseburg.



Been through Canyonville many times, usually stop at Seven Feathers, too!
:wink: We have offices in Medford, and I have to go down here and there to crack the whip.

We play a lot of golf on the southern Oregon coast, and run through Roseburg a lot...love it down there. My favorite part of Oregon. :D

InsTeacher 8)

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