Update

There has been more snow!

I got my new car yesterday but I really haven’t driven it much yet as the weather has not been great and didn’t have anywhere I needed to go last night or today. It looks like tomorrow should be better. It seems like every time it warms up a bit it snows a lot! I must say that living here will almost certainly make the winter weather wherever I live next seem like nothing which I’m sure I’ll appreciate in the future.

Things are still not going well with the insurance company. It looks like I may have sue the guy that hit me in small claims court in order to get all the money I should. The whole insurance system just doesn’t seem remotely fair! I was very fortunate, however, that the dealership I leased the car from let me use a car for free for a few days until I could get my new car as the rental car did get cut off on Tuesday.

I have also been having Internet issues. It became so slow that it was completely useless every night around 7pm until I went to bed four nights in a row. Yet worked fine early in the morning and right after work. The first time I called I spent like an hour and half on the phone changing settings on my computer and stuff and the guy still seemed to think the problem was my computer! However, he called back half an hour later and said that after he talked to me he talked a guy living nearby who was having exactly the same problem! My monthly bill was significantly reduced. Last night the Internet was working so I am really hoping that things will start to improve.

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Growing piles of snow

Yes, I’ve decided to write a second post in a day. I can’t remember the last time I did that! My concentration has been absolutely horrible today. I can’t seem to read for more than a few minutes. So I’ve spent too much time on the Internet and watched quite a bit of television. I also went on a very short walk and took some pictures of the growing piles of snow. They already seem enormous to me. I can’t imagine what they’ll look like at the end of the winter!

I never managed to get the rental car place to answer the phone and so I still have the craptacular rental car. I also attempted to visit the car dealership that according to the website is open Saturdays but there was no sign of life there this morning and now sign about hours on the door. I also tried called later on and never got an answer. So I really don’t see how I’m expected to have a new car on Monday; having one by mid-week might be pushing it!

And the car problems continue …

When I picked up my rental car on Monday, I was surprised to find that they gave me a car with 118,000 from 2005! Plus, it has old all-season tires on it! I would think that would be the type of car Rent-A-Wreck would rent not a “real” rental car company! I made a bunch of phone calls trying to get a car with winter tires at least but once I finally talked to someone who had some knowledge of the situation was told that they’d been too busy this year to change the tires on most of the cars. It seems crazy as they don’t clean the roads too well here and they are in bad condition to begin with. Plus, you would think that a lot of people renting cars from the airport would be flying in from places where the roads are nothing like they are here!

I finally got sick of calling the local numbers are being put on hold, hung up on etc. As an aside, I swear if there was an award for the place with the worst customer service in Canada this town would definitely win. There are a of couple places here that seem okay but generally places don’t seem to care at all because they have no competition. I found things bad in Abu Dhabi sometimes but at least I could blame some of that on lack of English ability which I certainly can’t here. Anyway, I decided to call the 1-800 number and was basically just reconnected to someone locally. The guy from the 1-800 number didn’t even tell the woman from the local office who he was! I cannot find an email or a mailing address to make a complaint to Budget. I’m thinking there is a good reason for that!

But sadly, the whole Budget thing pales in comparison to my other problem. I received an email yesterday, that I didn’t see until I returned home from work, telling me that they have decided to write off my car. I was surprised because I didn’t think the damage was that bad and because I thought they would have figured that out a long time ago. I could deal with this if a) the were offering to pay an amount around what I paid for the car and b) they were offering to let me keep a (decent) rental car while I looked for a new car. I wrote back saying that the amount was much too low as I had paid a fair bit more for the car and that was only in August and because the car had brand new winter tires on it. Of course, I’m sure I won’t hear anything to Monday which is also the date they want the rental car return; though, the rental car place seems to be expecting it back today but of course is not answering their phone!

I will go look at cars today at the place where I didn’t buy my now ruined car as the place I bought it was horrible plus they are the owners of Budget. Hopefully, they are better but who knows are there are only two options here! I initially thought I’d look at used cars again but some Internet because has me a bit conflicted because it sounds like after a car accident a leased car would be a lot less of a hassle. I have very little confidence in a lot of the drivers here so sadly I think another accident isn’t all that unlikely. Maybe I’ll be lucky enough not to be here much longer but I don’t have high hopes for that either.

Return to winter

Returning to Labrador definitely means returning to winter! I had to walk through quite a bit of snow to reach my door and the temperature was -20 when the plane landed. While it did go below zero for a little while during my visit home, there was barely a trace of snow and the temperature was often above zero.

What I returned to!

I ended up with a longer than anticipated time at the Ottawa airport as the plane was late arriving and then they needed to move some of the baggage from the back of the plane to the front to balance the weight and very little time at the Halifax airport which wasn’t a big deal at all. I was very surprised to find that the handle of my suitcase was completely broken which was annoying especially because it so heavy to lift! I need to bring it back to the airport tomorrow. I guess if something like this has to happen, this is a good place for it as I live pretty close to the airport and I won’t need the suitcase soon! Between my checked and carry-on baggage, the total weight was definitely more than my weight.

The broken handle on my suitcase.

I wasn’t able to bring back as much as I wanted but I did manage to bring back enough food that I now have some stuff in a number of my kitchen cupboards that were previously empty! While packing last night/this morning I did question some of my purchases but I think I’ll do a better job in the future.