Being Sued

Last week sucked. A couple years ago Kelly was on her way to school and was involved in an accident. She didn't see an oncoming car and turned into it. At the time we thought both her and the lady driving the other car only recieved minor injuries. Fast forward 2 years and we find ourselves in court on the recieving end of a lawsuit. The plaintiff (I won't name names) was claiming that she suffered a closed head injury, and that her life has now been permanently altered because of the accident. In Michigan there is a "no fault" law that says that regardless of who's at fault in the accident, your insurance has to cover all medical expenses if you are injured in an accident. If you recieve permanent damage that goes above and beyond what medical expenses would help you with, you can sue the person at fault in the accident, and in our case, the owners of the car are held liable also. I have never been on such an emotional rollercoaster ride in my life. Having your entire financial future in jeopardy simply because you gave a set of car keys to your daughter to drive to school is hardly what I would call justice or even fair. I could see suing someone if they were drunk driving, or were simply driving very recklessly, or had malicios intent when they injured you. That wasn't the case with Kelly, she wasn't on her cell phone and she came to a complete stop at the sign. She simply didn't take that second look to make sure nobody was coming before she pulled out. Anyway, what angered me the most about this trial is that things were said by their lawyer about Kelly and even us that were not even remotely accurate. He was trying to assert that Kelly didn't care about hurting this lady, and that she has gone on to college and "forgotten all about" this accident. Without boring you with the details of the trial, despite all the doctors they hired to convince the jury that she was permanently injured, the jury didn't buy it and came back with no money at all for her. It was lucky for them that on Tuesday, both parties agreed to a high/low agreement that says regardless of the outcome from the jury, our insurance company agreed to pay a certain minimum amount if they agreed to cap what they would recieve to the amount to which my policy would cover. Although in one way I regret that the deal was made, it sure made me feel better at the time, because I knew then that I would'nt be losing everything I have worked for. Also, with a high/low agreement there is no possibility of appeal. As much as I want to believe that she was just being a gold digger and wasn't really hurt bad, there is no way to be 100% sure. Despite what their lawyer was claiming, we really aren't heartless bastards that go around causing injury to people and then jump for joy when we win our case. Unfortunately, he did a good job of convincing his own clients of that. When I tried to wish her well after the trial, I was strongly rebuffed. I guess I could have chosen a better moment to try and make amends. I hope in time they see that we aren't the devil spawn that their lawyer made us out to be and can let go of their hatred. All in all, I think justice was served. I guess the only glee I felt when the verdict was read was that their lawyer totally got his butt whipped in this trial, cause he's a real a**hole, and I mean that in a good Christian way, of course.

Random jabber

Wow, another big snow storm this year. Too bad about all this global warming. I’ve been recording bass parts for the High School Musical rehearsal tapes all day. I volunteered to do this to help the cast get used to singing with a band instead of rehearsing with a piano. I should have known what I was getting myself in for, and the rest of the band for that matter. Oh well, I think it will be worth it in the end, it’s just a bit of a pain now. With all this stuff I’ve been doing, I’ve had to miss some triathlon training. I should still be OK for the race anyway. I sang a solo at church with a piano accompaniment. I’m 44 years old and that was the first time I ever did that, if you can believe that. I was pretty nervous but I did pretty good if I do say so myself. I’m sure if I watched a video of it I would pick it to pieces. I quit watching videos of my performances a long time ago for just that reason. Shout had a good rehearsel. Art wrote a cool new song for us. It starts with a bunch of different sounds and noises. It’s a song about taking quiet time with God. If only I would practice what I sing.

I’m starting to get the fishing bug. I haven’t been out since last September. The last time I was trout fishing, I was almost drowned when they started generating power at the dam. You are supposed to check the release schedule before you go fishing. I assumed that because the weather was so dry and the lake was so low that they wouldn’t be releasing that day. I guess that’s not something you want to take a chance on. Anyway, I won’t be making that mistake again. Also the last time I was out on the Detroit river my motor died, and I barely made it in on my troller. So I had kind of lost my entheusiam for fishing. Anybody that knows me knows that could only be a very temporary situation with me. I think I’ll solve both problems by selling my boat and buying one of those cool pontoon rafts for floating down rivers, no motor to die, and It won’t matter how high the river gets.

Well, time for bed,

Dave

Current Happenings

United Brass is slow right now due to the general economy and especially the poor housing market. We have had to make some tough decisions regarding work hours and staffing needs. We have a lot of improvement plans in the works that should enhance our efficiency. Ten years from now I will have a staff that is 90% different from what it is now. Most of the people where hired in around the same time and will mostly be retiring in the next ten years or so. This is going to present a few challenges, but also some oppurtunities to aquire people that are more comfortable with the latest technologies. If we can survive this economy, I see great things for our future.
Heaven Sown is in the middle of recording the long awaited Shout project. We have all the cover songs done now and we are now writing and recording some originals. Our goal is to have it ready for the Faithfest (early August). It's going to be tough because I have Dan and Willy involved in the band for Monroe Community Players production of High School Musical. How is that for Segway?
I am the musical director for the above mentioned play. Yesterday was the audition. I was there from 9:00 AM to 5:30 PM. Poor Mirjam was stuck with me the whole day. I guess for those reading this that don't know yet, Mirjam is an exchange student from Switzerland that is staying with us this year. She is being cast as one of the brainiaks, she did a great job with her audition. We have a pretty good cast, the leads are very good. We need more guys for the basketball team and various other male roles. I'm really looking forward to this production, it should be a blast.
My Triathlon training is going OK I guess. I am a lot more fit than I was when I started. I'm not really progressing like I hoped I would. I finally got to where I can run 3 miles without stopping, you just have to drive stakes to keep track of my progress. My swimming will probably be my best event. I will probably be out of he water in the middle of the pack somewhere. After that, who knows. My first goal is to finish the race without stopping. It would be nice to be able to compete in my age group some day, but only time will tell if that can happen. For sure I would need a more consistant training schedule for that to happen. One of these days I may learn to say no to people instead of getting involved with so many things. I wouldn't bet on it, there are just so many interesting things to do in one lifetime.

I have no idea how regular I will be with this blog, I didn't include all the family happenings in this one because they have their own myspace pages to keep you up to date on what they are doing. I will tell you that they are going to leave me here by myself for a few day next week and go to Florida. So...party at my house!!

to be continued

Dave