11:54 am
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Two Car Accidents in Three Days
Well, it's been a long time since I've posted in this journal. China is blocking Live Journal now, so if I want to post I have to go through Tor. Tor hasn't been working very well either, and takes forever to find connections, so maybe they are trying to block that too now. Or maybe the Tor network just isn't as good as it used to be. If anyone has a better option for getting around the Great Firewall of China, let me know.
Xiujuan and I have had a busy year. In September we did a bunch of traveling, visiting customers in Honolulu, Los Angeles, Orlando, and Miami, and visiting our office in Fort Collins, CO. Xiujuan really enjoyed this second trip to the US. She got to see lots of new things, and experience some warm weather and beaches this time. It was really tiring for me though, because I had to do a ton of driving. I was glad to have an opportunity to visit a lot of our customers though, some of them for the first time.
We also made a trip back to Port Townsend to visit my family for Christmas at the end of 2007. I think the best part of the trip for Xiujuan was snowshoeing in the the Olympic Mountains, where there was well over a meter of snow on the ground, and huge plumes of fresh snow on the trees. She thought the landscape looked like something out of a fairy tale, and excitedly took lots of photos.
Xiujuan liked the food too, but she would get full much too quickly because American food is so high-protein and high-fat. Thus she wasn't able to eat very much, and lost about 5 pounds during the trip. I on the other hand gained a ton of weight, and am now losing it again now that I'm back in China where delicious food is much harder to come by.
Business is going well, and we are in the final stages of setting up our own small factory. We've purchased three injection molding machines that are highly customized so we can shoot much higher quality parts than typical Chinese factories can produce. We've also remodeled the building to be super clean and shiny, as one of the biggest problems with molding products in China is the lack of cleanliness of the factories here.
Having our own factory will give us the opportunity to reduce the number of other suppliers we use, which is great. Driving from factory to factory is always a huge annoyance for me, as the traffic is so terrible. I've been in several accidents in the one year that I've had a car here. Fortunately insurance always covers the damage to my vehicle, but dealing with the insurance companies each time is always a nightmare. You have to make dozens of phone calls and run around all over the city before finally getting a payment from them. They intentionally don't provide complete documents the first few times you go, just to make it hard to complete the claim.
Recently I got in two accidents in the space of only three days. First I got in a very small scrape with a car that pulled out in front of me. The police, based on the positions of the vehicles, said it was my fault, which I protested a little, but finally accepted, since either way the insurance pays for all the damages. In China insurance costs do not go up, even if you get in a lot of accidents that are your fault (this probably explains why Chinese people drive so recklessly).
A few days later we met with the other party to exchange documentation from our insurance companies. We met at a small body shop where the other party was getting his vehicle repaired. Our insurance company requires photos of the damage, but he didn't have the photos ready yet; they were still in the digital camera. The shop owner demanded payment for the repairs right away, even before starting on them, but I wanted to get the photos before giving him any money. After all, if he went ahead with repairs but there was some problem with getting the photos, then it would be too late to take new photos of the damage.
We argued with the body shop owner for about two hours, but couldn't come to an agreement, so we decided to just leave. I got in my car and tried to drive away, but the employees of the body shop all stood in front of my car to prevent me from driving out.
Finally I was able to inch out into the driveway and was about to pull into the street and drive off, but the owner of the body shop got in his big Great Wall SUV and backed up into my car, bashing in my headlight and bending the grill way out. So I had to get major repairs done on my vehicle after that. This time the police said I was not at fault though. A month later I'm still trying to get payment from the guy's insurance company, but it will probably take another hundred phone calls and several more trips before it happens.
Current Mood:  drained
Tags: accident, car, great firewall of china, insurance, olympic mountains, port townsend, snowshoeing, tor
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