How many phone calls does it take...

...to get insurance in place if you are going to buy a car on the day before Christmas Eve?

If you are me, and your regular agent has decided to bug out a day early for the holidays, it's at least 5.

Grandpa had decided he was going to buy a car for Little Girl.  She was talking about using her own money and going cheap with a motorcycle, but he would have none of it.  He convinced her they would go car shopping on New Year's Eve, since that's a big day in the auto sales industry.  Everyone wants to make sales that day.

Thus i figured i could call my agent Tuesday of next week and get it all arranged.

Then on this past Thursday Grandpa said, "Come Friday, I have the money already."

What child is going to turn that down?

Back in the day, all you had to do to buy a car was show you already had insurance on your other cars.  The fact that you had a policy or two in place meant your new ride was covered for up to 30 days, so you would have time to get in to your agent.

Not anymore.  Now you have to have proof of insurance on that car before you can drive off the lot.

So Friday morning at work i tried to call my agent.  No dice, i get the national representatives.  In the course of the day, i believe i spoke to 8 of them, all very nice and helpful.

It all gets so complicated.  The first lady told me what information i had to have in order to get the insurance in place.  Then i called back with the information, and a nice young man took care of almost everything.

Why almost?  Because while your own agent can give you proof of insurance that you can take to the dealership with you, they at the national office cannot actually put the policy in place until after you have purchased the car.  You have to go buy it, then call from the dealership to put the policy in place, and get it faxed over.

Did i mention i was at work, that Sweetie took Little Girl to NOLA and dropped her off with Grandpa to do all of this, and so i was trying to get a policy on someone besides myself, someone who was not even with me, and all that while i was trying to clean houses?

After the purchase, i called the national number again, and after a couple of transfers and a half hour on hold, i got the policy in place, the first month paid ($250), and got them to fax it to the dealership and a promise they would also email it to me, so i could email it to Little Girl, so she could show the card on her phone if she needed to provide proof of insurance to anyone.

The email never came, so i called again, and waited again, and my phone cut off in the middle of the call, so i called again.  We figured it out, they misspelled my email.

Eventually i did have it all, and no matter what, by the time she drove off the lot she had insurance, and that's what counts.

Little Girl is now the proud owner of a 2013 Honda Civic with only 19,000 miles on it.

A very nice ride.

Today is:

Adam the Patriarch & Eve the Matriarch's Day -- Catholic Christian (Adam, Patron of gardeners and tailors; Eve, Patron of tailors)

Aofangadagskvold -- Iceland (arrival of the 13th and final Yule Lad)
     Icelandic Yuletide Lad of the Day, Kertasnikir -- Candle-beggar, who, as children did before light bulbs, wants the treat of a precious candle, and will steal one if he can

Bonfires on the Levee -- Louisiana, US (began among the Cajuns, now a big celebration for everyone, lighting the way for Papa Noel)

Calendas -- Oaxaca, Mexico

Celtic Tree Month Beth (Birch) commences

Christmas Eve

Constitution Day -- Transdniestra

Declaration of Christmas Peace -- Old Great Square of Turku, Finland's official Christmas City

Feast of the Seven Fishes (La Vigilia) -- Italy (traditional serving of seven kinds of seafood at dinner)

Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols -- King's College Chapel, Cambridge University, Cambridge, England (special Christmas Eve performance by the Choir of King's College held since 1918)

Hanukkah -- Judaism (Festival of Lights; begins at sundown, through sundown Jan. 1)

Independence Day -- Libya(1951)

Kolada -- Asatru/Slavic Pagan Calendar (various celebrations of the gods until Dec. 31)

Last Minute Shoppers Day

Mistletoe Time -- traditional day on which to hang the mistletoe

Modresnach -- Germanic/Scandinavian/Anglo-Saxon Odinist festival celebrating midwinter and motherhood (date approximate)

National Egg Nog Day

Noche Buena -- Spain and Spanish speaking countries

Remember to Read the Instructions First Night -- when assembling the kids' toys, of course

Silent Night, Holy Night Celebrations -- Austria (in honor of the hymn's composition in 1818)

St. Trasilla's Day (Patron of single laywomen)

Tolling the Devil's Knell -- All Saints Parish Church, Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, England (the church bell tolls once for each year since the birth of Christ, signaling when the Devil's demise was heralded)

T'owd 'oss -- Richmond, North Yorkshire, England (A tradition of dressing in hunting clothes and blowing the hunting horns on Christmas Eve.)

Utter Day -- Fairy Calendar (Every word uttered by the fairy folk becomes a physical object he/she must wear for the rest of the day.)

Yap Constitution Day -- Micronesia (regional)

Zerowork Season begins -- seriously, unless you work in retail, how much work really gets done between now and New Year's Eve at your office?


Birthdays Today:

Ryan Seacrest, 1974
Stephanie Meyer, 1973
Ricky Martin, 1971
Diedrich Bader, 45, 1966
Anil Kapoor, 1959
Mary Higgins Clark, 1929
Ava Gardner, 1922
Howard Hughes, 1905
Johnny Gruelle, 1880
Matthew Arnold, 1822
James Prescott Joule, 1818
Kit Carson, 1809


Debuting/Premiering Today:

The Aristocats(Disney animated film), 1970
"Amahl and the Night Visitors"(Opera, first performance and the first opera ever televised), 1951
"The Perry Como Show"(TV), 1948
"Aida"(Opera), 1871


Today in History:

The Byzantine church Hagia Sophia in Constantinople is dedicated for the second time after being destroyed by earthquakes, 563
Thomas Wolsey is appointed English Lord Chancellor, 1515
Kiritimati, also called Christmas Island, is "discovered" by James Cook, 1777
"Silent Night" is composed by Franz Joseph Gruber; it is first sung the next day, 1818
The Eggnog Riot at the United States Military Academy begins that night, wrapping up the following morning, 1826
Fire devastates the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., destroys 35,000 volumes, 1851
Henry Ford completes his first useful gas motor, 1893
Irving Fisher patents an archiving system with index cards, 1912
The first radio transmission of NCRV in Netherlands, 1924
NORAD Tracks Santa for the first time in what will become an annual Christmas Eve tradition, 1955
Shooting begins on "The Cage" the pilot for the Star Trek series, 1964
The crew of Apollo 8 enters into orbit around the Moon, becoming the first humans to do so, 1968
Cyclone Tracy devastates Darwin, Australia, 1974
The first European Ariane rocket is launched, 1979
For the first time since the death f Lenin, the bells of St. Basil's Cathedral, on Red Square in Moscow, ring to celebrate Christmas, 1990
The Spanish police thwart an attempt by ETA to detonate 50 kg of explosives at 3:55 p.m. inside Madrid's busy ChamartÌn Station, 2003
Astronauts aboard the International Space Station report they have completed repairs to a cooling pump after a 7 1/2 hour space walk, 2013