Still have a blog to write. It’s coming. I’m spending life on the phone with all kinds of folks right now. Doctors, insurance, students, tree removal people…(hey tree folks…return my damn calls! I have a check for you!!)
But look what we found under that tree on Saturday. (That process is a whole crazy story on it’s own that I’ll share later in a blog).
Even crazier – The Van of Steel drove out. Under her own power. Like a mutherfucking boss. She fired up…she let me know the hood was popped…but it fired up and said, “Fuck it, let’s go.” #BadassBitchOfAVan \m/
Not even a check engine light. And both headlights still turned on. That 4.0 engine was still sounding perfect. I kinda laughed, held up my injured arm to my friends…now a mix of newfound and long-standing companions on this quest to retrieve the van from the carnage….and said, “Well, at least now we match.”
Give Super Van your well wishes. This road dog still has a lot of miles left in her. The insurance company says they might see it differently though. I’m honestly praying they’ll fix her up; this one clearly isn’t ready to go to the scrapyard yet. Not after crawling out from that tree hit like a goddamn GOAT van. Even Rusty, my body shop guy, noted that aside from the damage, this van was “very well taken care of.” Well yeah…it has taken care of me. I gotta return the favor.
If this is indeed where we part ways, as a close friend texted (and I quote), “Fuuuuuck dude, that would be the end of an era.”
I learned a lot about working on cars from this van. And the road stories range from outrunning a tornado all the way to evading some crazy paranormal activity in the wee hours of morning outside of St Louis. Not. Even. Joking.
Keep my arm and my van in your thoughts. Maybe if we all “put it out there”, we can gently convince someone, somewhere, that she’s totally worth cobbling back together. I realize it’s a long shot. But it’s worth a try. She’s pretty damn perfect for me….almost akin to finding the right guitar. #dodge #dodgegrandcaravan
[Update / Edit August 5th] – the insurance company has been pulling some serious fuckery. They said on a RECORDED CALL they would repair the van. Less than a week later, they said they “made a mistake” and then totaled it out. I went to the body shop and brought her home until all this fuckery ceases on their behalf. This is the second or third time in the process that I hear one thing from one person and then they do another.
The timeline:
7/14 – tree falls on vehicle. I call.
7/17 – SuperVan is finally cut free and pulls out of my driveway like a boss.
7/19 – vehicle goes to body shop for an estimate
7/20 – I’m advised the vehicle could be a total loss…stand by.
7/30 – vehicle gets approval from Nationwide to be repaired…they record me retelling the events of 7/14 and tell me the car will be repaired and covered. On a RECORDED CALL.
8/3 – I email the body shop “Oh hey, did you hear? We’re gonna fix it!”
Email back – um, no this vehicle is totaled.
What?
8/4 – I email the adjuster…he passes the buck.
I call another adjuster, and I got hung up on! 🤦🏻♀️
Finally, someone from Nationwide calls back. “Oops, we made a mistake. Sorry, we’re actually not going to fix your car after all…we sent the claim to the wrong department…it’s actually supposed to be a total loss.”
Oh really? I need that all in writing. Today.
Meanwhile…cue me showing up at the body shop and pulling my car out of the storage lot at the body shop and high tailing the vehicle home to safer spaces. Because IDK what the fuck these idiots are doing, but I’m starting to wonder if there’s 20 pounds of cocaine or some shit under the stow n go seating from the way these guys are jerking me around.
Back to that call earlier today; I directed the insurance company to go after the owner of the tree.
Adjuster, “That’ll could take awhile.”
Looks at the car parked outside and the cast on my arm. I’m now so pissed off I am actually calm, like Admiral Thrawn now playing the long game.
“I’ll wait. I have a car and I have the time.” (Awkward silence on the other end of the call.)
Literally cannot make this shit up.
Meanwhile, SuperVan is back home, sheltered from the currents of managers and stupidity…for now.
I’m a simple woman. I just want to play bass. Make people happy. That’s all I want. And my comfortable van to go to work in. 🤷♀️
Now I gotta get all tapped in with my Sith energies and knock some heads.
[Edit/Update] – I’m humbled and honored to say that my friend Ben Titus has now set up a GoFundMe to help me out. The link is here; Go Fund Me.
From the Go Fund Me site;
My name is Ben, and I’m fundraising for a good friend and colleague, Brittany Frompovich.
On July 14, Brittany, aka Lady Bass Music in Fredericksburg, VA was hit with a double whammy. In the morning, a fall at home resulted in a fractured wrist that has taken her out of performance commission for the foreseeable future. It also has hampered her ability to teach- she is a multi-instrumentalist specializing in double bass, electric bass, and guitar. Between the physical limitations as well as the numerous doctor’s visits needed to treat the break and get it healed correctly, Brittany faces several months of recovery before all is back to normal. Brittany depends on teaching and performance- it’s literally her day gig.
Worse yet- that evening, while recovering after the doctor’s visit, massive storms rolled through Fredericksburg, turning her neighborhood and many others nearby into war zones with downed trees, power lines, and damage. Among the damaged property was Brittany’s beloved ‘Supervan 2.0’, a meticulously maintained 2008 Dodge Caravan SXT, 4.0. A neighbor’s neglected tree was downed during the storm, doing significant damage to the van and the roof of Brittany’s house. After 2 days of work, the tree was removed and the van was able to make it to the shop under it’s own power. After some back and forth, her insurance company told her that they would be repairing the van, only to take that back and inform her that they were totaling it out. Being an older vehicle, it’s depreciated, so in order to replace the vehicle with something that’s equivalently reliable, it’s going to take MUCH more than the insurance company is willing to payout.
Anyone that knows Brittany knows that Supervan 2.0 is an integral part of Lady Bass Music. It has carted equipment for her students across the DelMarVA region tirelessly for gigs, clinics, and other learning opportunities. It’s crisscrossed the country on numerous tours supporting different artists, moved friends, family, and neighbors, and been the Swiss Army knife that Brittany lives by.
Brittany also works tirelessly for her students to help them grow and succeed, whether they are hobbyists doing it for fun all the way up to the professional level. Artists locally and nationally look to Brittany hold down the low end as a bassist and singer in their groups. Any help that we can give Brittany to support her getting things back up and running would be most welcome!