Monday, June 09, 2008

It's Been an Interesting 4 Days

The last 4 days have been interesting -- and not necessarily in a good way.

A week ago I received a letter from Janus indicating they weren't going to keep managing 403b accounts and that I needed to do something about that. So I went to my financial advisor and discovered that unless my employer has a different 403b plan, or I quit, I may end up having to take the money out and pay a ton of taxes. HOPEFULLY we can find a solution -- we have a few months to do that.

THEN, on the way home, I was slowly down at a stop light when I was hit TWICE by the car behind me. To make a long story short, a young guy hit a car at 45 mph. That car hit another car, driven by an 86 year old woman - and she hit me twice. Fortunately nobody was hurt to any degree. But 2 cars were totaled, and I have about $1,500 damage on my Ford Ranger. So, when I get in touch with the insurance companies, they tell me that if the guy who hit the 3 of us doesn't have adequate insurance, I may be stuck with getting little or no money for the damages on the Ranger. So, now I have to deal with that.

THEN, today I flew to Chicago to participate in COSIM. There are 67 organizations and churches represented here and the focus is effective international partnerships. It has the potential to be really good.

WELL, I started out this morning at 4:00am. Got to the airport on time and we boarded the plane as scheduled at 7:00am. The plane was to depart at 7:30. We had the honor and privilege to sit on that plane until 8:45am before it took off. Then, arriving in Chicago about an hour late, we then had the privilege of sitting on the plane even longer while they looked for a place to park it. Flying is so much fun!

So, I went to get my rental car -- and there were 20 people in line in front of me. So, I got to wait even longer. But I must give KUDUS to the good people at Avis who passed out ice cream bars after about 20 minutes for all of us standing in line.

So, I finally get my car (a Ford Focus - which is much improved over the older version) and started driving to my hotel. Well, there was a ton of construction, so I missed my turn-off and had to drive 10 miles down the road before I could get to a place where I could turn around and drive back. It was a toll road, and when I found my exit again, I had to pay the toll -- which I was more than willing to do. Well, I didn't have the right change, and there was nobody at the toll booth -- so I now have to figure out how to pay the toll -- because they took a picture of my rental car and if I don't pay in 7 days, I get fined.

Traveling is so much fun.

So, those are the highlights of my last few days.

How were your last few days.

No comments: