I just got back home. Neelix greeted me at the door with a rub against the legs and promptly informed me that the food and water dishes were low. Tabitha was lying on the bed in the study and stared at me as I entered the room. My “Hey, baby” sent her over the edge. She recoiled and let out an indignant meow that very clearly meant, “How dare you ‘baby’ me when you’ve been gone for two nights?!” I have had her for almost 12 years and she has never done this. She is also avoiding me. I guess she’s under more stress than I thought because I have left her for much longer periods of time. She’ll get over it by tonight if I know my girl.

I was just 20 minutes out from home when my cell phone rang. By the time I was able to pull over, I’d missed the call from an unidentified 403 phone number. I dialed it and got the appraiser for Intact about the car. He asked me about options and the value of the roof rack (which I forgot to tell him I saved, but will next time we speak) and the tow system. He said he should have some news for me by tonight. At this point, with all the opinions I’ve gotten about the photos, especially from the motorhome appraiser, I will not accept anything but a total loss on the car.

Since I am expecting the phone to ring a number of times over the next couple of days, I’m glad to stick around home. I’m going to try to make some sense of the chaos in here since it is now blessedly cool enough to do anything. The only place I intend to go before tomorrow night is Richmond if my new computer battery comes in.