My Dad's Birthday

It was the 14th.  He passed away a few years ago...of natural causes...which sort of surprised me at the time.  Like all of us, he had flaws. But one of his best traits was speaking up when someone else was being a jerk, not standing by silently if someone was being victimized. I realized while he was in the hospital that somewhere in the back of my mind I expected that trait would lead him to a premature funeral.  Luckily it didn't. 

Today I'd like to pay tribute to that trait and also to the heroes and victims of last week's tragedies in Newtown and Chenpeng.  I hope I live long enough to see a day when humans don't do such terrible things to each other.

To lighten the mood before you go, I want to share a story about one of my dad's craftier decisions.  I posted recently about when I first got my driver's license.  Soon after that I was eager to buy a car (so I wouldn't have to walk back and forth to work). My parents agreed to put the car in their names to help lower the insurance rate, but said it would still be expensive (since I was a teenager).

Every six months my mom told me how much I owed and I forked it over. It was a lot. But again, car insurance for male teenagers is very pricey.

A few years and a few cars later I bought a "new" car and decided to register it in my own name.  I knew the insurance would be a lot higher--but it would really be mine. I went to the insurance agent's office to fill out the forms for the policy and he shocked me. He gave me a quote that was less than half of what I paid for the older car. I asked him why it was soooo much less.

The agent checked my parent's file.  It turned out I had not been paying the insurance for just my car.  I had been paying the ENTIRE bill--for my car and both of theirs!!! Later my dad explained his thinking--he said having me on their policy raised the rate on all 3 cars, so he thought it was fair for me to pay the entire bill.  I wonder if he collected the entire amount from my brothers too before they struck out on their own???  He probably made a bundle on that insurance scam.  My dad was an interesting fellow.