It's Dad's Car!

My father was a good driver, even though he was 91.  In fact, the day after he died he received a letter from the Department of Transportation saying that they would renew his license since his family doctor and eye doctor had approved.  But dad had a number of unfortunate situations where his cars would be bumped or dented, most of the times by others.  So his cars often had numerous small dents and sometimes he would even buy a new car rather than have them repaired.  He was always reluctant to let me know about the dents since he thought I might blame him and suggest that he give up driving.   Well, a few months before his death, he was called by his Toyota dealer and given an outstanding trade deal to upgrade to a 2009.  The plans now are that in a few weeks the car will be mine and we have been using it some to keep it in good running condition.  On Thursday we were parked in a plaza lot in the end spot of a row.   We were just getting into dad's car when we saw this elderly lady make a U-turn heading right towards us.  Unfortunately, she didn't have enough room to complete her illegal turn and I stood there and watched as she scraped dad's car.   She had seen a parking spot in a row behind us and was turning to head for it.  So the car wasn't even mine yet and it had its first dent.   She got her cards out for me and I noticed that she was still in drive.  I could just see her butting us again, so I suggested that she put it in park.  Her insurance company suggested that I get an estimate for what I thought was just a little scratch.  The estimate - $500 - and two days in the shop!  Today, on my way to get the estimate, I stopped at Turkey Hill for gas.  They have 8 rows with a total of 16 pumps and I was the only customer.  Because it was raining, I didn't pull to the front pump in my row because I would have been directly in the heavy rain.  I had just completed pumping when I saw this driver - another elderly woman - pull up beside me.  She was so close that I was sure she was going to scrape me, but, PTL she didn't.  Then I guess she decided that either she couldn't get out of her door because she was too close to me or that her tank was on the wrong side.  So she decided to pull over in front of me - 15 vacant pumps and she wanted the one in front of me, in the rain.  I watched with fear as she slowly cut in front of me, just missing the front bumper of dad's car by a few millimeters.  PTL, somehow she missed again.  So there is no question, it is dad's car and people, especially elderly women, are still trying to hit it.  So if you see me driving a silver Toyota, complete with dents, please don't think that it is time to take my license away from me.  We Kauffmans just can't help it - it must be the car.   Maybe I should pad it with rubber.