Despite the very high price of gas, Bucharest has some of the worst traffic in the world. There are many reasons for this. The bad infrastructure, not great public transport, and the fact that cars are still seen as a major status symbol and one does not just mix with the hoi polloi in the subway and buses. Making it worse, a good number of drivers are bad at it, assholes or both.
The traffic makes people angry and reckless, so there are a high number of accidents compared to other EU countries, both minor and major. Traffic rage is frequent and everyone, I mean goddamn everyone, seem to honk their damn horns all the damn time. Maybe I am getting old, but it is rather annoying. Both air quality and noise levels are quite bad.
I usually only drive on Sunday when I visit my mother. Occasionally other days. I consider myself overall an above average driver, but I get angry easily in traffic so I rather avoid it. Also, I like walking and do a lot of it, and am in the area of the city with arguably the best public transport connections. As such I feel I have a low chance of getting into an accident. Sometimes it happens.
In this particular case, there I was, waiting for the light, minding my own business. The light turned green and I started forward when wham! Bam! (I do not know the correct onomatopoeia) Something hits me in the side of the car, quite unexpectedly. Apparently, the car on the lane to my left decided to suddenly switch lanes into the one I was occupying. The driver claimed I was in a blind spot, though I am not sure I believe in blind spots if your mirrors are set right and you turn your head just enough to cover the area not seen in the mirror (no mirror jokes you bastards).
The results were minor. My left forward door was slightly bent and the paint scratched. The guy told me it would buff off, but that was clearly bull. So we did what is called “Constatare amiabilă” which is an agreement for minor accidents between the parties, when there are no casualties and the people involved do not contest who is at fault. If there are any casualties or any disagreement, one must go to the police and report the accident. In this case it was clear the other driver was at fault. The form was filled – took about 10 minutes – and it contained the license plates of the cars, names of the drivers, insurance information and the details of the accident. The insurance provider needed to asses the damage, which can be done by going to an assessment center or doing a video assessment online. I chose to go to the insurance place, as it was close to my house. I went there, filled some forms, and the guy looked at the car and took some pictures and wrote the results. With this, I went to a body shop which did their own assessment and requested additional cost to what the insurance guy estimated, and the insurer agreed and that was that. The whole process took me two hours.
The system works as follow: you can either go to a body shop that has a partnership deal with the insurer, all the payment is done between the shop and the insurance company. Otherwise, you get a sum of money from the insurance company and go with it wherever you want. I chose the first option, as there is less hassle. In the second option, the insurer usually low ball you, and if it is not a “agreed repair shop” they do not accept estimates from that shop. They will, and for Romania rightly so, claim that you will make a deal with the shop to overcharge the insurance. Some insurers have partnerships with bad shops or ones outside the city. This insurer was a good one and the shop was quite close to my house as well.
After a couple of weeks wait, I took my car to the shop, it took me about an hour until I returned home. The car was in the shop for 10 days – excessive time imo – and then I got it back, another hour. I did not pay a cent in the process, so what it cost me was almost 5 hours of my time and some stress. This was pretty good all things considered, it was much worse 10 years ago. I could have gotten a car to use during the time mine was in the shop, but that would have cost the insurance extra and I did not really need it; I ubered to my mom’s that Sunday. Some would take the spare car anyway, because there was no cost for me, but I find this a bad thing because overcharging insurance companies leads to higher insurance costs for everyone in the long term, but many do not think this way and think fuck the insurance companies. This is not a good long term if you ask me.
Now a short word on car insurance in Romania. There are to types. One is usually called RCA (Răspundere Civilă Auto) which covered damage done to others if you are at fault for an accident. This is compulsory for all cars. If you do not have it you get a large fine and lose the right to drive the car on public roads until you get one. The second one is CASCO (from the English words CASualty COllision) and this covers damage to yourself if you are at fault, and this is optional.
RCA is one of those things where most Romania thin k is a good idea, mandatory insurance, but which creates a bit of moral hazard. This is due to the fact that someone smashes your car, they give you insurance info and that is basically it for them, no other responsibility for the injured party. This may not be a problem in itself, but it led to the proliferation of a bunch of shitty insurance company which sold very cheap insurance but then did not pay or massively lowballed people. This should have been solved by the government regulation authority, but I do not need to tell you how well that worked. I always bought pricier RCA because I thought: if it is my fault and cause all the problems associated with having your car smashed into, the least I can do is have decent insurance. I was a minority in that thought process, most got the cheapest they found. This led to moments of anxiety when you asked someone what is their insurer, and usually dismay when you heard some shitty one. This was improved recently by the worse ones becoming bankrupt, and some of the better ones introducing a clause in their RCA that cost extra, but allowed you in case of accident that was not your fault to get the money from your insurer, and then your insurer got it back from the other driver’s insurer. Because it was easier for a large company to sue / negotiate with another company that for a random person.
I am pretty sure this is of zero interest to the glibs, but here you go anyway, a general idea of how things work.
The guy told me it would buff off
Of course. It always just buffs out.
ALOL
I did not know that vampires drove automobiles.
I thought they all rode in carriages pulled by black horses.
How. Did. This. Mis-thread. Happen.
I just don’t see it.
Never saw Drag U La? Grandpa would be sad.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QIwejUg_53U
That’s cool.
This is how I picture Pie gallivanting about Romania.
What’s there to joke about? I mean, wouldn’t it be easier to use a mirror if you’re not blocking the view?
Not the worst type of insurance, good write up pie
I sympathize with you, Pie. I was sideswiped by an idiot in Las Vegas who was trying to pass me on the right and didn’t bother noticing that I was changing lanes.
Fortunately the Tesla is bristling with cameras that told the tale. Still a pain in the tuckus though.
I was once hit on the right side by a car while I was turning … right on a street with only one lane traveling in that direction. The guy who hit me said I put my left turn signal on. The street in was turning onto dead-ended onto the street I was on. Turning left would’ve meant going over a curb, into grass, and then into a house.
This is why I don’t pay any attention to turn signals. I judge by what the car seems to be doing, where the driver has looked, and the conditions around me. I had to put a motorcycle down once when the driver did not do what his signals said he was doing, and ever since then, I pay more attention to the physics of the car.
Here I thought you’d duel with swords and sell the internal organs of the loser to finance repairs. Your tale seems far more civilized.
Some asshole plowed into to rear of one of our work trucks. Accordioned the box making the rear door unusable. 😕
This was just like 10 days ago.
hey, are we not doing wednesday zoomies anymore?
I believe it is a set, automatic Zoom? Although I may be wrong. Normally I do Fridays.
I went to my zoom app on my laptop pc but it had only some old links. Maybe the “good one” is in the forums. I’ll rummage around.
Hmm, didn’t KK usually handle Wednesday?
This looks to still be valid, albeit empty:
https://www.glibertarians.com/humpdayzoom
I’m doing my part, I’m drinking. Just found out a little while ago I’m on-duty from tomorrow thru the weekend with the fire company, so I’ll be dry.
I am on said Zoom & will leave it running while I rebuild my desktop (I think my harddrive may be going – had to re-install the OS and I’m restoring things from backup now)
Ok. Imma gonna run to the hotel lobby and overpay for some wine, then join zoom
Got the check for the trailer today. Pick up a new one on Saturday.
The truck is in the body shop. Should be able to pick it up at the end of next week or the beginning of the following week. The only issues is that it’s 870 miles from home.
Dang! Are you going to drive it or are you having it shipped?
I had my car shipped from Pahrump to Washington. Zero chance of making that drive. I used to drive from Minneapolis to Duncan, Oklahoma every thanksgiving but my, ya know, getting to be an old broad nixed that annual trek.
I fly to meet family now. And generally pay for first class. I’m too old for this shit.
Fly to Jackson MS. Rent a car one way to Hattiesburg MS. Then drive home to Iowa.
That’s a lot of trail mix and beef jerky.
Trucker speed.
I’ve consumed more 5 hour energy drinks (barf) and Slim Jims (barf barf) than I care to contemplate.
I do still enjoy the occasional “Mean Bean” Monster energy coffee-like substance.
Wawa for the win!
Wawa is the best.
That’s a lot of vacation time down the toilet.
That too. Is there anything on the way back to keep it from being a total loss? Also, will insurance recompense your time driving?
Transportation costs. Should, assuming the responsible party has valid insurance (that’s still not clear at this point).
Time. No.
That’s not so good.
Good.
Thanks, Pie. I’m always interested in hearing how things are done in places I know little about. You did a good write up.
Yeah, I can’t imagine writing in a second language and your skill there is as good as many of our native speakers. Which makes me think – we’re misfits ourselves in this country, what the hell kind of oddball (and I mean that in a really good way) are you as a Romanian? If you fit in here, and you do, is there some corollary social group for you there?
When some other country becomes world hegemon, we’ll know what it’s like to have to learn their language that gud.
Ni hao.
I hope I die before I have to start typing code in Chinese characters.
I’ve been to Russia and to China. They may have the ability to bring the planet to an end, but they don’t have the ability to replace the US economy.
Our own government seems to be a good enough job with that, without any outside help.
Spanish is the only language that will be able to compete with English, at least, in this hemisphere. I had a Japanese roommate who was barely intelligible in English, but she spoke excellent Spanish with my Argentinian roommate.
There’s quite a bit of crossover on the syllable pronunciation.
Roughly the same, state-side – RCA is “liability insurance”, with different minimum requirements for bodily harm vs. property harm, and is (usually) mandatory, CASCO is “collision” and is optional.
Varies state by state: https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/insurance/minimum-car-insurance-requirements
NJ requirements are shockingly low, IMO.
So is California’s.
New York’s list practically takes two pages, no surprise there.
What appears to be a fender bender seems to total the vehicle out, especially if it’s an older vehicle like I usually have. Fortunately I haven’t had an accident in a while. The last one was my fault (single vehicle) and I only had collision so I ate it. I have USAA as do my kids and some of my grandkids. USAA is easy to get along with and I get some cash back every year for not having any claims.
I’ll probably never drive in Romania but if I do I’m going with the high priced stuff. Thanks, Pie
Wow. That makes Texas look good. $5,000 won’t cover a broken tail light anymore.
Is it just me or have formerly simple Items on cars become more difficult and/or integrated with other parts? It seems like there are fewer and fewer simple fixes.
Speaking of issues with insurance, I’ve been prescribed a medication that doesn’t yet have a generic, and since it is technically optional I don’t know if insurance will cover the cost. Honestly, I can understand if they didn’t – it’s over $1k a month and my health isn’t really impaired without it. No pharma company would ever price a treatment at that level if it weren’t for insurance coverage, so it is a really retarded game between pharma and insurance companies. And next month I switch over to Medicare and probably get to do it all over.
If you talk to the pharma, a lot of times you can get a discount if your insurance does not cover it. They have “coupons.”
JI,
Also check the website of the drug maker. They usually have some kind of support system or voucher for people whom have no or very limited insurance coverage.
Yeah, well they’re assholes to begin with in my book for the pricing.
I forgot to take my evening pill and you reminded me, JI, talking about prescriptions. I never forget my morning pill but occasionally the evening one. Doesn’t seem to matter anyway.
Thanks
What does that insurance cost you Pie?
Good full coverage for me runs about $1,100 per year.
Poor Pie is deep in REM sleep right now.
Yeah. Sometimes I wish he could join a Zoom.
Agreed, I’d love to see Pie on a Zoom. Maybe an early zoom some non-working day.
Does his kind appear on camera?
Hrmm, that’s a good point. Voice-only, perhaps.
He was on a Zoom once.
If I remember correctly, no camera.
Very interesting…
He was on a few times way back in the early days when the zooms would last all night. But yeah, no video.
That fits the stereotype.
A few interesting articles this week.
https://www.nationalreview.com/magazine/2023/04/03/losing-iraq-worse-than-we-had-to/ – interesting perspective on how things worked militarily (aside from the issue of actually starting it).
https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:yfeXLqfAxYkJ:https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/03/jones-act-ship-american-1920-law-industrial-policy-joe-biden/673433/&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us – yes it’s the Atlantic, but Scott’s a good free-trader and common sense guy.
Iraq article is paywalled :/
Reader view gets it, but you’re not missing much. West is a dipshit with his fictional alternate history.
Cornel, Alan, or Bing?
Bing.
1) disbanding the Iraqi army, yes dumb but wouldn’t have changed things in the long term. The fall of Hussein and the Baathist regime left a power vacuum and repressed factions looking to make their move. The US isn’t smart enough, selfish enough, or ruthless enough to keep the genie in the bottle
2)Fallujah was a symptom not a cause
3)”stabbed in the back”. If only we committed to staying in Iraq indefinitely
https://www.f-16.net/g3/f-16-patches/album28/album04/abh_001
4)
🤦♂️
You have to be a special breed of retard to honestly write that.
Yeah, it’s at least a hundred year commitment.
Our betters were betrayed by the people.
I have yet to hear of someone I’d regard as my better.
Tangentially related to the topic -the credit union I work for requires (understandably, I trust you’ll agree) members with auto loans to carry insurance above the state-required liability. I’ve forgotten (probably repressing) the details, but you must have at least some minimum collision or comprehensive coverage so that if you total the car we paid for before you’ve repaid us, we stand a chance of getting the rest of our money back. (It’s in your loan agreement. You DID read that, right?) Fail to get coverage or let your policy lapse, and we’ll slap Collateral Protection Insurance onto your loan and increase your monthly payment to cover the outrageous premiums. Thus everyone hates everything and everyone connected to CPI.
I had to work on CPI for a short time a few years ago, and I did indeed hate it because every member I had to talk to about it hated me. My favorite encounter, though, was with a crazy Irishman who’d moved from our area to NYC. He called and asked us to send him the documentation of the CPI coverage we’d applied to his car loan so he could supply the state of NY with his “proof of insurance.” I did my darnedest to explain to him that this coverage did him no good at all – it was strictly to cover OUR potential losses. He blithely replied, “Oh, they won’t care!” So I obliged him. I wish I could have found out if it really did allow him to register his car in NY.
If it doesn’t cover the driver’s liability from damaging other cars and people, it’s not valid for registering in NY.
Then I hope this crazy Irishman (I wish I could remember his first name. He was always quite friendly, if a bit clueless,) lived close to decent public transportation and had a safe place to store his unregistered car.
Did the plugin disappear or is it just me?
monocle that is
It’s working for me, but I have noticed recently that it occasionally wont start up when I refresh but almost always does if I refresh again.
Also, slow at work right now so I’m still working through some old narrative webcomics. Almost done with Schlockmercenary.com – after that will probably look up Sluggy Freelance.
Any other suggestions for long-form narrative webcomics? May re-read Molly Beans soon too.
Perhaps it was you that mentioned it but
http://sssscomic.com/
was good
Girl Genius.
Lackadaisy Cats.
Sounds like pretty much the same as around here, other than minor differences. Accidents over a certain value have to be reported to DMV and as of a couple of years ago, to the police as well. Not a single report and police reports are over the phone and increasingly on their website.
Insurance companies give you the stated value if you use an independent shop. I’m sure there’s a kickback and discount system for their recommended shops. Last time I had to do it, I used an independent shop. They discovered the damage was more extensive than the initial survey and handled the adjustment directly with the insurer. No issues there, biggest issue in total was waiting for ordered parts. And I collected a little bit of interest on holding the insurance check for the period.
G’d morning everyone! 😉☕
Da Fuq? How is it 51 out? It was freezing last I checked.
Good morning, Sean, U, homey, Roat, and Diggy, and good afternoon, Pie! Thanks for the slice of Romanian life!
It’s a balmy 56 in proper American F degrees, but feels like 52, per local Weather Goddess McCall FriedEggs. I daresay it’s warm enough for me to go without socks today! 😃 I also just noticed that today’s date, again in proper American format, is 3/23/23. (OK, I guess it’s 03/23/23 if you’re an “MM” purist. You’re no fun!)
What about 23/23/23?
Ummm….what planet’s calendar would that be?
a year being a solar orbit is arbitrary. We can add more months.
I want a month named after me! We could call it…Traitorary! (Briefly considered but quickly ruled out “Genderber.”)
Yeah, but guess which one will happen first. Well, maybe not in Florida…
It’s 50 going up to the high 70s today. I officially started Spring with the first mow yesterday.
I also just noticed that today’s date, again in proper American format, is 3/23/23.
The world didn’t end with Y2K but there is still a chance for Y2K38.
Are 32-bit unices still a thing?
Yes.
Consider a major US agency was using COBOL on a mainframe for a core system as recently as 10 years ago.
10 years? NJ says, hold my beer.
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/new-jersey-cobol-coders-mainframes-coronavirus
We’re training new COBOL programmers at NY state.
I was still sending reel-to-reel tapes of insured motorists to Florida as recently as the mid-aughts.
We had to feed the data to this pair of retired guys who were able to create them for us because we sure didn’t have that ability.
Mornin’, Sean and the rest of you reprobates
47 degs. here. I am being serenaded by a very enthusiastic mockingbird as I sip on morning Covfefe.
Mrs. Patzer and I are recharging our relationship with “Date Wednesday”. She has PT for hip rehab 3x/week and I go once a week for a shoulder issue. We’ve booked a simultaneous session every Wednesday where we get to moan in pain together for an hour. Life is good.
Good morning, ‘patzie! Your date sounds…actually better than some dates I went on way back in the day! 😕
suh’ fam
whats goody
I was obviously not around but to answer the one question on cost, I payed some 200 US a year but there is a ehm trick… In Romania the insurance is per car not per person, and when I was young I registered the car in my mom’s name cause middle age / older women get lower prices than young men. Now I a not that young anymore but would have payed more if the car was registered in my name.
The prices are about to go up by quite a bit I believe, as the last shitty insurance company that had low prices went bankrupt just this week.
Insurance here is per vehicle adjusted for who is authorized to drive it. Authorize your teenager and watch your rates shoot up.
Yeah…and two teens on the insurance is murder
Hey there, all ya lower-case “L” miscreants. I’m near the end of an uneventful shift, and thought I’d stop by for a quick perusal–see if things were going well for folks, etc. I hope y’all are doing well, and all those flower-y, feel-good sentiments that (should) accompany these sort of fly-by visits. I’m still kinda scanning the comments and recent articles, so I don’t really have anything to add here. (geeze, this sounds much more pathetic now that I’ve actually typed it out…)
as an FYI–I’m still working nights at the same college; apart from some missing teeth, I’m doing well/better than I deserve. No, not from meth with the Hat–bad genetics and bad habits that caught up with me, while I get to play the waiting game for the next step of “dental implant bonanza” to occur. So named, due to the $$$ made by the dentist and periodontist. Also, since my last visit, I’m down a mom, but up a dog! Mom wasn’t well and getting progressively worse, and just wasn’t willing or able to make good decisions about her health. At least mom got to meet Josie a couple of times before she passed.
If I’m correct, many here know that it was my plan to try t make it to CPRM’s birthday bash, but that is going to end up coinciding with the next dental procedure. But, he mentioned Honey Harvest, and, as of right now, I’m going to try to make that. If successful, I’ll hopefully see some of ya there! Oh, and I’m so sorry I didn’t get to be at the memorial service for SP. Even if I’m not around here, she is definitely missed.
I probably won’t be on for too much longer, and will probably miss any questions and whatnot, for which I humbly apologize (Feel free to pass anything along through CPRM, should you feel the need). Yeah, I’m presuming his labor, or whatever the Stalinists say these days…
Take care, and God bless ya, derelicts (heh)!
So sorry to hear about your mother, Diggy, but I hope you and the rest of yours are all well and happy (well, other than the dental adventures!) Scritches to your pup!
Hey there!
Sorry to hear about your mom. Still miss mine after 18 years, life is too short.
Dental implant bonanza
No shit, I’ll be shelling out 5 figures this year and it’s only the beginning. My (adult) kids have been much more diligent about their dental hygiene after seeing the effects of neglecting it.
Good Morning everyone.
Glad that the world is still here.
Looks like we will get rain today.
Do not EVER turn your back on a ram, those guys are sneaky.
Good morning, ‘bodru! CYA! 🐏
“”Totally Exculpatory”: Purported Cohen Letter To FEC Could Hobble Manhattan DA’s Trump Case”
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/totally-exculpatory-purported-cohen-letter-fec-could-hobble-manhattan-das-trump-case
Is this why Trump’s not up against it yet? Good Lord, did Trump hire some bad people and Cohen’s near the top, I mean not on the level of John Bolton or that fat Droopy Dog looking fuck whose name escapes me but he ‘s pretty sleazy.
I thought we knew that already.
Circus onward I guess🤷🏻♂️
We knew it, not so sure the grand jury did though.
Facts get in the way of the narrative. Anyway, an indictment can serve a purpose even charges are dropped for lack of evidence.
They would if they were paying attention back then but maybe they select for people who don’t follow the news.
Charges dropped against Justin Roiland for lack of evidence.
I don’t anticipate an apology from Adult Swim or Comedy Central.
He had a thread on Twitter and people were still slagging him for DMs to some younger girl and that’ll be used as an excuse to keep him fired from his own show. If people want to hate you they’ll find an excuse to hate you.
Silence is golden! Meanwhile Justin gets the shaft. It doesn’t even say if he will be reinstated at his job.
Boating accident in NYC. Any glibs known to hang out in the Rockaways?
https://nypost.com/2023/03/23/nyc-fisherman-finds-bag-of-rifles-in-jamaica-bay/
Not since l0b0t moved upstate, AFAIK.