RatchetStrap

I did not stop in the middle of the crossing, it was the guard on my side of the track that came down on me. I would not have stopped in the middle of a crossing during a down pour.

So after reading a recent similar thread on here it has me wondering what would the OT do regarding my situation...Pretty lengthy so bare with me.

A couple of months ago I was in Lawtell,LA stopped at a rural railroad crossing. I'm sitting at the crossing behind a car as a train passes by in the middle of a pretty severe thunderstorm. After the train clears, the crossing guards go up and the car in front of me crosses. Simultaneously a car across the tracks from us crosses as well. As I approach to cross the tracks, the guard rail lights begin flashing and begin to come down. I immediately stop and can't get into reverse fast enough as the guards come down in a matter of seconds and one sets down across my hood. After setting down for a couple of seconds the guards pick back up to their fully upright position and remain there. No train was coming and it was obviously just a malfunction of the crossing guard system. In result my truck ends up with a nasty dent and scratch across my hood where the guard made contact. The place where I'm headed is a quarter mile down the road and when I arrive I speak with this local guy about it and he knew exactly what happened as soon as I began explaining. He tells me this crossing guard has been known to do that but he thought it had been fixed as he had not seen or heard of it happening in awhile. I look up who the rail line belongs to and call the railway company to put in a claim that very day. I get an email the following week on the railroad company's very lengthy claims process and go through it submitting all the necessary claim paperwork, proof of damage, registration, quotes for repair, etc. After 30 days my claim is reviewed and I receive this letter in the mail.

"Dear Sir, This is to acknowledge your claim filed for damages to your vehicle on such and such date in Lawtell, LA.

When (Railroad Company name) receives a notice of claim such as yours all avenues of responsibility, obligations, and liability are reviewed under the guidelines of the (Railroad company Law department). Crossing signals are very carefully designed to work properly, and after years of experience they have proven very reliable. They are regularly tested to ensure they work properly. After receiving your claim info we immeditatley began to investigate your clai. According to our records, the safety signal equipment at the crossing in question was operating as intended on the date in question. I regret to inform you that your claim against (Railroad company) is respectfully disallowed in full.

Sincerely,
Railroad company Risk management specialist."

I'm curious if anyone else has had a similar experience with something like this. I'm thinking my next step is to contact a lawyer to get this resolved. At the end of the day all I was looking for is for them to cover the repairs to my vehicle but them basically calling my claim BS really burns my arse.

Metz is where he was wounded, so I would say he fits the group.

Lauren Fontenot, she's engaged to a high school acquaintance of mine. See her around regularly, she considers that the most embarrassing moment of her life.

What would you say are your go-to / must haves as far as top water baits for reds?

I was in the same situation a couple years ago. Graduated at 22 in Engineering. Ended up getting on as a field engineer for a large oilfield service company after a few months. No kids, no wife, no large commitments to anything so I took this time to work a lot on an irregular varying schedule which in return was pretty rewarding. Making good money while having a small amount of bills and no mortgage allowed me to save a lot quickly and use a small amount to have a lot of fun while home. Did some traveling in the states, saw a lot of things and places. Didn't over do it and lived/partied within my means which allowed me to max out 401K and Roth every year since 22. A few years down the road and looking back I have no regrets.

For what its worth, out of everything I did the one that I'm happy about the most is putting the majority of the money away. Also, highly recommend going to Vegas at least once before you're in a serious relationship

Long story short I inherited a 1988 Ruger M77 7mm Mag (Old style with tang safety) that was my grandpa's. The problem is the original bolt was for some reason removed from the gun before it was given to me and has been misplaced. There's no chance of finding it and I'm trying to look for a replacement. I've already contacted Ruger directly and they no longer make parts for this model. They directed me to two companies who specialize in obsolete parts, Jack First and Numrich. No luck with either of those unfortunately as well.

If anyone has any advice on where to look from here I would appreciate it. I would love to get the bolt replaced and make a few hunts with it then retire it to the safe. The gun holds a lot of sentimental value, so I appreciate any tips.

When I was around 6 I went with my mom to the local high school where she was a teacher. It was near the end of summer and she was going to get a few things straightened up in her class room before the school year started. While she's organizing the class room, I was running around the halls in this huge 5A high school like it was my personal play ground. All of a sudden it hit me that I had to shite immediately. I had never been there before and this place felt like an Army base in size to a 6 year old. Made the decision then to jump in a big trash can at the end of the hall way and do the deed there vs shite myself. Once I found my way back to her class room and told her she didn't believe me at first. Walked her to the crime scene and she lost her mind on me before disposing of the evidence.

I would like to hear of any books anyone suggest reading regarding personal finance and money management.

I'm almost finished with David Bach's Automatic Millionaire. The title may sound corny but I think it's a solid book that I would recommend to anyone just starting out (The book has a lot of keys points that can be extremely beneficial to someone with time in their favor) or to someone who feels they are at a wall with how much they are capable of saving. It was reassuring to me to read that there were a lot of things he suggest that I'm already doing, but there were also some very good points I was ignorant of such as where he suggest putting your rainy day/emergency funds.

I've heard many people speak about Dave Ramsey's Total Money Make Over, but after researching on it a bit it seems its really angled towards people with severe debt issues. I'm not writing it off, it just feels like why read a self help book for an issue you don't have.

Are there plans to discontinue this line or do you mean just in the future?