As everyone who reads this blog knows by now, Anita and Robbie were in an accident a couple weeks ago and our car was totaled. Over the past couple weeks our insurance agent has had all kinds of issues with the other guy and his insurance company. Yesterday, we found out why. He hadn't been paying his premiums and, ten days before he hit us, his insurance was revoked. So now we have an uninsured driver case on our hands.

Thankfully, our insurance covers things like this so, with the exception of our deductible, everything else will be paid for (we've already received the money for both our new car seat and the old car, and all of our medical expenses have been billed straight to the insurance company with no copay).

During this time, Anita and I have been wrestling with how to best handle the situation. We've addressed the issue some over on the fshbwl, both in this article and on this podcast, but this whole uninsured motorist gig puts a new wrinkle in the situation.

So, what are we going to do? We're going to let our government, which, like all government, God established, in part, to punish the wicked (Romans 13), take care of things ... and we'll help them out in the process.

I just happen to know our district police commander, so, last night I sent her an email, explained the situation, and asked what we could to do to add to the existing charges, after all, the guy didn't have insurance and yet presented invalid insurance at the scene of the accident. This morning I received a message from her and she's going to follow up on it with the DA.

I'm not a vengeful person, and there's no gain for us in this course of action, but I do believe that God has given us government for a reason. When we break the laws, we deserve the full punishment we receive (which is why we pay all of our parking tickets, took a trip to court a couple years ago, and was shocked when this happened).

Hopefully a swift kick in the rear from Uncle Sam will prompt the other driver to, if nothing else, be a better member of society who works to serve his neighbors (although it would be great if, somehow in all this, there would be a great Law smackdown that would prepare the way for the Gospel).

Well, the great car debate that I posted about last week is over ... actually, it's been over for almost a week but I just didn't get around to taking pictures until this morning.

We went with the Fit. It's the perfect urban car in that it's small and mobile which is great for parallel parking, it's environmentally friendly with the low emissions and the 30+ miles a gallon it gets in the city, and works well for the family because it's very roomy inside, has a great safety rating, and is a Honda so, in about 17 years, we'll be able to hand the keys over to Robbie so he can take it to college.

A friend of ours took some pics of Robbie this past weekend at a goodbye party for some friends of ours. I thought I would share them:

It's been quite a week here at the Burnham house. Between the twitter feeds and flickr pictures I think most of you know that last Friday (8 days ago), Anita and Robbie were out and about in the car when a Ford F150 plowed into them from behind. Luckily traffic was moving slowly at the time so the actual impact speed wasn't too severe, but it was enough to total our car, give Anita some nasty whiplash, and throw our past week into a frenzy.

One of the big questions we've been dealing with is what to do on the transportation front. At the moment (and for another week), we're covered with a rental car that's been provided by our insurance company (and will, ultimately, be paid for by the other guy's insurance). However, after that, while we can borrow something in the short-term, we'll need to get a replacement (as city folk, we only had one car).

At first I thought about just getting something that will run for a few years and get us around. But then I thought back to the last time I did that and remembered how much money I spent keeping the car running. In the end, it was like flushing cash down the toilet.

So I though maybe we should consider getting something that would last us for a while. Part of this included debating what we needed from a car. Here was our list:

• We want something small. Why? We live in the city and parking can be hard to come by. The smaller your car, the more parallel parking spaces you have available to you.
• We want something reliable. When we say, "We're going to have the car for awhile." We're talking, if at all possible, 10-20 years (although, it might be Robbie's car for college in those latter years).
• Since we're going to have the car awhile, we need something with lots of legroom in the back seat. After all, if Robbie stays in the 97th percentile on height, he'll blast past the 6' mark during his teen years.
• We want something that gets good gas mileage. Gas is expensive and using too much of it is rough on the environment. Enough said.
• Safety matters. If we get hit again, we'd like everyone to walk away again.
• Cost also matters. I'm a pastor. Anita teaches part-time. We have a child. All that put together means that, while we're not broke, we don't have an abundance of extra cash either.
• We live in Colorado, so how it handles in bad weather matters. This means front or four wheel drive is necessary and upgrading tires is very likely.

Now, some of these things go well together. Small and good gas mileage are a natural fit. However, other things on that list are somewhat contradictory ... like small and safe or small and rear legroom. However, we think we might have found the answer. The Honda Fit Sport.

Any thoughts or other suggestions?

Yeah, it's sort of obvious that I'm seriously off my blog these days. I think it has something to do with it being Lent, assisting at Christ Lutheran in Denver, and getting the Fishbowl ready to launch this Easter. Robbie's also been sick which has things a bit off at home. Hopefully I'll get back to regular blogging soon, in the meantime, if you'd like something funny to read, check out one of my new favorite blogs, Stuff White People Like.