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Subie Scoop - December 15
About this episode
The host shares a personal update about getting their Subaru back after repairs from an accident, detailing issues with the hatch alignment and how they were resolved. They discuss the challenges of car repairs, insurance interactions, and the emotional impact of the experience. Beyond the car, the host reflects on career changes, seeking remote work outside their longtime industry, and the desire to avoid daily work stress. Family updates include an expectant daughter and creative projects by a family member. The episode blends car enthusiasm with relatable life transitions and community connections.
Topics:
car repair experience
hatch alignment issues
insurance claim process
subaru community events
career transition
remote work challenges
family updates
vehicle paint matching
driving enjoyment
personal reflections
In this edition of the Subie Scoop I talk about getting my car back from the shop and the issues I had with the hatch.
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You would think I was a professional by now.
I mean, I don't really consider myself a professional, but I like to pretend that I'm a professional.
I'm not a professional, I just play one on TV.
Don't drive in around talking as if I'm recording the new Subi Scoop for today, and I realize
that my mic was on, but I had not hit record.
And thankfully I wasn't recording for too long, it was probably like close to 10 minutes.
But hey, welcome to this edition of the Subi Scoop.
It's actually feeling more like winter here.
It's 46 degrees outside, it says that it feels like 41.
So that's a nice change because the past several days it's been like in the low 80s, high 70s.
And here in the Houston area, when it's winter months, we don't like when it gets warm
because we want it to feel like winter.
Many times it doesn't.
And so when it's, if it starts to drop below like, you know, 55, 50 degrees, it starts getting
into the low 50s, high 50s, and let me say that again, if it starts dropping into the
low 50s, high 40s, we love it.
And then if it gets down into the 30s, that's even better.
Okay, a lot of us love it.
I can't say that for everybody.
It's just, there are a lot of people that want it to feel like winter.
It's December and it was, you know, high 70s, low 80s just recently.
And it doesn't feel like winter, but we want it to feel like winter.
Anyway, so for this edition of the Subi Scoop, I'm recording in my car because I was out
recording some content.
And since I had my mic with me, I decided I might as well just record in the car because
I still want to keep driving around because I love driving my car.
And now I can after it was gone for three weeks being repaired.
So as I'm sure you saw maybe, if you saw on Instagram, I posted a reel saying that
getting my car back now, it feels different.
I feel like something is missing because it was repaired.
The pieces and the components were replaced.
But, you know, with an accident, things are bent and knocked out of place or whatever.
Nothing's going to be exactly the same as when you bought it.
You know, it's no matter how good of a job you do, no matter what shop you take it
to, unless you're going to take a lot of time to really dig in and make sure
things are just perfect, I feel like it's not going to be exactly perfect.
But it looks really good.
I'm very thankful for having it worked on.
I'm thankful that I have my car back.
I'm thankful that all the pieces were replaced.
But at first, when I first started driving it around, it just didn't.
I still felt like something was missing because it doesn't have the original
pieces that came with the car.
However, I do still have the damaged hatch.
So you may have seen that in my stories and I decide, I asked the shop if I
could keep the hatch and the guy was like, why can I ask why you want to
keep the hatch?
And I said, I told him about Subifest, Texas.
So, well, there's this Subaru enthusiast event and there's a lot of
professional drivers and athletes there.
And I think it would be really cool to have them sign it.
However, for anybody listening to this, that's in, you know, the Houston,
Dallas, San Antonio, Austin area.
When I have it at Subifest, Texas next year, anybody that would like to
sign it is welcome to sign it.
I think it would be cool to get signatures from other people on there,
you know, people out in the community.
I think that would be kind of fun to do that.
So, yeah, I have my original patch that is of course damaged, but I
think it would be cool to have that and have people sign it.
But yeah, so with my car going to the shop, you may have seen
two in my stories that when I got it back on last Wednesday, that there was
a gap at the bottom of the hatch.
And it's because the latch on the hatch where it clasps onto, I don't
even know what to describe it, what it's called, but it's basically
like the piece at the bottom of the opening of the hatch that the
latch grabs onto to close, to close it.
And so that little piece down at the bottom wasn't adjusted properly.
So the hatch was not like sitting down onto the opening properly.
So I was really pissed off whenever I got my car back after three weeks.
And I saw that there was a gap at the bottom of the hatch because
when you're driving around and you roll like one window down in your
car and you can feel like the air pressure changes like pushing on your ears,
which is really annoying.
I hate that feeling.
I hate it when you're driving in somebody's car and one person rolls
like the window down because they think it's a good idea or something.
And you feel that pressure on your ear just like pressing in and out in and out.
And anyway, so that's what was happening.
And I noticed like I knew something was off.
I'm like, something's not right with the hatch or with something.
And so sure enough, when we got back from going downtown on Wednesday,
I found a parking lot that had because it was it was late at night,
but I found a parking lot that had really bright lights.
And I pulled down my back seats.
I looked into the hatch and sure enough, there was light coming through.
And I'm just like, I was just like so pissed because I've been
waiting three weeks to get my car.
I get it back and it's not it's not even right.
So the insurance company that was handling the claim is progressive.
Whenever I got into the accident, the insurance information
that the officer gave me from the other driver was from Geico.
And so I believe it was Geico.
I can't remember exactly.
But anyway, so I called his insurance company
Monday after the accident and then I got a call and gave them the accounts,
you know, my account of the accident and what happened.
And then that afternoon, I got a call from this woman from Progressive
saying that they were going to be handling the claim for Uber
because the guy was driving for Uber at the time.
So so they they did a great job.
Progressive did a great job of getting things handled quickly
because I got a call from them Monday afternoon
and then Tuesday I was taking my car to the shop.
So I was very pleased with the response
and the way that progressive handled things.
So when I got my car back on Wednesday
and then Wednesday night, I saw that the hatch was not sitting right.
I was thinking like maybe they ended up using an aftermarket hatch or something.
But I've been told that there aren't any aftermarket hatches.
But, you know, I just I was told to watch out for shops using aftermarket pieces,
even though they may state OEM on the like the parts list.
But, you know, from what I've heard, the hatch is
there's not really any aftermarket hatches.
But I just thought something like somehow how is it?
How is there a gap?
And how did they not notice that?
And so because I remember when I picked it up on Wednesday,
when it seemed to close too easily,
like you don't have to slam the hatch,
but it seemed to close like way too easily.
So and then whenever I would push on the hatch
when it was in the closed position, it would actually move a little bit.
And it's not supposed to move.
So on so I picked it up Wednesday, saw that there was a gap,
felt the air pressure, you know,
I knew something was going on with it.
And then, of course, seeing the gap explained why my ears were doing that
or why I could feel like the air pressure changes coming in into the car.
But so on Thursday morning, I called Progressive.
I didn't call the shop because I wanted Progressive to know,
hey, you are paying for these repairs,
but the shop didn't do a proper job.
So I had to leave a message for the agent.
She called me back and she said she was like,
this is not OK. This is unacceptable.
So she called, she said she was going to call the shop,
have them call me back immediately.
But it was like maybe two and a half hours.
And I finally, well, after I got off the call with the agent,
I said, hey, I'm going to send you a photo of the gap in the hatch
just so that you can have so you can have like record of it.
So didn't hear from the shop.
So I emailed her back around two thirty
and then maybe around two forty five.
I got a call from the shop and said, oh, yeah, we were told that
you need to something's going on with the hatch.
I told the guy, I was like, yeah, there's a gap at the bottom of the hatch
and there's not supposed to be a gap there.
So by this time, I wasn't as mad
because I was opening the hatch, looking at it,
trying to figure out why it wasn't closing properly.
And I thought either something's going on with the latch
that it's not closing as tightly as it should
or on the sides of the opening of the hatch.
There's these little rubber pieces and then on the hatch itself,
there's these angled rubber pieces that meet up with the piece
that's on the hatch or on the opening.
So I thought one of two things, either something's going on with the latch
or something's going on with those little rubber feet
where they meet up with the other rubber piece on the opening
because they were both at an angle
so that they would kind of meet up together.
And I thought, well, maybe those rubber pieces are hitting
and they're not allowing it to close as tightly as it should.
So took my car to the shop.
I told and the funny thing was
it was about three thirty when I took my car to the shop
and because it's getting dark earlier here,
the sun was like already behind the building kind of.
And because the building's tall
and it was casting a shadow at the front of the building.
But like several spaces over
the sun was like still shining on these spaces.
So I parked in one of those spaces with my hatch facing the sun.
And when the guy came out, he was like,
why'd you park way over there?
I said, because I want my hatch to be in the sun
because I want you to see that the light is coming through.
I wanted to make sure there's plenty of light hitting my hatch
and make sure the sunlight was hitting it.
So I opened up my back door, already had the seats down.
And I said, because he was getting ready to go open the hatch.
And I said, no, come look through here.
You can you know, open the hatch, come look through here.
You can see that there is a gap.
And so he saw the gap and then he asked for the keys.
He said, all right, I'm going to take it back to the shop.
See if I can, you know, get them to take a look at it and figure it out.
And I had told him my two theories that either the latch was messed up.
Some was going on with the latch or something
was going on with those little rubber feet on the sides.
So he came back in like five minutes
and he was like, yeah, you were right.
And I said about what he said about the latch.
It wasn't it wasn't closing properly.
So they moved the little piece that the latch grabs onto.
It's like little bar.
They moved it a little bit further in and tightened it down.
And sure enough, that's what did it.
So now the latch closes all the way.
There's no gap. There's it feels very, very snug.
And I have to close it with the proper amount of force.
You know, it's you have to put some force behind it to get it to close,
but not close as easily as it was prior to that.
So everything's all good now.
I'm happy with it.
They did do an amazing job with the paint
because I've I've heard from people that the crystal white pearl
when you go get repairs and you try to match that paint,
that it's not an easy job to do, but they did a really good job with the paint.
And I let them know that I was like, hey, y'all did a really great job with paint.
I'm really impressed with it.
So I'm happy that pearls all back together
and my feeling of something missing is starting to dwindle
because I realized like my car is whole now.
And I think I think having my original hatch helps too
because I feel like I still have a part of my car that was there when I bought it.
And so and it's all I clean up the hatch.
I wiped it all down and got all the dirt off of it.
So it looks nice and clean.
There are spots where it's like bent up and paint is flaking off
and it's rusted a little bit.
But other than that, it's it's my hatch.
It's the original one.
But that's but that's what's been going on lately with me.
Is getting my car back and enjoying driving it.
So I'm recording this in my car because I was recording some content.
I don't know if I said that earlier in this second segment of me trying to record.
So now I said it the first time when I thought I was recording,
but I was out recording some content.
So I figured I might as well just keep driving around and record in my car
because I like driving my car and because I can now.
So other than that, just trying to still looking for a job,
trying to find something that will work.
And I I'm struggling with not wanting to go back
into the same industry that I was in for the past.
Almost well over 25 years doing like working in the architectural
and engineering field doing drafting and then more than just drafting.
Like the last several years, I wasn't doing a whole lot of drafting,
although that's what I like.
But I really want to just get out of that industry altogether
and kind of carve my own path.
So that's what I'm trying to do.
That's what I'm working on.
But it's not an easy thing.
It's not the easiest pursuit.
But I just I really don't want to be in that industry anymore.
And I'm really trying to not go back into that industry.
And, you know, but it's it's hard to figure out what else I would do.
Like I I've only done one type of thing.
My and been in one industry my entire career.
And so not knowing what else I would do or could do.
That's tough because I'm also I have also been
blessed with being able to work from home.
So my two jobs ago when COVID hit, we started working from home
and over a two and a half year period, I went into the office,
I think eight times and then I traveled a few times in that in there.
But when I was home, I very rarely went into the office.
And then my previous job, we only had to go into the office one day a week
when I first started.
And then they kind of screwed us and made us come in two days a week
because nobody there knows how to work remotely together.
And so then I was having to go in two days a week,
but still being able to work three days from home was great.
And so I want to be able to continue to work from home
or work a hybrid job because there's other things I want to do with my life.
And I don't want to be like feel like I'm tied to Houston
for the rest of my career because I don't want that.
So that's the other tough part is trying to find something that I can do remotely
and not have to go into.
And I know a lot of people have to go into an office five days a week.
But there's different things that I want to do in my life.
And I feel like getting laid off was a blessing in a lot of ways
because it's it's kind of forcing me to figure something else out.
It's forcing me to do something new, to think about things differently,
to try to find a new path.
And, you know, I I'm also like really, really happy.
Like without all the daily work, stress and anxiety,
I've been really, really happy lately.
And I don't want to go back to being anxious and stressed every day.
I was horrible and nobody should have to deal with that.
I know a lot of people that deal with that.
I know a lot of people don't want to go to work every day,
whether you have to go somewhere or even if you're working from home.
Nobody nobody should have to deal with that.
Nobody should have to wake up and be anxious and stressed
every single day that they have to work.
That's not that's not what we were meant to do.
And so that's what I'm trying to figure out for myself
is a way to not wake up anxious and stressed every day
for the rest of my career, the rest of my life.
I don't want that.
And I know nobody else wants that and we don't deserve that.
So anyway, that's that's really all that's going on with me.
And then, of course, my daughter, Catherine,
is moving on through her pregnancy.
She's in her third trimester and Belly's getting bigger and cuter.
And she's she's like, oh, no, now it's like there's no turn.
You know, it's getting closer and closer.
And I'm going to have to do it at some point.
You know, she's going to have to give birth.
And but I know everything will be OK.
And I know we're all excited to see my granddaughter.
And that'll be a lot of fun.
So looking forward to that.
And it's been it's been fun just kind of seeing her
go through all the different phases and, you know,
what she's been talking about as far as how she's feeling, what she's doing.
Thankfully, she is never thrown up during her pregnancy.
So that's been that's been a blessing.
That's been a good thing that she's never thrown up.
But and then Luke Luke is working on some ceramic stuff.
I think he's looking at maybe
doing some stuff with his wheel, because he's got a really nice wheel.
And hopefully he can crank out some stuff
and kind of create his own path with that as well.
That would be really cool.
So but, yeah, other than that, I mean, we've got Christmas coming up.
So I'm looking forward to that.
It'd be nice just to know this cooler weather is nice.
Hopefully it'll stay cool through the Christmas days
because there's been times it's been.
We've been able to wear shorts and a T-shirt on Christmas day.
And that's not right either.
So hopefully we'll have some cool cooler or even cold weather on Christmas day.
Most likely we'll not have a white Christmas.
Hasn't happened in a really long time, but
it should be hopefully it'll at least be colder.
So I hope everybody else is doing OK.
I hope you are all out getting in some adventures with your Subaru's
and enjoying hopefully, you know, getting out with other people
and going on some trails and maybe making plans
for next year and there won't be another
sube scoop before Christmas.
It'll be after Christmas because I'll be releasing
Episode two, 18 on Monday next Monday, the 22nd.
So that will be the last guest episode of 2025.
The last guest episode of this year.
And then we'll be closing out five years of the podcast,
which again is kind of crazy.
But thank you all so much for continuing to listen to the podcast
and continuing to share and like and subscribe.
So and if you're new, if you're this your first time listening,
I hope that you go and listen to a bunch of the other episodes
because there are plenty of other episodes out there to listen to.
I am still driving around, but I'm going to head home
and I am going to sign off.
So I hope you all have a wonderful week
and take care, much to be love, Raph.
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