Disaster mitigation

A month ago I wrote at great length about two "disasters" that struck at the same time -- car damage and dog fleas.  I'm happy to present a positive follow-up report on the result of our efforts at disaster mitigation.

First, the car.

Here is a pair of before-and-after pictures of the damage to our car and the repair job.

A nasty scrape.  You can't see it in this picture, but there's actually a three-inch-long rupture in the metal.

My ugly-but-effective repair job.  If you look closely you can see lines where the spray paint ran down in some parts, while in other parts the paint isn't thick enough to mask the primer underneath.  Also, I could not find an exact match for our car's paint colour.  Also, the door is still badly misshapen.  But... THERE ARE NO HOLES.

At the time of the incident I was under the impression that auto-body work can only be done by a professional at great expense.  I complained loudly to that effect on this blog.  However, a few seconds of Googling revealed that it is, in fact, possible to repair body damage such as this by one's self!  Who knew?  With an hour of careful research I was able to figure out exactly what I needed to do.  I spent all of $40 on Bondo, primer, and paint at Canadian Tire.  It took the better part of a day to fill the hole and sand the Bondo.  (Many coats, inept application.)

So if any of my loyal readers ever needs some body work done... you know who to avoid.

Next, the fleas.

Our cleaning blitz, combined with liberal use of the expensive flea treatment, quickly eliminated the fleas.  (Or at least put them into remission.  One can never be sure that they're completely gone, or that the dogs won't bring new fleas from outside.  Every once in a while I catch one of our dogs scratching himself or herself and I go into a nervous panic.  Thus far, however, it's been nothing but smooth sailing.)