Greetings, friends! Hope y'all had a great holiday and New Year.

I was REALLY hesitant to ask for help, but I'm in a bind and unexpectedly also a time crunch.. The time crunch is the entire reason I'm asking for help.

For those who may stumble across this that don't know me, I'm a musician in a band that tours a lot...when we have down time I drive for Lyft and Uber. Our group always takes the winter off to write new music plus it's dangerous to travel in the winter, so we have no gigs currently and my income is 100% driving rideshare 8-10 hours a day, 6 days a week usually.

In October I was in a fender bender...The accident was one of those frustrating situations where the other driver was driving terribly but because of logistics I'm left stuck with the bill. I was driving for Uber during the accident and I didn't realize, but their deductible is a RIDICULOUS $2500. The other driver (of a WGN van) merged recklessly from 3 lanes over and had a weird pipe built into the van sticking out a few inches. The pipe is what clipped my front end, causing a surprising amount of cosmetic damage. I was pulling out of the parking spot, though, so the blame goes to me. Apparently it doesn't matter that the other driver merged from 3 lanes and was speeding.

My personal insurance has a low deductible but won't cover the damage because I was on an Uber ride at the time. Uber deactivated me and Lyft just dropped a bomb on me that they need an inspection by February 5th which gives me less than a month to fix this damage and keep working. I was planning on saving over the next couple of months to fix the damage, but this new inspection situation came as a surprise. My last inspection was a year between, I guess they changed it to 6 months recently.

In addition Lyft has been so incredibly slow the last few weeks. It's 50 degrees in January and everyone is biking, taking the train or walking to work. Normally I could work extra hours and make this money myself, but the rides just aren't there at the moment and rideshare pays worse and worse the longer I work for them. Seeking different work, no doubt. Anyways.... HALLLLP, but ONLY if you're able! I know times are tough out there. Love y'all and thanks for your consideration, again.

Your donations will help meet the ridiculous rideshare insurance deductible and help with some living costs while the car is being repaired and I'm out of work.