So...

I was involved in a car accident today.

I'm fine, thanks for asking.

I was going to work, sitting at the light, waiting for the cars in front to turn, and I hear this screech.

Then bang and bang. The same car hit me twice. I didn't see it coming.

It was a weird day. My car had to be towed to the shop, so I got a ride to work in a tow truck. Enterprise came and picked me up at the end of the day, in a car paid for by my insurance. Hooray for insurance.

All those premiums I've paid and I've never gotten a thing. Now I do.

It's actually a much longer story than this, but without diagrams its hard to explain. So ask me next time you see me, I'll tell you the full story then.

I Love Rock And Roll

Normally I don't listen to the radio, but tonight I'm glad I did.

It was the end of a long day; busy at both jobs, delivering in the rain, not having a raincoat. And I went looking for something else. All during delivering I listened to disc 1 of Drive By Truckers Southern Rock Opera, 3 times in fact.

Flipped around FM, looking for anything, found a DJ talking about Kiss. Figured this station might play something I would know, and possibly like.

So, now it's only drizzling, and the roads are empty, black and shiny. I'm sitting at the light in front of McCafe on Falls and this song comes on the radio.



I crank it right before the light changes and sing along.

The craziness at the bookstore, the crappy tippers, all disappear. It's the perfect song at the perfect time. It's better loud, too, always the sign of a good song.

It's then followed by this song, which I had never heard before, and I realize that people can still right a great rocking song.



A great rocking song must have 3 things:
1. An air-guitarable riff
2. A sing along chorus*
3. Thinly veiled sexually innuendo. The dirtier and simpler, the better.

Then, there was another commercial and I remembered why I don't listen to the radio any more. But for 7 minutes I was reminded why I love music.

Rock and roll music absolutely kicks ass when it's really good. It is truly my drug of choice and I am a slave to her.


*A sing along chorus AND a sing along verse make it a 'fucking great rocking song.'

Dicks In The Rain

Driving to and from work today, I saw 4 accidents. Half involved 2 cars; the other two, 1 car and a stationary object (a pair of telephone poles).

It seems that in the two months since its rained people have forgotten how to drive in the rain. I've heard/made up that the worst time to drive in the rain is about 20 minutes after it starts because the rainwater forces the oils from in the road surface, to on the road surface making it extra oily slippery. After that amount of time the water washes the oils away leaving the road just plain wet slippery.

This could be something I just made up, or something I heard once, or something I twisted around. I honestly can't remember, but it makes sense.

If this is the case then maybe after such a long dry spell, there was extra amounts of oils in the roadway to be brought forth by the rain. Or maybe people just suck at driving.

Also, there is a douchebag in my complex who, instead of parking, decides to spin his wheels on the slick pavement driving around the main office multiple times. If we were near a cliff, I'd wish he'd drive off it, but I'll settle for him smashing into someone else's car, or maybe flipping it over on my neighbors lawn. Either of the two would suffice.

BTW - I borrowed The Decemberists "The Crane Wife" from work. Holy fuck is that a good album.

Progress Sucks

I like driving. It stems from the fact that I got my licence at 20, then lost it just 3 years later for 12 months. If your friend in the car ever forces you to pull over then throws your keys away, don't go and find them. Just sleep there. Don't try to drive home from places unknown. But enough about that.

I like driving fast on winding roads, where you can lean into the turns and you need to keep both hands on the wheel because the shoulder is non-existant. There aren't many roads like that down here, the main reason being the roads are planned in advance, so are mostly straight, or have very long sweeping curves (like Lynn Road). Boring!

Back in NY roads -in certain places- were an after thought, or needed to be put down in between buildings, neighborhoods, parks, etc. For example, the Belt Parkway on Long Island. It leads from the Verrazano Narrows Bridge and crawls along the southern coast of LI until you get to JFK, and can be a parking lot at certain times of the day. But if you hit it at the right time, its like a white knuckle rollercoaster.

One of the few roads down here that I enjoyed driving on was Leesville Road (between Milbrook and Lynn), barely a mile long, it was enough fun that I would go out of my way to take it. Now that they are widening the road they will destroy it. It will no longer be fun to drive, they will straighten the curves, level the road and suck the soul from my driving experience.

I've been trying to find another road like that around here. If anyone knows any place thats fun to drive, let me know. Ray Road isn't that bad, but its too straight and too wide for it to be real fun.

Listening To - Carole King 'Tapestry'

A Fantabalous Cinderellabration

Five Best Things About My Recent Vacation To Disney/Orlando

1. Going to Disney after Labor day is a must! Lines were short, 20 minutes was the longest wait for any ride (except for Peter Pan?!? which was 40 minutes). Space Mountain 3 times in 45 minutes, the Aerosmith coaster 5 times in an hour. Sweet.
2. Dueling Dragons coaster at Islands of Adventure. A 'fire' and 'ice' dragon hanging coaster pass within inches of each other a couple of times during the ride. Ice side is better, goes upside down one extra time.
3. ESPN Zone resturant on Disney boardwalk. I watched a football game, 4 baseball games and a documentary on the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders and never had to swivel my head more than 15 degrees. Food was good too.
4. Shrek 4D. The best of the 3D stage/video shows. The fourth D was smell. Remember ogres are like onions.
5. Raleigh to the Georgia border in 4 hours. My new car can reach speeds exceeding 100 mph.

Five Most Disappointing Things About My Recent Vacation To Disney/Orlando

1. DisneyQuest. Its a 5 level playground with some interesting interactive/multiplayer games and banks of video games that you play for free. But the majority of the old time video games (Asteriods, Galaga, Donkey Kong) were not functioning properly. I played two seperate games where I could not go up. Not one of the pinball games had every flipper functional, and the air hockey game puck was too dirty and didn't slide properly.
2. The inability of Disney to get a believable live 'Ariel'. None of them looked right, it was the hair. Although the 4 or 5 Belle's that I saw were all smokin', and legal!
3. The Jurassic Park ride at Univeral Islands of Adventure. One of the longest lines we waited in 20, minutes, and the big drop at the end of water ride sucked. Did not get wet at all.
4. Everything at Disney that said 2006 had Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, Pluto and Stitch on it. Stitch? What the fuck? Some of the cast members felt my pain. We even asked for a damaged picture frame that Stitch had fallen off of, no luck.
5. Completely fucking up my sleep pattern. Used to be up till 3, awake at 10 or so, later on my days off. During the vacation in bed by midnight, up before 8. Still having trouble getting back to the old schedule.

Listening to - Ella Fitzgerald Sings Sweet Songs For Swingers

The End Of An Era

Unless someone sees me tomorrow morning, the next time anyone will see me will be with my new car. After 9.03 long years the Metro will be sold and I will be the owner of a 2005 Ford Focus ZX3S 2D Hatchback. Technically the bank will own the car until I pay it off, but thats just semantics.

Nine long years, almost 60,000 miles. It will be sad to see Polly go, she was a good car. After 13 years she still got 36+ miles per gallon, which is good considering she is missing parts. Apparently Metro parts are very hard to come by and instead of replacing them, my mechanic has removed them. Telling me that I didn't need them, a sensor here, a computer chip there, etc.

I've abused her (a dozen trips to NY), ignored her (just 9 tanks of gas in 2001), but most of all, loved her. Nine years is longer than I had my first two cars combined. The Honda Accord (Daphne) got wrapped around a telephone pole, and the Dodge Colt (Liz) needed to be put to sleep after just 12 months. I can only hope that the new car will last as long as the old one.

Like any relationship there are things I will miss and things I could do without:

PRO:
-still 36+ mph
-who's gonna steal a Metro?
-turning radius of a helium atom
-easy to wrap
-impossible to get a speeding ticket (Metro's top speed is approx 88mph, tough to tell as the speedometer stops at 85)
-haven't had to be designated driver for the past 4 years ("That's your car? You can drive mine.")

CON:
-no CD player
-being hit on the head by the hatch falling suddenly
-8 gallon gas tank
-heat barely functional, A/C worse
-everyone's going to want to ride in it (maybe)
-the lingering smell of oil & gas for 3 days after I filled the tank
-men on Segways pass the Metro on inclines

I will miss not having hubcaps, I will miss not having to wash my car, I will miss all the squirrel/chipmunk jokes about the 3-cylinder engine, I will miss the 8-year old crack in the windshield. I will miss you Polly.


Listening To: iTunes folder 'Older Missing Mid Length 4+ Stars'