They watch on, evil, incredibly stupid, enjoying my destruction.

Yeah, haven't posted for a while; lots of things going on now that Spring Break is over. I meant to post something over the week, but I just never seemed to find the time. I read a lot, some of it for school, but most of it for myself - which was great. I ran a few miles too, and this time I took my camera along to show a bit of what I see on my usual route. It's just under three miles, and the quiet is surprisingly enjoyable. Usually when I run in the gym, I have my iPod blaring to the point where I hear absolutely nothing else.


Anyway, this first one is of my frequent view of the running team. Actually, they're normally running through the ditches and exploring the fields. I just wanted to take the opportunity to get a shot of them when they were both running together. The second shot is of my view that last morning I decided to hit the road. I was pretty pleased with how the rays of light were caught shining down out of the clouds.


I also had to stop for a while on my way back and take a few shots of the old house near where I grew up. I actually remember this house being, well, habitable at least. Not so much anymore. Just about every other building on the acreage has fallen in on itself. I took quite a few pictures, but these are just a couple that I thought stood out. I might put a few others up later.









I guess it's nice to be back to feeling productive again, but I wasn't prepared for how used to taking it easy I'd become over the break. The transition back hasn't been all that smooth for me either. My immediate family and most of my closest friends have already heard the news, but my Monday morning started off with a bang, or a crash-tinkle, or something like that. In a state midway between sleeping and waking, I could have sworn I'd heard something outside at around 7:30-ish. I decided to get up and stumble down the stairs for that first-thing-in-the-morning pee when my roommate almost ran into me coming up the stairs.

"You need to put on some shoes and a coat," he said. Yeah, shit was going down, I could see it in his face. So, I mumbled something about peeing first, then threw on some pants, shoes, and my hoodie and headed outside to see some dude I've never seen before standing awe-struck in front of his Sonoma, the bumper cracked and dented pretty badly. Then I realized that my car was resting with the passenger side wheels on the grass about twenty five feet away from where I'd parked it the day before. Yup, this guy was driving to work on the morning after a heavy frost and hadn't let his windshield warm up enough before turning onto my street to drive straight into the sun. This is what he did to my car.


Now you might see this and think, geeze, that doesn't look so bad. Well, he hit the back of my car, and the front you see here is what happened after he launched it into the utility pole in front of where I live. Yup, smacked the tire hard enough to dent the hubcap, then slid down the panel and door, shearing off my side mirror. Good times. Here's what the back looks like.






Needless to say, when I called my insurance company to report the claim, I could almost hear the smile in the guy's voice after I told him that the other guy hit my parked car. As the story stands right now, I've been told by both my company and the other guy's that my car will most likely be totaled out, but I have to wait for his company's local agent to come here personally to assess the damage and get the ball rolling on my compensation.

The most ironic thing about this is, like I told my dad when I called him to tell him about it, this has been a dream of mine over the years of shitty cars I've owned, but when I finally have a car that runs great, gets good gas mileage, and doesn't burn or leak any oil, it gets totaled. It's just not fair. Boo hoo. I must've manifested the incident too late because I didn't wish for it hard enough when it really mattered.

Oh well, I guess as long as his insurance company doesn't try to screw me, everything will turn out alright. In fact, I've been halfway considering going Alexander Supertramp-style and just not get another car. I have a mountain bike that I could use to get everywhere I need to go, but those winter months might get a little long without an enclosed vehicle. I'll be sure to post the end results when I get this mess all wrapped up. Until then, back to the homework grind...