Pondie

Read about this, looks pretty feasable and should get cheaper, at least as cheap as we are paying for A/C units and hooks right in next to your existing unit to replace or use in conjunction.  Basically, freezes water over night when energy usage is lowest and uses ice to cool air to circulate in your house during the day.  30 to 50 percent the energy consumption and unlike A/C units, efficiency is not affected by ambient temperatures.

link

So I was driving home from Chris’s house on Saturday night and made it to the intersection of Collister and State when my fun started.  I was following a car that was forced to stop because there was a drunk gentleman of about 22 years of age standing in the middle of the turning lane to turn north on Collister.  The dude was acting all courageous and badass as he faced down the car with grandiose gestures and courageus talk that eventually went around him onto Collister.  I proceded to do the same but failed to give the brave soul enough room as he punched my passenger window as I went by.  I didn’t so much care except that it shattered the mirror and cracked the plastic housing as well.  I pulled a U turn, tires squealing, into the gas station to confront said pillar of society.  All the time telling myself I am still recovering from a neck injury and to be calm.  I was in no position to take any sort of damage from a drunken brawler or his friends.

I should mention at this point that the dude was not alone.  There were 3 men total and one girl.  As I pull to a stop and kill the engine, one of the guys, we’ll call him Theodore (sounds all ‘high society’) tells me I don’t want to get out of the truck.  I tell him, “no, you don’t want me to get out of the truck” and purposefully stride towards them.  They were all of course inebriated and the two who didn’t assault my innocent mirror stepped in front of the one who did.  We’ll call him Percy (again, aristocratic).  Percy seemed to want to show me how tough he was but his two friends, Theodore and….. lets go with Leopold, blocked him off.  They did not look fit, did not look imposing in any way, yet I am terrified of undoing any healing I’ve managed with my neck enough only demand recompense for my busted mirror.  Percy seems to think the truck got what it deserved and is rather aggressive towards me but is being restrained.  I am not really concerned about my safety at all.  Like I said, they would not have seemed imposing in the least even if they were sober.

 Now here is where the girl comes in.  I actually know her name to be Nichole and she is also quite drunk.  She tries to calm the whole situation down and figure out a way for this to end peacefully.  I’m all for this if I can collect enough money for my busted mirror, which I verbalize to them but really have no idea what it will cost.  The number 300 comes to mind from my sisters Yukon getting its mirror torn off in a car wash.  Percy looks at the mirror and offers twenty dollars.  At which point I pointedly told him to “fuck that” and stated it was a power mirror and the whole assembly is busted.  They offer no real solution so I pull out my cell phone and dial the cops.  Guess what these chivalrous guys decide to do.  They run off of course.  I guess that liquid courage has a pretty short half life when responsibility comes into play.  But not my Nichole, stays around.  She lives right by there and is trying to talk me out of calling the cops as she feels like she is bringing the scrutiny of the law upon her house.  These guys run off, which I inform dispatch but don’t think too much of it because I have Nichole keeping me company, and thought I had access to the info needed to get restitution.  A few moments later, Theodore, Percy, and Leopold come driving by in a late model Ford Taurus ( that’s right, everybody be envious) and tear off west on State.  Fast enough that I could only catch the “1A” of their license plate.  Again, not too worried since I still had Nichole keeping me company.  What I love about the whole thing is that these brave young men tear off like the cowards they are and leave poor Nichole to try to smooth things over.  I pointed this out to her and suggested she stop being their mother and let them take responsibility, but poor Nichole was either too nice, too nurturing, or just too drunk to heed my advice. 

The cop takes forever to arrive, probably 20 minutes worth of very meaningful and insightful dialogue with my new best friend pass with no sight of the fuzz.  When he does finally arrive, I find out I’m screwed.  Nichole is claiming she does not know the guy who assaulted my poor truck and only knows the first name of one of the two other guys.  The car they drove off in, although bad-ass, is a dime a dozen and the most detailed description of Percy’s physical attributes helps pretty much not at all.  I end up telling the nice officer that its rather frustrating to know that if I take the law into my own hands, I’m just as much at fault and yet when I do what’s right, I’m ‘proper fucked’.  He actually told me that if it were him, he would have followed them.  Makes sense in hindsight except for the whole high speed pursuit thing that would have for sure ensued.  Alas, I had put my faith in Nichole delivering me from evil, and now I am left with a busted mirror assembly.  Do I try to contact insurance and risk my premium’s going up or do I take it where the sun don’t shine and pay out of pocket.  Of course, even if I go the insurance path I have a deductible to account for.  Either way I am the victim of a crime twice.  If only I had one of my angry, able bodied friends in the car with me.  Would have been a hootenanny good time and would have most assuredly taken away some of the sting of the out of pocket expense of this whole fiasco.  Ah well.

The bright side is I think I found a replacement assembly for around 100 dollars, anybody feel comfortable with helping me do the labor?  I’m not much of an autobody specialist.  link

I was watching this clip when I thought about all the idiots watching something as lame as Nascar when there is this out there.  I look at a nascar race and think, “that doesn’t look so hard”.  Sure, they race for a long time and all but a tshirt I once saw put it perfect:  “speed up, slow down, turn left, repeat…. Nascar sucks.”  Pretty much sums it up and I think that anybody with a basic understanding of vehicle dynamics and a little bravery can drive pretty close to the level of the pros with very little ‘training’. 

 Then I watch Rally racing and think to myself, “this makes it painfully obvious how mediocre a driver I am”.  So impressive and so exciting and yet virtually ignored by the U.S.  We are missing out big time.  I wish Fox would tell Nascar to fuck off and grow a pair.  Schedule every sunday for Rally instead and enlighten all those supposed ‘racing’ fans with some real driving.  Plus, the wrecks are even cooler in Rally.