Skippy Car #7

I always thought that I enjoyed car shopping - and I still do, as long as I don't NEED a car. However, when you absolutely have to have a new car by a certain date, it can be stressful. I Don't believe in walking into a dealer and signing the papers right away - at least not anymore. I always go home and think about it for at least 24 hours. Making quick decisions is the best way to do something you regret later. So I picked out a car I wanted, and went home to think about it. On my way to work the next day I found another car that I liked as well - but I ultimately decided the first car was the one for me. When i went back for the first car, it was gone. So I went back to the second car and it was gone too! Anyway, I finally did get a new skippy car. It's probably too nice to be called a skippy car, but I'm sure I'll be able to junk it up pretty fast:


It's an 04 VW Passat AWD.


Another picture with the camera on "night mode" apparently the shutter was open a little longer than I expected, but I thought it looked cool.

And yes, this is the 7th skippy car. The entire skippy car saga is a pretty good, but very long story I have to save for later.

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Strike 3 for the Skippy Car

It looks like this is the end for the poor skippy car. The day after my wife's surgery I wasn't going to work, so I didn't need it - so I let my brother borrow it and she never came home.
It wasn't really Ethan's fault - he got rear-ended by a drunk driver. Who gets drunk at 1 p.m. in the afternoon? Apparently the guy was a real piece of work. Apparently when he crashed a whole assortment of beer bottles, shotgun shells, and various other things came spilling out.
The guy even tried to get away with a hit-and-run despite the fact the he only had three wheels - and at least one of those wheels didn't have a tire anymore. Oh yeah, did I mention he didn't have any insurance?
In it's infinite wisdom, the State of NH does not require people to carry insurance, but if you DO have insurance, you are required to carry uninsured motorists coverage. So at least I am covered - no word from the insurance company yet, but I am assuming it's totalled. My insurance policy specifically covers original equipment replacement parts, so I'm sure it will add up pretty fast.
The guy tried to tell the sherrif that he was only going about 40 MPH, but the 200 ft skidmarks beg to differ.

And another case of getting smacked in the head by the sledgehammer of irony - yup, you guessed it - here is a good shot of my BRAND NEW $400 exhaust system right there. It was so new that the check hadn't even cleared yet.

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update

For those who may not have heard, Krista had to have an emergency appendectomy tonight. (sidebar - is there any other kind?). So far she is doing well. They were able to get it in time, so it didn't rupture. They were able to do it laproscopically, which should help with the recovery time. The surgeon gave me a really cool, high-res picture of the offending organ, but I'm pretty sure she would not care to have it posted here. Anyway, if all goes well, she should be able to come home tomorrow.

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Strike 2 for the Skippy Car

Another chapter in the ongoing saga of the skiipy car muffler problems unfolded last night. Driving home from a disappointing Sox game last night I got pulled over by the Massachusetts State Police for my Muffler - or rather for my lack of a muffler. I informed him that the muffler had fallen off recently and I was planning to get it fixed as soon as I could so he let me off with a verbal warning. I wonder how much longer I can get away with it? I think that the real reason I got pulled over was because it was 1 a.m. I'm sure that if it had been a more reasonable time of day, he wouldn't have bothered. Also, does over two months ago still count as "recently"?

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My Front Yard

or what's left of it.....

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Memories

I was walking past a co-workers office and noticed a map of the Blue Ridge Parkway and it brought to mind a story I hadn't thought about in years.

One day gagknee and I decided to go visit the National Corvette Musem in Bowling Green, KY. So we left our Cedarville, OH apartment, hopped in my 88 Camaro, and headed in the general direction of Kentucky.

We got about 30 miles down the road and decided to look at a map - it was only then that we discoverd that we were almost 300 miles from our destination. We were a little dismayed, but I was getting married in a week and Gagknee was heading back home to NH when that happened, so we knew that this was probably our only chance to do it - so we decided to carry on.

A couple of hours into the trip, I saw a sign for the Blue Grass Parkway. I told Gagknee we should take it because I remembered driving on it with my dad as a kid and the views were absolutely spectacular - so we did. When we got on it, We discovered that this was not the winding road with the breathtaking views that I remembered - it was actually a rather dull, limited access, 4-lane highway. Once on the road, though, we discovered we were the only ones on it. There were no other cars, and certainly no cops, so we decided to see what the camaro could do. Unfortunately, the speedometer only went to 120, so we don't know how fast we were going, but the speedometer was pegged. We set the cruise control and rode the entire length of that highway at 100+ mph.

We got to the Museum, spent the whole day admiring the corvettes, and when we were done, returned home the same way.

That was a pretty good day.

p.s. The real Blue Ridge Parkway IS a spectacular drive, and well worth it if you are in the area, but it is nowhere near Kentucky.

p.p.s. I really miss that car.

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ugh

spoiler alert: I'm going to talk about 24, so if you don't want to know what happens, you may not want to read on.

The disclaimer is probably unneccesary because NOTHING happened. Of all 5 seasons, this was the most boring episode yet. I realize that you can't have a nuclear bomb going off every episode, but come on - a full episode of Cabinet meetings? Ugh. I was really looking forward to watching my favorite show in HD for the first time ever, and what happens? I fell asleep it was so boring. And not only was it boring, but the parts I DID stay awake for didn't make sense. The whole vice-president/president-palmer storyline just doesn't make sense.

Note to FOX: You have been advertising this season as the "nonstop" season of 24, but if the filming schedule for a "nonstop" season is so grueling that you can't be bothered to make a good episode more often than every 3rd week or so, it's no good. I would rather have a week or two off any day instead of this crap.

Also, I can't in good conscience call it the "Jack Bauer Show" anymore, because Jack was barely even in that episode. So until Jack starts doing some more stuff, I will revert to calling it 24. Or I might start calling it the Ricky Schroeder show.

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