My Graveyard

Yesterday while traveling to a friend’s house, driving about 5 mph and almost finishing making a left-hand turn (we’d just been at a stop sign of a four-way intersection), a motorcyclist slammed into the side of our car.
He wasn’t hurt and a small piece of plastic (a little bigger than the size of a 6″ sub) of his bike broke off.
We weren’t hurt, but he dented the side of our car quite a bit, the drivers side mirror came mostly off (the case is cracked, but the inside bits kept it from falling completely off) and scratched the hell out of the paint from end to end (and even the hood some how).
He said he didn’t see our blinker until it was too late (of course, if he’d stopped at the stop sign…) and then in panic leaned hard to his left, pretty much throwing the lower portion of the bike into our car (but sparing him injury).
Though parts of his bike were held together by masking tape, which doesn’t make me feel real good about his driving ability to start with.

I’m grumpy about this because the accident was completely avoidable.

Gravity has been trying to soothe me by reminding me the accident could have been a lot worse.
Yes, it could have been.  He could’ve been hurt, or we could have been hurt, or we all could’ve been hurt.  We could have not been there at all (good for us), but that street is almost always filled with children at play and he could’ve hit one of them while tearing down the street (if he can’t see a car, how could he have seen a little kid?) and that would’ve been really bad.

So tonight and tomorrow our car will get looked at for full assessment of damage and estimate of repair.  It seems like it’s all cosmetic, which is good; but some thing’s “off” with the driver’s side door (it makes a funny noise when it shuts, but it does shut) and the seal on it doesn’t hit right anymore (you hear lots of air blowing in as you drive around) and that concerns me a little bit.  The worst dent is sunk in far enough it just about touches some frame work that connects to the axle, so we need to make sure that area is OK too.

Anyway, concerned family & friends, here’s a couple pictures of our poor car, which now has body work on the list of repairs it needs:

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Mini-update:
We had my step-father glance over the car last night and he confirmed that all the damage is cosmetic (though he calls it “non-mechanical”).  Our car’s wish list now contains: a new door, a rear-quarter panel and a lot of paint repair.  He said it would be possible to bang out the dents on the door and the panel, but it would never look as good as it used too and estimates to get it fixed properly would cost more than the car’s value.  I thought that was crazy, but when I was going over the condition quiz at the Kelley Blue Book site, I found it wasn’t as far a stretch as I had thought.  Most of the “strikes” against our little car were present in it when we bought it though, so at least it’s not something we did to it.  It was either there, or just a sign of older vehicle (and maybe time to buy a new set of tires).
Tonight we go and get the estimate for repair from the appointed garage.

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Additional mini-update:
Last night we were able to meet the guy who should be doing the repairs on the car.  We don’t have an estimate yet because he’s calling around to see if he can get a door and a rear quarter panel to replace the busted up ones (obviously slapping on replacement pieces will be less time consuming and cheaper than him having to bang the dents out).  We should hear from him today or tomorrow about that and he’s hopeful he can get the parts and get us fixed up sometime next week.  Yay!
The mechanic was actually really nice and seems very honest (yay for that), but I don’t think he’s used to talking shop with a couple of chicks and having them understand him (it probably didn’t help Gravity was wearing one of her dressier work outfits, but we had to go straight after she got out).  I think he honestly thought we were going to pitch a fit when he said the replacement door might be a different color than our car, he was pleasantly surprised when we told him that wasn’t an issue.  I don’t expect miracles with out of production cars, neither should other people!
I’m also hoping he can just switch out the parts so we can have to work done as a while-we-wait thing instead of a keeps-the-car-for-a-day-or-two thing.  There is a loaner car available (a respectable Chevrolet Cavalier [also out of production I'm sorry to say]), but I’d rather have mine.  =)  There’s definitely something to be said for your own car and knowing all it’s ins and outs.

After being reminded by a friend I never seem to update my blog anymore (largely due to months of arguing with my ISP to come fix the line that provides my internet service); I decided today, because the internet service is provided and a have a moment to myself, I would put up a post.  Yay!

Today I’d like to suggest you read an article I received in my e-newsletter from the Home Depot Garden Club about Recycling Water (you can visit the article via that link, but be aware that it’s throwing up a 503 error [that's Service Unavailable and in this case, due to too much traffic at one time] and you’ll probably have to try to visit it again later).  While I’m sure most of you could have figured this out yourself (I know I knew it all), I just wanted to share (again, if need be) how simple it is to do this.
Frankly, when you own your home, you get your handy water/sewer bill and it reminds you water ain’t free* and when you let the water pour down the drain to get to the cold (or hot) stuff, you’re paying for the privilege (well, you pay for it when you rent too, but you don’t usually get a nice little summery bill, it’s lopped into your monthly rental fee).
So hey, try not to let your money pour down the drain, OK?

In addition to the tips provided by that article, everybody knows to shut off the water while they brush their teeth, but try some of these:

When you boil potatoes, save the water!  Use it instead of milk the next time you bake bread.  You’ve recycled water, you’ve saved money on your milk bill and you get yummy potato bread.  (Would you rather have a prescribed recipe for this?  Search here.)

Love macaroni and cheese (from a box) and hot dogs?  Cook them in the same pot- add the hot dogs when the pasta starts to boil, they’ll be ready when the pasta is.

Cook your boxed mac and cheese in the microwave, it uses much less water (and won’t have any leftover water either)!  It also takes much less time and you could argue it less energy over all (and it won’t heat up your home in the summertime).  However, it’s important to know that the “standard recipe” to do this requires some variation depending on microwave cooking power and I find with different brands of mac and cheese too.  Start with the least water and shortest cooking time, you can always add more water and/or put it in for another minute or two if needed.  If your pasta is done and there’s a little water leftover, no big deal- leave it in there and use less milk when you stir everything together.
Personally, I find when cooking mac and cheese this way it requires less margarine (or butter) and milk when I stir it up (which saves money too), especially if I’ve accidentally used a bit too much water.  I usually end up using 2 or 3 tablespoons of margarine and a “splash” or two of milk (also a couple of tablespoons).  I also don’t stir it while it cooks- I find when I put in the margarine (before adding the cheese powder or the milk) and stir it up it un-sticks well enough.  You do what make you happy though.
And yes, you can cook your hot dogs and mac and cheese in the microwave at the same time, but be sure to add some extra water (1/4 - 1/3 cup more, assuming you’re using a half-pound of hot dogs.  If you’re throwing in just 2 hot dogs, I wouldn’t worry about adding any.  If you end up with extra water, just stir it in and use less milk or cook your food for a little bit longer; until it’s absorbed).

If you own your home and have an older toilet, getting a new low-flow model will help a lot.  There’s also an old rule of thumb (that not everyone is cool with) you could employ and/or try out a “Navy Shower” (but hey- I understand those aren’t for everyone and on some days, you just need a “Hollywood Shower“).

I bet you can find your own unique ways of saving water too. 

OK- done telling you how to live your life…. for now.  =)

*- When I was a kid, my Grandfather always used to tell me “The only things in life that are free is water and love.”  Over the years, he did modify it to “The only things in life that are free are cold water and love”.  He didn’t get around to taking water off the list as a whole before he died, but I’ll tell you that typically water isn’t free (at least not the water that’s pumped into your house).