Holy crap, I got into another accident. As if breaking my light and denting my car last time wasn’t enough! (All that got fixed for under $100, fortunately.) This time, there was basically no damage to my car. It might have scuffed the paint a little, but that mark might have already been there, I’m not sure. I was backing out of a parking space and a pickup truck materialized behind me. I swear. My bumper dented his rear right corner just a bit. It’s the kind of thing that you see cars driving around with all the time, but we exchanged insurance information so I assume he’s going to file a claim. I already called USAA and notified them; the guy couldn’t promise anything but he sounded pretty sure my premium wouldn’t go up, since this is my first accident…with them…that they know about. Will I ever grow out of the days of countless bumps and scrapes? Will I ever end up in an accident so bad I am injured? On the way out of the city, I saw a six-car pileup, and that made me feel a little bit better. I only felt unhappy for a couple of hours; those people had their whole weekend ruined.

Well, we made it to Las Vegas. Unfortunately I am typing this on my Sidekick, because I forgot the Ethernet port on my computer is fussy. If I have a chance and/or can figure out where to go, I will buy an ethernet PC/MCIA card to make up for it. Fortunately the 25-ft Ethernet cable I bought was a good buy, it reaches much futher than the one they provided.

The flight was fine, except for the guy sitting behind us who reeked of weed. Then we found out he was going to the Venetian, too, and he ended up on the same shuttle bus. He turned out to be really annoying and very high, so I took his picture and put my camera back in my bag…I thought.

We were tired and not feeling well so we checked in, ate at Noodle Asia, which had pretty poor service (not enough staff), and went back to the room for a nap. Then we wanted to find some soda to keep in the room, because the tap water in the bathroom was terrible. So we got ready to go to the Fashion Show Mall, and that’s when I discovered my camera was missing. I called the agency and told them what to look for, and they said they’d call back if they found it.

I picked up an iPod sync cable at the mall, but the cheapest digital camera was $150 plus you had to buy a memory card. We ended up at a mini-mart to buy sodas (and Mike’s Hard Lemonade, which I am having now - cheaper than a drink at a bar) and got a couple of disposable cameras with flash. Then we came back to the hotel, and I bought a $50 “keychain” camera at Brookstone. I took it back to the room and discovered that its maximum resolution was 640×480, it didn’t have a rear display or flash, it only had 16MB internal memory…not good enough.

So I returned that and got my $50 back. And then I went to a shop called Photo Magic and bought a Kodak C533 and a 256MB memory card for $172. It’s a real camera…real expensive, but so much better. If my old camera is lost, then this is a good replacement. Aside from a couple of pictures at Dulles and the pothead jerk on the shuttle, I think all I lost were cat pictures - including one of Truffle with a tampon in his mouth. I’m trying to remember that at least I still have my wallet, my Sidekick, and my laptop. But I lost the camera, the cable, the memory card and spare memory card I had, and the Belkin iPod sync device that would have allowed me to store photos on my 80gb iPod.

Tomorrow we are going to the Grand Canyon, so I had to get a good camera. But I still can’t believe the old one is really lost and gone. I am hoping it will turn up when we leave at least. I can’t believe somebody might have taken it. I’m sad about it, like you wouldn’t believe. And of course I blame myself…the last I saw it was on the shuttle, so obviously I left it there. Sigh.

I wrecked my car today. Oops. I’m fine, though the car is not.

I was on my way to work and I rear-ended a pickup truck in front of me. We were in a long line of cars at a light, and as I went to apply the brake, I hit the accelerator. The front of my car was immediately smashed in and it started smoking as I pulled into the adjacent turn lane. The pickup’s bumper was dented a bit but otherwise fine. We exchanged information, and I was on the phone with A (it’s her car) while the other guy was calling State Farm - fortunately we both have the same insurance, at least.

The police came to take a report, and apparently the county requires them to issue a ticket to somebody. So the officer gave me a $30 ticket for “failure to maintain control of a vehicle” which comes with a $57 processing fee. The tow truck he called brought me to a nearby impound lot, and A arrived to get me a couple of hours later. We don’t know what the car’s fate will be - whether it’s truly totaled, or worth repairing - so I took everything off the car. That included the roof rack (though not the feet, which are vehicle-specific anyway), antenna ball, license plate frame, and the entire contents (including the buttons on the interior roof). A took me to my favorite vegan restaurant for lunch, and then we came home and took a nap. To say I had a rough morning is putting it mildly.

Like I said, I’m physically fine. The airbags didn’t deploy, I wasn’t hurt at all. Tomorrow I’m going to borrow A’s car to get to work, and she’s going to borrow her mom’s car because her mom doesn’t need to go anywhere tomorrow. For Wednesday through Friday I have already set up a reservation through Enterprise Rent-A-Car, which is the first time I’ve rented a car. That’s pretty much all there is to tell.

Today we went to Magruder’s, the cheap grocery store that has about half the square footage of other grocery stores and therefore has much narrower aisles and less variety. We got some of the main ingredients for tomorrow, and then headed over to Whole Foods to get the rest. I also had vegetarian Spaghetti-O’s (by Annie’s) and Linda McCartney frozen meals on my list; they didn’t have one of the frozen meals I wanted but I got two of the other and got to hug and chat with boiswillbebois. Back at home, pretty much everything was okay until the whistle of the kettle sounded. A sent me down to fetch tea, and when I brought it back and handed it to her it spilled and scalded her left calf pretty badly. (There were varying opinions on whose fault it was, but she has told me it’s not mine even though I still feel bad.) So that has really put a damper on both our evenings, though she says I haven’t ruined her holiday. I’m off to make the bed up with clean sheets now.

Saturn cars are plastic. Plastic is bouncy. Bouncy is good when you get rear-ended. A couple of months ago I was bumped by someone at a red light near home; it felt very minimal so I hopped out and checked both out bumpers and everything was fine. Just now, though, everything was not fine. It was the same situation - I was stopped at a red light - but she hit me pretty hard. She immediately jumped out and apologized and said “it’s my fault” (which you should never do, even if it was obviously your fault as this was) and offered to exchange insurance info, etc. I saw her hood and one headlight were smashed and I was worried for my car…but the only defect on my plastic bumper was a bit of something that turned out to be a seed pod and not from the accident at all. Because it was dark and windy and cold we just exchanged business cards; she works in my building so if my bumper suddenly falls off I can get in touch with her easily.

I don’t think it will, though. Plastic is bouncy, and bouncy is good.

Okay, my car stuff is all up to date. My experience with the Maryland State Police was less than ideal. First, I was waiting out there for a long time, so I finally called back. Sure enough, the first dispatcher I had spoke with was rushed and hadn’t taken information she was supposed to - like my phone number. The second dispatcher confirmed that someone had gone out looking for me but hadn’t driven down I-270 far enough, so they had turned back. When he finally got there, he was able to yank the part off the car (turns out it is called the “lower air deflector”) and he also asked to see my license. He brought it back to his vehicle and ran it - this was before he messed with my car, so I assume it’s standard procedure - and when he came back to me he asked if that was my car. I told him no, it’s my spouse’s, and he asked to see the registration. I pulled it out and he said “whose car did you say this was?” I said “well, my partner’s.” He got it after that, and said “oh, like your girlfriend’s, your wife’s.” He pointed to the address on the registration and said “you live here?” (He had already handed me back my license.) I said I did, and he thanked me and I was on my way again.

I drove straight to Saturn in Fairfax, where I was told they couldn’t do anything for me today. I thought I was going to have to take tomorrow off to get it fixed, but it turned out we could borrow my in-laws’ car so that was okay. But the guy at Saturn was utterly useless - he was totally non-committal when I asked about whether or not I needed to get this fixed right away. So I was planning to drop it back off tonight, but thanks to comments and e-mails from missakins, kg4yef, and others I was able to determine that this really isn’t particularly vital. I called Saturn and got to speak to the other guy in the service department, who confirmed that it wasn’t really necessary to fix that part at this time of year. It pulls air up into the radiator to help keep the engine temperature down, so I will need to get it fixed by next summer, but he said the chances of anything happening now are slim. Whew!

I took the car to Jiffy Lube for its regular service (this was on my schedule for today all along), and I asked the guy about the air deflector. He said it was basically just a piece of plastic and not essential at all. So I’m feeling much better…at least I don’t have to get this fixed tomorrow. I asked the Jiffy Lube guy if I would be okay on road trips between now and when I get the air deflector fixed, and he said that as long as I wasn’t planning to drive over 200mph (!) I would be fine.

Could my life suck any more right now? I just had a very nice breakfast with tikva and I was on my way to meet up for lunch when suddenly the car started dragging something on the ground. Turns out to have been the front flap thing. I bumped the curb when I was parking in Rockville and I guess that made it come of. Now my lunch plans are fucked and I am waiting at the side of the road on I-270S for the Maryland State Police to send motorist assistance. I’m cold because it’s breezy here on the interstate and I didn’t bring a jacket because obviously I wasn’t expecting to be out here. I hope they come soon. I am really disappointed about missing lunch and about having to pay to get the flap fixed. But first I have to get it the rest of the way off so I can drive to the Saturn place in Fairfax. This totally sucks.