well that was quite the thursday

My day was mostly centered around work. For various reasons, I decided to work a longer day than usual, so I got to work at 6:30am. The day went by mostly quickly, so that was good. I make it a habit to not really talk about work on here, so that's where I'll leave that. I wanted to stay until 6pm, but I could only stay until about 5:30 before I was burnt out.

During the day, we got this spicy piece of news: Colorado accepted an offer into the PAC-10. In case you aren't keeping up or haven't heard, the Big 12 conference is falling apart. The Big 10 wants Nebraska and maybe Missouri. The Pac 10 is trying to make a move on 6 other Big 12 teams: Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, Oklahoma, and Colorado. Poor teams like Kansas, Baylor, Kansas State, and Iowa State are going to get left out in the cold, and will probably have to join a minor conference such as the Mountain West or something. We might hear news as soon as today about other teams accepting the bid into the Pac 10 conference. That would mean that we would be in the same conference as USC, UCLA, Stanford, Oregon, among other teams. Some good academics there, and some good football programs there, too. Speaking of USC, do you remember that whole Reggie Bush scandal from 4 years ago? Well the NCAA finally punished USC, and did they ever. USC cannot partake in postseason games for 2 years. That's right, folks. For the next two years, USC is forbidden from going to any bowl game. Serves them right for running a corrupt athletics program. Sucks for the current recruits, but they should have thought about that possibility before making a decision on a university.

I got home and messed around a little bit with FF7 and my bass. When Andy got home, I taught him some motorcycle basics for an hour. The first part is always the most stressful for a new rider, because you are trying to get used to using a manual on a motorcycle, and you're afraid of doing something that will cause you to fly or fall off. Once he got the hang of the friction zone and getting up to speed, we practiced getting your feet up on the pegs, second gear, third gear, braking, and turning. He picked it up pretty quick, but it's actually not as hard as you'd think. If you know how to ride a bicycle, you'll know how to ride a motorcycle. The only "hard" part of a motorcycle is learning the muscle memory of shifting with the left side of your body, and braking with the right side. I think he had a good time.

Lookin' good, sir!

Once done with our little training session, I got in my car and went to Taylor's. "But wait!" I thought. "I'm hungry, I should get some Wendy's!" What a mistake that turned out to be. I was in a left turn lane (no light at this intersection), waiting to turn left because of oncoming traffic. Some guy trying to turn left onto Braker apparently didn't see me, and just drove STRAIGHT INTO ME. That's right, someone drove straight into a car that wasn't moving. Apparently if your car isn't moving, it is invisible to some people. Here is a little diagram to better explain what happened. Red is me and what I wanted to do, blue is them and what they did (click for a slightly larger version).

Obviously those cars in the satellite photo are irrelevant. So I am the red box, politely waiting to make a left into Wendy's. I was debating between a Spicy Chicken Sandwich, a Grilled Chicken Sandwich, and their Bacon 'n' Blue, which was pretty good last time I had it. Before I knew it, Mr. Blue Box was pulling out of that driveway. When I first saw him, I thought he was being a dick and was just going to cut across me, even though he didn't have the right of way. Then I noticed he was cutting too close to me, instead of out in front of me. Then I noticed he was literally driving right into me. I honked, and he hit me. It was pretty marvelous.

I wasn't upset at all when it first happened, I thought it was both stupid and funny, and in fact I was laughing when I got out of my car. The other guy was throwing a really awkward temper tantrum in the middle of the road, obviously really upset at the fact that he's a complete moron. I calmed him down a bit, and we went back into the parking lot where he originated. We exchanged insurance information, and then it occurred to me that this guy could lie his ass off to the insurance company, and without witnesses, it would just be my word against his. I thought about how ridiculous it would be if the insurance companies couldn't find blame, without witnesses. How shitty would that be? I'm sitting there, waiting to make a left, and some dude drives straight into me out of no where. Then, because he could have lied to the insurance company about his story, it would be a push and my rates would go up. That would be some bullshit right there. So I decided that we needed to call the cops. I had Taylor head over and call them over on her way, because this guy was clearly a bit unstable. He was a pretty big guy, probably 6'3", maybe around 250 pounds, but big as in fat. Now that I think about it, he might have only been like 17 or 18, hence how immature and retarded he was acting. Anyways, I decided that he would go apeshit if I called the cops in front of him, so I had Taylor do it, and while she was heading over, I told him that I was going to get the cops involved so they could assess the situation and get an official police report. That's when things got a bit more tense. He clearly didn't like that idea because he was worried about getting a ticket, and probably realizing that he was gonna get screwed by his insurance when they find out how terrible he is at driving. So he started going on about how it was my fault for being "in the middle of the road" and how he was going to tell them that it wasn't his fault. Yeah, good luck with that one, man.

The police came, I told my story to one of them and he told his story to the partner. It didn't take long for me, and they were still discussing something over with Mr. Douche Nozzle, so we just started chit chatting with the officer. He was actually one of the coolest cops I've dealt with. He was crackin' some funny jokes, telling us some stories, and we even took the time to ask a few unrelated questions that he offered to answer. After about a half hour, they told me that they cited him for "failing to yield right of way from private driveway." Hallelujah! I'm not out of the woods yet, but I think that strongly solidifies my case with the insurance companies. I'm pretty sure there won't be any question about who is at fault because he was cited for a violation. I just called his insurance, and now I'm awaiting the rest to unfold.  As always, click to enlarge:

My poor, innocent bumper

Moron's car