1.11.2007

Cars and Snow It Snowed. Again. I was actually at my sister's house helping her out when it started snowing, and my concern for how my rental car would fare in it was rightfully grave. I made my way home and found out unless I go about ten miles an hour, I have zero control in turns, which was proven when I smacked into the curb while I tried to make a gradual turn and my car just kept going straight. I hope they don't notice the dent in the wheel. Or maybe I should complain that driving this car is a safety hazard. I for one, had freakin' studless snow tires on my car and those things are freakin' great! I have purposely tried to slide in them just to test them and they are awesome. I was going to hit the mountain tomorrow (er, today) but there is no way that rental will make it up the mountain. So once I planted myself back at home, I decided to make a vow to stay there for the rest of the night. And of course, here I am. Fortunately I don't have to work tomorrow (er, today), however it's my sister's birthday and we're going to go over there and give her a cake and sing Happy Birthday where she will be blessed with my vocal talents. And I say that with only the most blatant sarcasm. I have no singing talents. I upgraded Internet Explorer and it seems to have downed a few notches when it comes to uploading things online. Grr. . . Labels: Car -Risawn: # 12:38 AM - |

1.09.2007

Car's in the Shop You would think that after a month, I could get two fender benders worked out with the respected insurance companies, right? Wrong. I'm still finaggling with this, with one insurance company sending me a check without telling me they sent one (and I never recalled getting the first check, so they had to stop payment on it and send me another one). But all in all, I have my car finally in the shop and they have issued me a rental. . . It's fire engine red. And a chevy. Actually, by all accounts its kind of a cute car. Except for being an automatic where I'm used to driving a manual transmission, I've caught myself several times trying to step on the phantom clutch, though I have tried to shift it once or twice too. Doesn't work. And I have a sneaky suspicioun that the last person (or two or three) smoked in it because it reeks. Actually, that's enough to make me want to take it back and get a different car, but I shouldn't be spending many hours in it so I think I can survive. I might take it up a mountain perhaps. I haven't been boarding nearly as much as I've wanted to this season. Labels: Car -Risawn: # 11:44 AM - |

12.08.2006

Third Time Apparently, I didn't knock hard enough. Yes, I got smacked THREE times this last week. Twice on Sunday (within 5 hours of each other) and a third time on Wednesday, a phantom driver apparently backed into my back door. I only noticed it because my car was filthy and it was kind of hard to miss the scrapes on the door (which is dented in). And of course, the pea sized hole in the bumper which actually pushed my bumper into my car. And don't forget the dent in the fender (can't open that door all the way now). Police report done on the fender and turned in, and estimates done on the three accidents. Of course, the back door is a phantom driver, so I think I'll find another way to get it fixed rather then call my insurance about it. Meanwhile, I'm waiting on the other two. Sadly enough, I know the guy who ran into my front fender. He leaves for Fort Benning in three weeks. I went out and got studless snow tires on my car yesterday. I'm not taking any more chances with my car. Apparently it's a black hole, and other cars are drawn to smack into it. I've been on the defensive with driving for the whole week. Labels: Car -Risawn: # 9:27 PM - |

12.03.2006

Bad Things come in Threes Knock on Wood. *does so* Winter is here. In full force. And I experienced it today while driving around. I decided once I made it safely home, that I would park my car and not leave for the rest of the evening. Because bad things happen in threes. And I've already had two incidents today. And with how they are progressing, I'm predicting that if the third was to hit, my car will be totaled. Let me start at the beginning. I was at a roundabout about a half mile from my house at Noon today. I generally don't mind roundabouts but because its winter and conditions are icey, I don't take my chances with my accelerator and if it will catch on the ice enough for me to get out in front of the other car. And I couldn't see if the car was getting off at my exit or coming around again (I can't see their turn signal!) So I started creeping out waiting for this car to make its decision when *BAM!* Somebody rear ends me. Grr. . . See, he thought I was actually moving out and assumptions aren't always a good thing. Case in point. We get out, and fortunately, all he did was punch a pea size hole in my bumper with the screw on his license plate. The damage is negligable, however I take down his information anyway. Around 4:45, we're finally given permission to leave the drill hall (safety briefing and all, which includes "Slow down on the roads, conditions are icey!") I didn't even leave the parking lot when while I was heading out, one of my battle buddies in his jeep fails to see my mazda and plows into my side. My door creeks when I open it now. He felt like crap and immediately asked "Do you want my information?" to which I reply "Yes!" The guy earlier today punched a pea size hole in my bumper, this is a massive dent on the side of my car! Poor Winston! (The name of my Mazda, btw) As soon as that second accident happened, I hurried home (in a safe, observant and non-speeding manner) parked my car and found a large chunk of wood to knock on. I'm not normally supersticious but Hey! I'm not taking my chances! There's a thick layer of ice on the road and if it weren't for the snow, I could have breaked in time to get out of the Jeep's way. But at least neither accident was my fault. I now have a police report on my to-do list, as well as the fact that I forgot to right license numbers of the two people at fault for smacking into my car (I knew I forgot something!) Labels: Car -Risawn: # 10:51 PM - |

2.22.2006

I Hate Insurance Companies Ok, I have a confession to make. I am far from a stellar driver. I have miraculously escaped many a accident on slippery icy roads in the past by merely pure unadulterated luck. I also happen to own a lead foot. In other words, I have had my fair share of speeding tickets, one of the more recent ones was just under two years ago while driving through the previously autobahn like Montana with its newly enforced speed limits. It caught me by surprise. I had done so well to clear my record that I was six months from a completely free driving record and I nabbed two speeding tickets within two weeks of each other. These things like to come in pairs to ruin your life. Well, one of the upsides of being in Kosovo for a year is that no matter what happens, what happens in Kosovo stays in Kosovo and doesn't show up on your driving record. And fortunately this includes two minor accidents involving a HMMW-V. My record is clean of that, it happened in a foreign country. Unfortunately, I did happen to get into an accident in January of 2004 as well. An accident I was not at fault for but still has managed to show up on my drivig record. Grr I hate that. Now i have to prove to my insurance company that it wasn't my fault and the other guy had to pay me for the damage. Unfortunately, if you've read my blog recently, you would know that right now my life is in disorder and I can't find anything, including former accident information. Ergo more ranting of a policy that makes some sense but is still rather annoying And then there is the discriminatory discount. I wonder if I could fight this? See, insurance companies offer a discount to their customers if the customers have been insured over a period of time without a break in their insurance. Ok, fine, offer a discount to people for maintaining their insurance, but what about poor souls like me who really find it a bloody waste of time to keep insurance on a car they no longer have when they are out of the country for the last year or so? People like Military? This discount is a slap in the face, how can I maintain a discount without paying the liability insurance of $70 bucks a month? What the hell is that? What is the freakin' point? But her answer, 'well, in six months time you'll get it back'. So? How do you deal with a discount you aren't allowed to have because though you had it before deploying overseas with the US military, you decided to forego the insurance when you got rid of the car because it was a freakin' waste of money. I'm single, I have no reason to keep a car on its last leg insured, there is no point in me being insured. But because of my break in keeping up with my insurance, I am no longer eligeble for this discount. And here I am, serving my country in a (*cough cough*) war zone and I can't be waived for not having insurance because of it. Ok, I'm annoyed, for a variety of reasons, and they all compounded on each other. Plus, well, this girl just grated on my nerves and made me want to slap her. What the hell, chica? You know the type, the overly nice ones who refuse to help you? I don't like my current insurance. I think I'm going to try changing it this week. And when did insurance get so freakin' expensive? Why is owning a car such a necessity these days? I learned that horrible lesson of why a car is important for keeping one's sanity while I was spending a pointless eleven days demobilizing in Fort Lewis. But now that I have a car, I really found I don't like driving it anywhere. Driving's a pain in the fourth. That is one lesson we can take from the Europeans. They got great public transportation. Our public Trans is severely lacking. All we got is a bus system on its last leg (though a few years ago I learned a valuable lesson in the importance of having a working public transportation system when I lost my car for a few months. That was hell on earth right there). I had a rant there to. However, the US isn't set up to have a Public Transport system like Europe does because of how spaced everything is, especially here in the west. I did take a subway in Boston, that was valuable to have, wouldn't have gotten anywhere without it. Big cities, Public Tran (is there another name for this?) is important. In smaller cities, its still important but harder to justify. Curses. Fortunately I've got a radio. I spent about five minutes at a stoplight tonight listening to the radio and thinking about life in general without realizing that I hadn't pulled up into the stoplights' sensors and it would therefore stay perpetually red. It took somebody else to pull along beside me before I snapped to my senses and realized that I was daydreaming (in the middle of the night, but still). Find the not at fault thing for the insurance this week. Another thing to add to my growing doomsday list of things to do. This is an example of a rambling done at one in the morning. It loses all train of thought by the end of the rant. Labels: Car, Rant -Risawn: # 12:57 AM - |

1.29.2006

Semblence of Life So, I'm back home, catching up on things, and knicking away at that to do list. Buy Car, Check. I went with a little Mazda Protege. Its a great little car and has everything I wanted. 5 Speed, great gas mileage, four door, front wheel drive, and a bit of a kick on the road. Me likes. We will see how much me loves when we make it up the mountain this coming week. I've seen most of my family now, its strange how a part of me feels like I haven't been gone for very long at all, but then I sit down and think about what happened over the last year and realize that indeed, it has been that long. I've got my job back at my former employer. So they are again my current employer once more. Its strange to think how much I actually missed that job. I think I missed the people I worked with, I don't know if I'll go back to that location for long, I'll likely transfer before to much time passes to a location closer to home. Got a few more items left on my list. One of them includes acquiring a bed. There is also the pleasure of taking care of medical coverage, in case I knock my head upside a mountain and come back with Global Transient Amnesia after a day of free snowboarding. Again. I also have to go through a lot of crap. I think I'm going to have a yardsale on eBay. Um, I guess I can alert everyone as to when that happens when the time comes. And I'll be in the army reserves for at least another year and a half, or so I've discovered. What else can I say? Well, it feels good to be home. Now I'm going to continue this trend of staying off the computer and having a semblence of life. Labels: Car, Work -Risawn: # 1:20 AM - |

1.12.2006

Cars R Us, continued I had a strange dream. See, I'm kind of shopping a bit for a car at present, though more looking for what's available rather then actually buying one. The whole car scenerio showed up in my dream. It started off as an ancient Toyota, like circa 1970s. I was thinking "dude, this isn't what I want" but I was told to take it out anyway. So me and my dad hop into this car and take it for a spin. Only somehow it turned into a truck. With two massive steering wheels. That forced me to drive with my face pressed against the windshield. Eventually dad just said that this probably isn't a car I need to look at. I agreed. Looking at what is available, I'm beginning to know what I want in a car and what I don't want. This will hopefully narrow it down. Manual Transmission. At least 25 MPG, (prefer 30 or better) Color will not be Red I'll go 1996 or newer Prefer four door Sorry LT, but No Trucks! Foreign Make And hopefully I can drive it without having my face pressed against the steering wheel. The chronicals of Buffy the Vampire Slayer continue. I'm just ending Season 3 now. Season 4 is on deck. Other then that, I'm still bored. Nothing going on, nothing at least, that I'm at liberty to talk about. Awkward silence insues. Did I mention that I'm bored? Labels: Car -Risawn: # 3:58 AM - |

12.27.2005

Car Shopping Well, one of the first things I have to do when I get home is to buy a car. I mean, literally, as soon as I step foot back home, I'll probably be searching for a car. I just know what I want. It's got to be economical, practical, and foriegn. My favorite brands are Toyota, Nissan, Subaru, Honda and Volkswagen. I'll probably stick with Toyota. I want a vehicle with a model year of 1999 or newer, but if I find a good car that's older, I won't rule it out. But it needs to be in good condition, I plan on driving this thing a lot. I also prefer Manual transmission. Every car I have ever owned (all two of them) has been a stick. I would also like a car that has cheap insurance, so that basically rules out Honda. Front wheel drive is good too. I just hope I don't do the typical girl thing, buy a car, and forget little things like Oil changes and the like. This car is going to have to get me up mountains regularly. One model I was looking at that I really liked was the Subaru Baha. But I don't think the gas mileage was good enough for me. I would prefer to get a car that get's 30 MPG or better. I would like a four door, but its not absolutely necessary. Just a little car to get me to where I need to go. I'll likely get a luggage rack for the top of it and mount snowboards up there. Yeah, I want to be all hooah. Car is a necessity. I've learned that while I've been here. I hate not being able to drive places. Car shopping commences. We'll see how it goes when I get back to the states. If anybody else of car knowledge has any advice, I am all ears. Labels: Car -Risawn: # 3:20 PM - |