Thunder of Wade

So, I’m sitting there playing a video game at home – and the doorbell rings. I figure it’s my next door neighbor returning a DVD of Resident Evil 2 that I’d loaned him. Instead, it’s my former room-mate. I invite him in and he breaks down – just loses it as he apoligises. I gave him a hug and he just keep saying how sorry he was over and over.

After a bit he got a hold of himself again and we sat down. We tried to catch up a bit – but it was awkward. He invited me to dinner at the restruant where he works and we talked a little about our families.

The phone rang and I glanced at the caller ID and said I’d call them back – instead, he told me that he had to go. So, he left and I answered the phone.

It was weird. Weird, weird, weird. All these months – no contact. Then out of the blue…

And it’s good. I’m glad he stopped by. And I’m glad he felt bad – in a way. Maybe he’s learned something from it.

But I felt myself being so inwardly cold. Detatched. I went through the wringer when all this went down and I’ve had to put a lot of stuff behind me. Do I really want to start things up again? And a mental inventory shows that the the “trust bucket” is bone dry. Can you be friends with someone that you don’t trust?

I don’t know the answer to that one. I guess we’ll give it a whirl. The little voice in the back of my head is cynical and tells me I’m being set up. The magic 8-ball agrees.

But, if I don’t give him a chance – an I being untrue to myself? I’m a nice guy and I care about people. I don’t think I want to let my fears change who I am and how I act.

So, forgive = yes. Mostly. Forget? Nope. Means I haven’t learned anything.

Maybe the cynic is winning after all. And who’s to argue with the magic 8-ball?

More later – time to go back to work…

Another call from my insurance company yesterday. I called them back and they wanted to get photos of the cars involved. So, I told them where the car would be today and they said they’d send someone to take photos. Interestingly enough, they didn’t ask for a work phone number. So, if they can’t find the car, what are they going to do? This whole thing has got me really pissed off. What a huge waste of time and resources. I’m tempted to just ask for the amount of the damages and just pay it myself -even though it wasn’t my fault. It would be worth it to me to just end this. And I wonder how much worse this whole process would have been if there had been real damage or if someone had gotten hurt.

I remember back in high school they showed a slideshow before prom to discourage drinking and driving. Set to Phil Collins music, it was graphic and gruesome. I think it would have just as effective to sit us down and make us go through all the paperwork of an insurance claim – and all the phone calls. Can you tell I’m really annoyed?

In other news…

My ex-roommates mom called me last night. She said she’s been trying to get a hold of me for awhile now, but I’m either gone or on the phone. She hadn’t left a message, so I don’t know what the deal was there, but this time I was home and not already on the phone and we talked for a bit. She said she’d call me one of these days to invite me to breakfast some weekend – which is nice, but a little odd. I’ll have to see how it goes and if something is up.

Slightly overcooked (fired), refrigderated, and then microwaved spam tastes a little like bacon. Just in case you were wondering.

I woke up at 2:00 am this morning with a sore back. Looks like I’m going to have to break down and get a new matress. Can’t take many more of those kind of nights. I got dressed, went downstairs, and played video games until it was time to go to work. It’s 8:30 now and I’m already feeling the lack of sleep hitting me. I might even nap when I get home today – and it’s really unsual for me to even suggest such a thing.

(wait)…

Okay, sorry, had to stretch. Man, I’m really out of it. Suprised I can still type.

Strangely enough – my back feels fine. I suspect it’s the futon – that thing has mysterious powers. It’s primary abilty is to instantly induce a nap in anyone who lays down on it. Seriously. Could be that it made my back feel better to get me to lay down on it and thus take a nap. Sounds a little sinister.

Well, lots to do today – time to get back to work…

So, yesterday afternoon I went to the police station and picked up a copy of the police report. It confirmed what I’d told the officer – so I went home feeling a little vindicated.

There was a message on the machine from his insurance company claims office – which is also the same company I have my insurance through. I called them back and they recorded my statement about the accident. After the recorded part the woman told me that she was troubled by the inconsitancies – I said I was stopped and he hit me – he said the opposite. She said that it would most likely be a shared claim, with each of our insurances being hit for a percentage – since it wasn’t clear who was at fault. She suggested that I contact my agent to get things rolling there, even though there was no damage to my car.

I was a little ticked at this since it was pretty clear to me who’s fault it was – but I called my agent and got things started. I joked that he must not have seen me in my bright red four door car – she laughed and said her husband got hit in his F350 red truck by someone who claimed that they couldn’t see him.

We talked for a bit about what would happen to the claim and that it most likely wouldn’t affect my rates very much, if at all. Still, there goes my flawless record. Wanker.

Got a busy day ahead of me – starting off with a meeting in few. So, back to work…

I rarely get mad about things – life’s too short, you know? But I get annoyed. All the time. And this time, the line between annoyed and enraged was very very thin.

So, I’m pulling into the parking lot to get some new comics – it was, after all, a Wednesday. Which everyone should know is new comics day. I stop about 1/2 in the drive cause there’s a guy backing up. Why he’s backing up into the entrance is beyond me. Apparently, he doesn’t see me (I’m in a bright red, four door car, so I guess I was “stealthed”) and though I put it into reverse there was nowhere to go except back into the street. Before I can hit the horn, he’s already hit me.

So, he pulls forward (what he should have been doing in the first place) and sort of gets out of the way, but not really. I pull into a space and inspect my car – no damage. Not even a scratch. I go over to his car and we note that the left rear panel is popped loose. I get my insurance card out, even though it wasn’t my fault – but he insists on calling the police. So, he goes to find a phone and I write down his liscense plate number. He comes back out and stands by his car.

Eventually the police arrive and when the guy doesn’t start talking, I explained the situation (even though he’s the one that called). I tell the cop that I was starting to pull in, stopped, and he backed into me. The other guy, when he finally talkes, makes it sound like I ran into him. Wanker. The cop gets our info and then goes to report it in. The guy asks for paper and a pen so he can get my info – which I provide. The cop comes back in the middle of this and the guy is still talking. The officer gives us each his card with the report number and says we can get the report from our insurance agent. The guy wants to know if I need to write down his info – but the cop and I just look at him before I explain that it will all be in the report. We thank the offier and the guy shakes my hand – saying “he’s sorry this had to happen”.

So far, I’ve still got my cool. It wasn’t my fault, no damage to my car, and the officer seemed like a sharp guy, so the report should reflect that the old dude ran into me.

Finally, we go our separate ways – which in my case is the comic book store. And then, horror of horrors, they don’t have the ones I collect in stock.

Son of a bitch.

I could have been home, playing a video game. Instead, I try to go to the comic book store and get hit by an idiot.

This morning, I called my insurance agent about getting a copy of the report. She reacted as though I’d just asked her for a cheeseburger and fries and had no idea why I was told to call her to get the report. In hindsite, yeah, I guess it was a little odd, but they can look up pretty much everything else so I figured that would be easy enough. She suggested I call the police department and I spoke to someone in records about it – they confirmed that I could pick up a copy today. If it reflects what I said happened, I’m in the clear. Otherwise, it’ll cost me to have the panel on his car popped back into place. (really, that’s all there was to it).

I’m glad no one was hurt. And if my flawless driving record had to broken, I guess it’s better that it’s something small like this.

But I’m still annoyed. Still very, very annoyed.

And now, still no less annoyed, I get to go back to work…

grrrr…

Mild headache this morning…

You know, I’ve heard that Eskimos have over a hundred different words for snow. I should do that with my headaches – since I have so many of them will all sorts of different levels. Everything from mildly annoying to a full blown thermonuclear barf-fest. I need to make a list, I think.

Work yesterday was very sucky – huge things went wrong and the forces of darkness conspired against me. I really need to start acting on all those death threats I hand out – getting way behind.

Hmmm…looks like I forgot my watch today. Maybe that why I’m so out of it. Kinda tough to be the master of space and time if you don’t even have a watch. Granted, I could just look at the computer, the phone, or turn around and look at the clock hanging on the wall behind me, but where’s the fun of that?

Well, I guess I should get back to work…you can sense my enthusiam, I’m sure.

Went to the Cleveland Car Show last weekend with one of my friends. Had a pretty good time – though I’m really bad at judging cars or comparing the relative features on them. I’ve been once before and like last time I was amazed at how much some of these cars cost – and how little they seemed worth it. It was cool to see the new Cobalt – the replacement to my current car, the Cavilier. Not as many concept cars as I would have liked – and the food was really expensive – but still a good time.

Also, in case you didn’t know, last Friday was “Take your Wookie to Work day”. Photos:

Back to work…

So, lunch at the student union a few days ago. Fried rice, pre-packaged sushi (better than it sounds) and a bottle of pepsi. $7.00

When I first started going to the House of Hunan in the food court – the fried rice was packaged in a re-usable plastic container with a transparent lid. So, paying for the food was simple since the cashier could see what it was.

Since those containers proved to be too expensive – they switched to opaque sytrofoam. Still, paying was easy since they just asked what was in there and I told them. Apparently, this was a cause for some concern, so they started marking the containers before they would hand them to me. No biggie, makes sense to me.

But they now insist that you open the container to show them what you’ve got. Well, during the wintertime, I’ve got my hands full, is what I’ve got. So, set everything down, open the containers for inspection, close them back up, then get out my wallet and pay for my food.

And they’re still marking the containers. Which makes no sense to me. To circumvent this system, a person would have to carry in a pre-marked container with a differnt identifier and swap the contents for a cheaper price – or use a black marker and carefully modify the mark to that of differnt food item.

What they are esssentially saying is that they don’t trust some people to not cheat the system. But the result is that they can’t trust anyone and treat everyone like they’re trying to get away with something.

The same kind of thing happens at Arby’s – at least the one near where I live. When I pay for my food with a $20 – they mark it with a special pen to see if it’s counterfit. Every time. Not a random sampling – every time. And now they’re also checking $10. What’s next? Toss a $5 on the counter and get it inked up to prove I’m not a counterfitter?

So, for the record – if I say I’m getting fried rice, that’s what’s in the box. And I’ll be paying with money that I earned – and not that I printed myself.

end.rant = back to work…

Watched “the grudge” over the weekend – scared the crap out of me. Big time. Normally, I’m a little bored with scary movies – been there, done that. My nightmares are always 10 times worse anyway. This movie – scarier than my dreams. Had a lot of trouble getting to sleep that night, and a lot of trouble staying asleep. Eyes closed and I’d see images from the movie. Eyes opened, and…well, I had trouble opening my eyes for fear of what I’d see. It was that bad.

I also picked up Resident Evil: Apocolypse – but thought I should wait a few days before working on my “confronting my fear of zomibes”.

Played a game that my neighbor loaned me – Champions: Return to Arms. Did okay for quite a while – then got my ass handed to me by a giant spider.

Enough of an ass kicking that I decided to restart the game with a new character. This time, I decided to take the path of evil and in the second area I got smacked down by a troll. Aren’t trolls evil? Apparently, they are – but they don’t care who they smack.

So, I just turned off the game and read a book.

And now it’s time to get back to work…

I’m not going to go into the whole gastrointestinological incident, but can I say that eating an entire can of cashews in one rapid sitting is not a good idea. Draw your own conclusions as to what really happened, then increase it by a factor of at least 3.

Read a George Carlin book last night – “When will Jesus bring the pork chops?”. A good read, but I think he got a little carried away with his euphimisms. Most of the book was made up of these and it got a little old. There were some gems in there, though, that I may need to jot down and save.

Finished Prince of Persia again – this time not skipping past the cinimatic near the end – pretty cool. Now I’m debating on if I should go ahead and buy the seqel already or wait until it goes down in price.

Working on my website a little bit – trying to use style sheets – lots of clean up to do on the existing pages to get them ready.

Well, not much else going on, so it’s back to work…