Blog 27 : 3/19/2010 : I Hate the Beltway

Well I took a few days to write this blog since my last one, and as you will see it was for a good reason. Yesterday was a beautiful day. I was at work and having trouble concentrating because it was just too nice. And I was a bit ahead on my week's work as well, so I decided to take off a few minutes early and enjoy the day.

So there I am on the beltway driving way too fast to keep up with traffic during that stretch of the beltway at that time when lo and behold I see some cardboard in the road ahead of me. Now as this is dead center of my lane I decide to drive over top of it and avoid swerving into anyone else's lane. It looks short enough and besides it IS cardboard.

WRONG. It was a cinder block. Some F-er let it roll off the back of his car going on the beltway because he couldn't be bothered to secure the crap in his truck.

Well I jump at the sound of smashing under my car and roll to the curb only to see two other cars pull over with me. I originally though they were just concerned pedestrians ( a rare thing in DC) but no. That cinder block took out not 1 not 2 but 3 cars. FAIL. And just for the record no concerned pedestrians came to our rescue (FAIL DC. FAIL.) So we review the situation as follows:

Car 1, Van. Hit the block first I believe and the block tore out his oil pan, dumping all of his engine's oil and rendering his car undrivable.

Car 2: Mine. Original prognosis, it tore out a metal strip from my plastic rock guard under my car. VERY minimal damage. Or so I THOUGHT.

Car 3: The debris coming out from under my car blew out this guy's brand new tire.

So we call the cops they show up but seeing as the dude with the cinder block got away no report could be filed so it all comes down to us. So now I call the insurance company and they agree to fix it, but who is stuck paying the deductible because some most likely un-insured cinder block toting motorist ran off? Me.

So I drive home thinking my car has nothing more than a little banging up, but as I drive it sounds VERY bad. Call the Geico, get it towed, repair quote came in today.
3 Grand.

Cinder block rolled under the car and punched one of the engine mounts (for those who don't know your engine is mounted to your frame by about 6-8 mounting supports) so the engine mount is nearly torn away and the undercarriage is horribly bent. On top of that it mangled my exhaust so I need a new exhaust. And a few dings here and there.

Extreme Fail. $590 out of pocket because I have to pay the "aging cost" of the exhaust system.

So I could be mad, but here is the way I see it. I could wish it went differently, but if you think about it, had I tried to avoid it and missed I could have ripped out the side of my car and gotten in a serious high speed accident. As it went the three cars ended up steadily crushing the block into powder and no one got hurt, and everything can be Fixed. And had the wrong person hit that block first or at the wrong angle going 80 (yes we were all going about 80) people probably would have gotten very hurt so on the whole, I like to think I sacrificed my car for the greater good.

Fail, but an acceptable fail.

Now this didn't cross my desk as a patent, but it is totally worth mentioning.
The "Wine Rack"
http://www.amazon.com/The-WineRack-200-008-Wine-Medium/dp/B001FYZZI2/ref=sr_1_19?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1268312129&sr=8-19