Crash

It was a little after 7:00 pm. I was in my apartment eating dinner and watching MSNBC when there was a loud BOOM and the entire building shook.

My apartment complex is unstable and far from soundproof. If someone at the other end slams a door, the entire building shakes and everyone can hear it. At this point, I’m used to noises that seem stronger and closer than they really are, so I continued eating as though nothing happened.

I would have continued to ignore it, but a few minutes later my roommate came out of her bedroom and said, “Dude, I think someone just hit the building!” She went downstairs to take a closer look. Meanwhile, I ate.

A few minutes later, my phone rang. The roommie informed me that someone did - in fact - hit the building. No longer able to ignore current events, I decided to check it out… after I finished eating.

When my plate was empty, I grabbed my jacket and digital camera and went outside to investigate. The scene was simple. An alleyway full of police cars, ambulances and fire trucks. A woman, presumably the driver, being attended to by the police and paramedics. As I soaked in the scene, I took pictures. I then asked a few questions to the witnesses to piece together the events. I felt like I was a journalist again.





The woman from apartment number 17 drove home from work. Though the rain had stopped hours ago, it was still very wet outside. When she turned into her carport, her foot slipped off the brake pedal and the car plowed straight into the wall. The setup of the complex has the carports directly below and behind apartments, so she broke a hole into the bedroom of an apartment on the first floor.



Scene of the accident.





The good news is that no one was injured. The bad news is that her car is really jacked up and the apartment she hit is in bad shape. In addition to the hole in the wall, the car destroyed the main power and water lines, so the apartment was dark and completely flooded. Firemen ran in and out of the apartment to dump buckets of water with trash cans and whatever else they could fill. They eventually just shut off the water for the entire complex.

Tough to say what will happen now. One thing is for sure, Mario and his girlfriend (the people from the damaged apartment) will need to find a new place to stay for a while. There is a lot of commotion in that apartment right now, and I can only assume there will be a lot more of that in the days ahead as crews work to fix the damage.

The water will stay off through the night and into tomorrow, so it looks like that hot shower I wanted will have to wait. Also, I drink a lot of tap water, so with the water turned off in the middle of a very thirsty night, I had to hit up the local gas station/mini-mart for some drinks.

Not really a good night for anyone.

But on the bright side, at least dinner was good.


Currently in Rotation: Pop
Noisettes – “24 Hours”


Taken from the album Wild Young Hearts

Do The Right Thing

Several weeks ago, I woke up early in the morning, got dressed for work and left my apartment. I left at 4:30 am, so it was dark outside. When I got to my car, I pushed the button on my clicker to unlock the door and pulled the handle. For some reason, the door wouldn’t open.

I tried it again. Push the button, pull the handle. Once again, the door wouldn’t open.

It was then that I looked down and saw a giant dent in my car door. Evidently, some jackass hit my car in the middle of the night and damaged it bad enough that the door can’t open from the outside. And of course, the f**ker didn’t leave a note. No insurance info, no “sorry that I hit you,” not even a napkin with a fake phone number on it. I got the old hit and run; the hit and split; the smash and dash.









As you can imagine, this has made getting into my car a real pain. I’ve spent the last few weeks jumping through the window like the Dukes of Hazzard.






Okay, maybe that’s an exaggeration, but not by much.

Yesterday I visited my insurance company and they appraised the damage. They crunched a few numbers, estimated the damage and cut me a check to help get it fixed. Soon I’ll be searching for a good local body shop to replace the door and repaint several parts on the driver’s side.

When I spoke to the insurance guy, he gave me a shocking statistic. In the thirty years that he’s been in the business, he has filed over 75,000 claims. Of all the hit and runs he’s encountered, he says he could count on both hands the number of times that the dasher actually left a note behind.

It’s so weird to me. I know that if I ever hit someone, I would at least leave a phone number or something. But apparently I’m a total sucker for thinking that way. Nobody does the right thing.

I’m curious to know something. How many of you have been involved in a hit and run? Did the other person leave their contact information behind (or if you were at fault, did you leave your contact information behind?).


Currently In Rotation: Punk

AFI – Miss Murder