Another Opinion Among Many

Here’s what I bought.  Its a 2005 Nissan Sentra 1.8 Special Edition.  I bought it because of its low mileage (66,000kms) and the fact that its only 3 years old, rather than the alternatives that I’ve looked at, which were 5-7 years old.  This is the first vehicle that I’ve owned that has an alarm, so I’ll have to remember that.  Hopefully, it will meet or exceed the EPA fuel economy ratings of 8.4L/100km(28mpg) city and 6.7L/100km(35mpg) highway.  That would be nice.

The air conditioner apparently works, which is good.  It has air bags and a fairly decent CD stereo with an aux input for an mp3 player.  And, it apparently is safe in a crash.

This morning, I was late for work.

I did not leave late. It usually takes about 6-7 minutes to drive from my house to work. Today, I left, as usual, about 35 minutes before I was to start. But, I was 15 minutes late.

The reason that I was late is because there was a huge accident on the Westmoreland St bridge, which connects my area of the city to the south side. Both directions were blocked, so traffic was jammed up across the whole span. The southbound traffic is what usually fills the bridge in the morning. After a few folks in the inside lane realized that they were going nowhere fast, they U-turned northbound and headed off the bridge.

Once the way was clear, I did the same and headed for the Princess Margaret bridge, which was in the opposite direction from my workplace. I was only 15 minutes late.

There were several cars involved in the accident and I’ve not heard if anyone was seriously hurt or not. The road was bare this morning, but I imagine that, since it was -27°C this morning, some people had a hard time getting their cars started on time. Add that to a chronic late departure is a recipe for an accident any day. I see the same thing happen when it storms. These accidents happen because someone stopped paying attention at the wrong moment, usually because they’re in too much of a hurry.

Is dying or killing worth being “on time”? Personally, I’d rather be late and live. Or, even better, I check out the weather forecast the night before so that I know if I will have to get up a bit early to shovel my car out or if I have to allow extra time in case my car won’t easily start. It only takes a minute and I arrive alive. I sure wish that these poor folks, who at the least have smashed up cars, had done the same. Nobody needs the results of an accident.

I doubt that this will last, but I woke up this morning to about 5 cm (2 inches) of snow on the ground.  Its is supposed to get above freezing today and the precipitation is supposed to go through the morning, so it’ll probably rain off.  But, this is a sure sign of things to come, I am certain.  I get the feeling that this winter won’t be starting off with 10-12% warmer weather, like last year did.  This time last year, the news became inundated with “global warming” scares.  I wonder what will be the fashion in the news this year.

So, I’ve got the car registered and insured, but its 30 miles away. Wish me luck on securing a ride to get it tonight (I’ll need it). I’d rather not bike or hitch hike out to get it.

So, it seems that we will likely be owning a motor vehicle sooner than I had planned. I was going to go through this winter without a car and make my way back and forth to work with other means (but now on the really cold, snowy, or rainy days…). My in laws are replacing their car with something newer. There present vehicle can be trusted for short trips, though, and since they realized that its resale would not net very much, they decided to give it to us. So, now I have to call my insurance company and see if they’ll start me off with similar rates as I had 4-1/2 months ago. I didn’t see the point of insuring a car that I didn’t own any longer which was in a junk yard anyway.

So, I guess the kids might actually get to school without frostbite this year. I’m still riding my bike.

A joke from my inbox:

I went to the Patent Office trying to register some of my inventions. I went to the main desk to sign in, and the lady at the desk had a form that had to be filled out. She wrote down my personal info and then asked me what I had invented.

I said, “A folding bottle.” She said, “Okay, what do you call it?”
“A Fottle.” “What else do you have?”
“A folding carton.” “What do you call it?” “A Farton.”
She sniggered and said, “Those are silly names for products, and one of them sounds kind of crude.”
I was so upset by her comment that I grabbed the form and left the office without even telling her about my folding bucket

I got my walking in this morning, for sure.  I went to the school with Caleb at the regular time (and, on the way home I realized that I made a whole lunch for him when its a short day) and came back to get Abby ready.

Yes - to get Abby ready! Its her first day of school and she was so excited to go.  I sure hope that it doesn’t wear off, as she’s going to need a challenge.  The little sponge! I’ve taken the morning off work so that I could go with her and also get some other stuff done, like get my driver’s license renewed.  Just because I don’t own a car doesn’t mean that I won’t be driving one in the next few years!

In an hour, school will be out and we’ll go get the kids.  Its almost not worth having a day, being so short and all.

Do I hear an echo in here?…