Just some quick updates.

I just talked to Diablo autobody for the first time in a couple weeks, and they say the work is basically complete, but that the A/C condenser they put in appears to be faulty and they're waiting for another to arrive. I should have an update in about three days.

In other news I've been helping my mom gut and remodel my dad's old room and it's been a helluva job from all the nicotine build-up. Last week we steam cleaned the matress and box springs, 409'ed the frame, and refitted it with new sheets, etc. This past weekend I moved the old computer into the garage and broke down the desk and TV stand, hauled it to the apartment and dumped them in the dumpster there. Then went to HomeDepot and got all new wall sockets, light switch and phone jack. I actually got to go twice after learning that the house has aluminum wiring.

We were planning the new carpet and paint when we found a soft, damp spot in the wall opposite the outside water faucet. Further examination found the carpet to be wet, adn the baseboard bowed around the same area. So it looks like the project will be on hold until she gets a plumber out fix whatever's going on there.

It's been a helluva project though. :o)

August has been one FUCK of a month. There has just been no precedent for how much I've learned about myself and others and no amount of blogging can portray it. No details; I suppose I'll just continue from this new space of awareness I occupy.

Weekend Report

So yeah, Saturday was phone tag with insurance, the body shop, and towing, and finally getting the car towed. I heard from them today; it's about $3300 in damage, or "about a quarter of what it was last time", as the body shop dude put it. And they anticipate it'll take around eight days to get parts and complete the work. In the mean time I've rented a Ford Focus (glad I added rental reimbursement to my policy :o). It's a POS-car, but it's kinda fun having a little car to jam around in again.

Saturday night we babysat Zack; we watched The Borne Identity and ordered pizza and has a generally cool time.

Sunday was my brohams 40th birthday where we were treated to a brunch buffet at Wine and Roses in Lodi. It was my first time there and I gotta say I was impressed; a very swanky, relaxing place I'd love to visit again in the future, though I know it wasn't a cheap meal. It was Mike and family, and a few of his close homies. For dessert I got to endure Mike and Alex smack-talking my blog. (I won't mention the SPF-factor next time, jeesh. ;o)

The Pilots Second Accident

Bah, so today I was leaving work, heading up Pershing and didn't notice the backed up traffic at the light at Harding, and by the time I realized it, it was too late: the car in front of me, a Ford Expedition, was completely stopped and I had traffic on either side of me. I wasn't speeding, but only had a few feet of stopping distance. So I plant the brake pedal and ride the ABS... ...right into their trailer hitch. There was no visible damage to their car, but the trailer hitch went straight through my bumper, folded the bumper brace right into, bending, and puncturing the radiator which dumped it's contents onto the road.

So yeah, it's pretty much effed. We exchanged information, but there didn't seem to be any damage to their car, and it was a relatively soft impact. All that energy just went right into that one spot. So I pulled onto a quieter side-street where it's spending the night until I can get it towed tomorrow.

On a brighter side, at least Eighmee has a car now. We went to Red Lobster tonight; a good chill time after a pain-in-the-ass of an occurance like that.

Paula's 70th Birthday in SF

Yesterday made for a long but pretty cool day. The weather in SF was perfect; warm and lightly breezy. Traffic was fairly reasonable all day, and we started with the tour of Alcatraz. We'd done it about a couple years back and it was generally just as I'd remembered it. This time we stayed and watched the movie in the lobby which was actually quite worth the time as it offered a lot of pictures of the history of non-prison life on the island. We all managed to get a bit of sunburn the the trips out there and back. Once back we went to lunch at a little Italian restaraunt on the wharf where we'd eatten the last time we came. From there we headed to the Metreon to check out the Titanic exhibit. It was absolutely awesome. We thought it pricy to get in at $22/ticket, and they wanted an extra $5 for the audio tour. While I didn't think the audio tour was really worth it, the quality of the overall experience was very high. There were many, many items recovered from the seabed and restored to a state I wouldn't think would be possible. Recreated staterooms, hallways, and the grand staircase really made you think you were litterally walking through history and getting to experience parts of the ship unseen for 80 years. There was a giant 'iceberg' you could touch to experience the cold waters of the ocean from that night. And finally the grand-finale was a raised 40,000 lb. section of the hull. Nearby there were smaller pieces encased that you could touch. Just very, very cool. Afterwards we headed to the Golden Gate bridge where Paula and Harvey did a victory run across for her 70th birthday. More Starbucks on the way home and it was a very full, good day.