What a day.

[Simon]

<rant>
So I'm driving to Vienna like every Tuesday morning. It's 5:35 am, I'm doing a comfortable 95 mp/h with 80 miles still to go on an empty Autobahn, and life is good in general terms.

So, all of a sudden - the engine decides it's had it and blows up on me. Anyone ever watched an F1 race when they have their engines blow? That's about how it looked. Zero visibility, no power, hardly any steering, no brakes. Fun.

Anyway, car's dead, pretty much. I'm fine, so that's a start. The Autobahn being empty had the advantage of noone being in my way, so I managed to coast to a stop without crashing into anything. Waited an hour for a tow truck, waited another hour for a train, took another hour and a half to get to Vienna. So in toto, my trip took me about 6 hours today vs. 2 normally.

Also, it's just great that the farking thing dies on me now, when I was going to buy a new one soon (and reap trade-in benefits, between 2000 and 4000 € bonus vs. not having an old car). My laptop is also slowly disintegrating, bah. Anyone have some hints for the lottery?

So after I get to Vienna and drop my stuff off, I go to work. It's a beautiful and sunny day, easily 70+ Fahrenheit/21+ Celsius, so I think to myself, why take a jacket. Go to work and enjoy the nice day, it's been bad enough. Well, no, obviously it wasn't done with me yet.

So then about 20 minutes before I get off work, it starts a massive downpour. Still going on after a few hours now. All I had on me was a Polo shirt, no jacket or anything, and it got pretty cold. Great, now I'm gonna be sick too

So it still isn't enough, I guess. Wanted to call someone and noticed my phone was still in my car, which was about 80 miles away from me. Same with some rather important cards, like my CC and debit card, and my driver's license.
</rant>

No sympathy please, just needed to rant a bit.

It's good I'm going to sleep now, I guess. Only way to go is up. A big two fingers in your face, fate.

[Fivestar Crashtest]

Wow, that had to be scary to have the car crap out at 95 mph.  Here I was feeling sorry for myself because I'm stuck in my house with my Focus in the shop for bad wheel bearings, which I don't think should be happening at 20,000 miles.

I've never driven that fast.  In fact, I haven't even put the accelerator all the way down in this car.  I had to all the time in my last car, to merge with traffic, to pass, to go up hills etc.:  because it was a Geo Metro.

Hope your repairs aren't too expensive.

[Simon]

Oh, I'm not that sure about repairs. It's an old car, and if it'll cost more than about 500-700 € to fix, it's going to the scrapyard. Sucks very much, since I really need my transportation.

Anyway, sleep is easier when you don't have all that on your mind. Insomnia, anyone? The accident itself wasn't all that bad, would have been way worse with traffic close to me cause I couldn't see anything at all out the front - used the side windows instead to keep on the road and go to the breakdown lane.

So, guess I got lucky in an unlucky situation. My specialty...

Night (hopefully),
Simon.

[hiamps]

Did you give much thought to taking tomorrow off? May not be wise to push fate....Hopefully good night.

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

- Arthur C. Clarke