wolfwings

Slid out coming home. Was behind a car on an offramp so no, I wasn't going fast at all. 405 North, Brookhurst North, 30mph turn, was going 25-30 and it had started raining (light mist, the worst rain type for driving) when a squirrel decided to end it's life by diving between me and Mr. Eggshell Generic Midsized Car.

Bad reflexes I do possess include trying to dodge a foreign object coming at the side of my car suddenly.

On the wide left turn, I made a sudden sharp right, lost traction on... I think only the front wheels, interestingly. I was able to 'rudder' the car back straight, but then I hit a 'thump' and the back end slid out the OTHER way, pointing me out towards the outer edge of the curve again without enough room to get back on the road.

So, squirrel got his wish, I went off the embankment, slid down the ice-plant on my passenger-side, at the 75-degree section of the embankment the car slipped off the wheels entirely at which point I sat back, released the steering wheel, killed the engine, and covered my face with my arms and ducked, expecting the car to roll over onto it's roof, all the glass to implode, and me to end up stuck that way, wishing I'd had time to drop the seat back first.

Car _did_ roll very neatly onto it's roof... and it didn't even buckle the roof, just slid along quietly, caught the dirt ditch just before the fence with the driver-side, which stopped that part, and basically rolled the car almost vertical again, at which point I 'sat down' as hard as I could, and a moment later the car was... well, trying to be upright again, all the glass intact (even the already-cracked windshield took no further damage) dropped up on all four wheels on the chain-link fence.

About 90 minutes later, the car was winched backwards along the fence until it 'drove down' itself onto the dirt, then power-assisted back onto the road.

Total damage? Shitloads of iceplant wedged in EVERY orifice, including a wad I shot out of the exhaust pipe when I turned over the engine. And both front quarter-panels and the front 'hood latch cover' panel took a beating, but other than that the car is actually unharmed as near a I can tell. Still drives very straight, still shifts as smooth a ever... I blame it on the fact the car weighs about 1200lbs total, and the roll was very slow, and onto a very cushioning substance.

On a side-note... just found the stack of XMas cards folks had sent me... And I have to ask, dingo_? Is that virtual mistletoe redeemable? =^.^=

Sorry, I'm just a little desperate for some humour right about now. But at least the squirrel is dead... or I saw the bloody tail, so if it's not dead I'm awfully surprised and think it's about to die. So someone got their wish, apparently.

And kattything? I'm going to be at FC, by hook, crook, or other insane method. No matter what. =^.^=

...I'm starting to think it wasn't tiredness that made me as ill, incoherent, and made me have such a total breakdown on the road trying to drive Mira to one of her Mom's places in Mt. Baldy.

( It's icky... )

This seems to indicate the 1-650cc-rotor design is $5k. So... 75hp engine in a 14x13x15-inch space that weighs 80lbs (including the cooling systems and what-not), for $5k. Figure another $2k to adapt the transmission linkages to the new engine. So, $7k to drop about 300lbs off of my car, bump HP from 65 to 75.

That's actually tempting. Going to actually e-mail them to find out if they have cheaper prices any time soon, since they just announced getting a partnership to produce about 10-million engines a year for something-or-other hush-hush. =^.^=

No, I didn't use the stupid computer-based voting system.

I don't trust them, and I build them for a living. I know just how fallable they are.

So I asked for a paper ballot, got a very interested/amused look from the staff (young, male geek wearing sandals, t-shirt, ragged jeans in a subcompact car, carrying a cell phone and PDA, asking for a paper ballot?!?) until I said, quite flatly, "I build and program computers for a living. I don't trust them to have the only copy of my vote."

That, and there was a 20-minute wait for the computer-ballots, while both 'paper' booths were empty and unused, so I was out of there in under 5 minutes. When I left, the paper booths were being used evenly as well at that point, so I think I turned the tide, so to speak, at least for a moment. :-)

It's not much, but this is approximately the body work I'll be doing to my civic, though I'll be adding some kind of external hatches to the rear side panels, and the rear hatch as well. So, I made the LJ icon over there for any talk about progress on my car work. :-)

The following just happened this weekend.

My car was parked at a JCPenny's parking lot, just outside the Employee Entrance.

All five parking slots around it (two to either side, three across the berms) had cars in them.

When it was time to go, police tape surrounded all six previously-mentioned parking spots.

My car was the only one still there.

Why? Because the interior is completely stripped out right now. Key broke, so doors are unlocked, ignition is removed entirely as is the steering-column cover, revealing that all the wiring has been removed and pulled off the column. (It's mounted under the dash to switched and buttons currently.) The seats fold perfectly flat, and I do that when I get out right now, then throw a blanket over top of them, so it looks like the seats were stolen too (and the back seat IS gone, by design) so... apparently the car looks pre-stripped, so the thieves ignored it.

Just wait until I get the rear glass replaced with steel panelling, and the front glass with non-silicate transparent laminate sheets.

BTW, finally got my registration stickers. Now to wait until the dries enough to put them on the license plates. Probably just in time for my custom plates to show up. What plates? WLFWNGS

Oh, and I have a job interview on Thursday. =O.o= Probably for $10/hour at a graveyard-shift job. *squee*

Long story short, I'm done in the Bay Area, but have nothing planned to do until Wednesday, when I pick up chaoswolf from school so we can hang out for a while before I head back down south.

Anyone out there want to hang out? Unfortunately, I lost most folks cell-phone numbers, so I'll need folks to call me first this time. (951)255-3953 kattything? thespatula? jonasbagel? mira_fastfire maybe even? =^.^=

Anyways, you all take care. If nothing else, I'm up here in time to hit Cluck-U (again) amusingly, so that's goodish at least. And yes, I disabled comments, because I won't have access to a computer most of the time to check them. So call me instead, or use LJ's built-in text messaging tool if you don't want to run up your phone bill. :)