SPEEDWAGON DOWN! SPEEDWAGON DOWN!

As any who reads this knows (all both of you), the Speedwagon is down.

sad.
face.

Yesterday, while finishing the claims process, the insurance company informed me that they would cover a rental car for up to $30 a day. What is more than that... all i had to do was show up at Enterprise and everything would be taken care of. Direct billing and everything.

So, i figured it was worth a shot. I left the office at five, and wandered downtown to the enterprise office. It turns out that the company will cover the car for up to $30 dollars a day, but what the insurance company won't cover is the... wait for it... insurance.

The company that does nothing but insure stuff won't cover the insurance on the rental car they are providing me. Irony defined. Almost as much as Global Warming protesters getting snowed out.

So it is going to cost a hundred bucks or so to have the thing for like 6 days. Gross.

I go to get into the car, a Dodge Caliber, and as i open to door i get a whiff of something... something that smells like an old hotel room... gross.

That's right. Apparently everyone who has driven this relatively new car has been a chain smoker. Being in the car is like driving a giant nicotine patch. I took one breath and my cravings were gone... cravings that i've never had.

On top of that, driving a rental car feels so weird. Ever have a dog that came back from the groomers with a really goofy haircut (fur-cut?)? You know how the dog looks at you with a sense of shame that says "please don't laugh at me... its not my fault this happened!"
...same thing...

Also, since it is a rental, the car is the cheapest version of the vehicle that Dodge makes. Never have missed the Speedwagon more. i actually went into the garage for a while last night, just to spend time with it. The 'wagon may be missing a window, and it may have a bent doorframe, but at least it smells like that little pine-tree shaped thing i have hanging from the mirror.

Dear car... i miss you.

Some more things i have learned

A) REO Speedwagon cannot be listened to quietly. I tried today. When Handel was over, i elected to have The Wagon serenade me as i worked... i had to crank the earphones to get the right effect.

August 14th.... August 14th...

B) "Stuck Behind a Bus" would be both a challenging and terribly awful/frustrating arcade game, as evidenced my commute this morning. After getting away from the bus i was stuck behind on 65, i ended up behind a different one downtown. That'll add a good ten minutes to the commute.

C) Google is taking over the world, and I'm sadly behind. I found a new feature on google this morning called teh "Street View"... ok, so it was new to me. I spent the last four years in Meadville. If the street you are looking at is outlined in blue (most all of pittsburgh qualifies) you can click on it, and there are panoramic 360 degree pictures every 8 feet or so travelling down the street...

it is like driving. I saw my apartment, and the office, and people waiting for buses... nuts. Totally nuts.

soon the CIA will just be the GIA... the Google Intelligence Agency.

I bet if we think there are weapons of mass destruction somewhere in the future we'll just log on google... "oh look! there they are!... and what do you know, if you take that off ramp into that cave over there... Osama!"

Don't think it won't happen. We're almost there.