a lovely start to the day (not)

This morning while I was driving to work someone hit my car. It's a minor fender-bender (probably just paint in my case), and the other driver admitted responsibility immediately. So while annoying, this should have been a five-minute stop for exchange of information, followed by her paying my repair bill.

But no... I had to draw someone who's never been in an accident before. She totally freaked.

I feel bad for the lady; the timing really does suck from her point of view. She got married on Saturday, she just graduated college, and she was on her way to a job interview. I initially told her "look, we can do this quickly and you won't be late for your interview", but she called to cancel it -- which turned out to be the right call given how completely she fell apart afterwards.

So instead, it took me more than half an hour to complete the exchange of information and try to calm her down. (Part of this time was consumed by a search for the contact lens she cried out of her eye.) She insisted that you're supposed to call the police when there's an accident; I said they don't care if all cars can be driven away and no one was hurt ('cause I made that assumption once upon a time too), but she called anyway. I gave her a business card and told her to call if the police wanted to talk with me, and then asked if I could go to work while she waited for the police. (This was on Carson Street, so I can just walk out there in the unlikely event that they want to talk with me.)

She is also very upset at the driver of another car, the (in her opinion) proximate cause of the accident. There was a disabled car on Carson -- no blinkers, no flares -- and other traffic pulled up behind that car, then realized it wasn't going anywhere and had to pull around. The person who hit me was backing up in preparation to go around. I wish her luck in pleading that case to the police (she was livid that they should "do something" to that driver), but I don't think the driver of a disabled vehicle is likely to be charged in an accident that doesn't even involve that vehicle, even though that driver should have been more pro-active (like standing behind the car and waving traffic around). You've got to pay attention to the other traffic, especially when doing non-standard maneuvers like backing up on a busy street. She's lucky that she learned this lesson for, probably, less than $200.

Now the trick is finding time to take the car to a body shop (or VW dealer other than the one where I bought it).

short takes

Go read this article about shenanigans with voter registration in Ohio. Yikes!

aliza250 is looking for an image file of t'filat haderech. I don't have one -- do any of you? (This came up in a comment to an older entry.)

This is one of the funniest pictures I've seen lately (link from estherchaya).

From src: "Somewhere out in the tropical Atlantic there's the hurricane equivalent of a glider generator. Maybe even a queen bee." This made me laugh (geek humor), but it also made me wonder if anyone under the age of 30 gets it. (Her post has definitions, for those who want to know what the heck we're talking about.)

Hey, the Supremes are going to decide on a case of a city taking property via eminent domain for economic development (read: not public use). Pittsburgh has been doing, and threatening more of, that, and it seems like such a clear abuse of what eminent domain was created for. I'm glad to see a similar court challenge. (Eminent domain is for things like new roads, not for department stores and sports stadia.) I guess this is another argument for buying the cheapest house on the street (which is generally touted as good practice for eventual resale): if your neighbors are more threatened than you are, they'll do some of the fighting. (In our case I think many of our neighbors are also considerably wealthier than we are, which helps. Not that any politician with hopes of re-election would even threaten property in my neighborhood, mind... so it's academic for us.)