Month: July 2007

The Long and Winding Road

The 4th at Snooj’s was fun. I got there a bit early and played with Parker on the trampoline. I tried to use the surface of the trampoline to explain how gravity is actually a distortion in the fabric of space, but Parker was insistant that we play his game instead, where he does some acrobatic feat on the trampoline, and then I land on my head trying to copy it.

Austin arrived, then more friends, families and cohorts trickled in. Austin was grillmaster, and had to keep repeating “no, I’m not a vegetarian” – not sure why everyone thinks he is… he just has a vegetarian vibe to him, I guess.

4th food
Here are the pictures I took at Snooj’s

There was paintball target shooting, stickball, couch wrestling, and more frivolity.

Finally, I headed out around 11:30 or midnight.

At that point, it was raining, and as I drove, the rain increased to a hammering force. I drove more slowly than on the way there, I didn’t want to hydroplane or anything.

I was very tired, and only 2/3 the way home, when I noticed the music I was listening to was cutting out. It wasn’t my iPod, or the car stereo, rather it was my consciousness flickering out momentarily. At the next rest stop I pulled over and took a nap. I may have mentioned, my ideal sleeping conditions are being a passenger in a car, at night, during a rainstorm, where it’s cold and there is just a little bit of heat coming from the heater. Something about the sound of the wet tires, the rhythm of the wipers, the cold and warmth that just put me right out.

After a 20-minute nap, I was rested enough to drive the rest of the way home, whereupon I dropped into a deep sleep, for about 3 or 4 hours, when my alarm clock’s angry beeps roused me.

My body is a bit sore today, all that trampolining and wrestling on my unfit and aging body… my neck and spine are especially sore, due to the tag-team combo of trampolining and lots of driving.

I decided instead of driving to NJ tonight (and getting there close to midnight) I’ll instead leave tomorrow morning (getting there close to noon). Plus that means Sarah can come visit tonight, she hurt her back holding down a struggling patient yesterday, so we can trade back massages (though I think I’m getting the better half of that particular trade 😉

The underside of my car

I peered around under my car. Running over the deer left tufts of fur and strands of bloody flesh stuck to any exposed screw or piece. The only actual damage appears to be a dent in the gas tank.

Jake was there when I was finishing up looking, and he didn’t think there would be anything the dealer could do, other than replace the tank. Seeing as it’s not too big a dent, and there are no actual leaks, I think I’ll just live with it as it is.

Hopefully next time it rains, driving through a puddle or two will wash away the bits of deer.

I also decided to clean some bird crap off my hood. I was trying a couple different cleaners to do it, but they kept leaving the hood with streaks. Then I remembered “This Old Pinball”, a pinball restoration video done by a couple guys showing different techniques. I remembered one of them espousing the virtues of spit as a cleaning agent. So I spit on my hood and sure enough, it worked well to clean the spot. I guess they call it “spit and polish” for a reason.

thumpity-thump-thump

Driving home last night, I hit a deer.

Lucky for me, the deer was already dead, but by the time I saw it lying in my lane there was no time to swerve around it. I had to go straight over it, with a loud, horrible thump-thump-thump as my car failed to clear the height of the deer.

By the side of the road, I saw a maroon SUV pulled into the breakdown lane… I figured they either did the same thing I did, or perhaps hit the deer when it originally took its ill-fated walk onto the interstate.

I was really tired when I got home, and it was dark, so I wasn’t able to fully check out to see if there was any damage. I peered underneath, and didn’t see any fluids dripping from the car, so I don’t think the gast tank or brake lines were damaged. Today after work I’ll give a full look-see. It was Adam’s turn to drive today, so my car is taking a rest at home right now.

The Prius is designed to have a pretty flat underside, so I’m hoping the deer just glanced off without any damage.