4kcsq totalled :(

[aparatii at xprt.net]

warning: kinda verbose, very long and extremely blabbery, i dont 
really have a point here, mostly just venting, please dont read ;)


I guess it sorta began when we here in portland, OR got some 
snow and freezing rain for about 2 days in december.  I lost control 
one time in a parking lot in the middle of the night...  i supposed it 
didnt help that my tires were bald.  so i needed new tires and i said 
i'm gonna get me some of them Toyo Observes tomorrow.
on my way back from les schwab, i was surprised at how different 
they felt.  i guess that's something everybody knows about snow 
tires, but didnt mention to me!  teehee.  In the snow, they were 
really impressive and i was very happy -- but on dry pavement it felt 
like i was driving on rims made of gelatin.  i figured i'd get used to it.
I did, in some approximation.  I learned to enter a corner 10-15 mph 
slower than i would have with the perf. tires
unfortunately i should have known that the day after i had fun 
driving them around in the snow and playing, the sun would come 
out and we wouldn't see any sort of frozen preciptation through 
december and january.  not the best investment i'd made on the 
car and i soon realized that cornering on dry pavement was only 
one issue and that stopping distance was quite different as well.
so now it's a beautiful day, January 1 -- we're gonna start out the 
new year right and go up to mt hood for some fun in the snow.  I 
would guess we probably got almost 1/3 of the first of the 40 miles 
up there when this crazy guy slams on the brakes a in front of me 
so he wont miss the driveway he was looking for.  then the guy 
behind him slams on the brakes too...  So i apply the brakes a 
little more firmly than usual and the car starts wiggling down the 
road.  not really stopping like i would have expected with the 
peformance tires, which makes sense of course but i was alarmed 
anyhow, then they locked up.  i didnt realize they had locked at 
first because i was not hitting the brakes all that hard and well, it 
was such a nice day i suppose the music was up a wee bit too 
loud. :(  it took me too long to correct that situation.  Up until the 
very last couple feet before impact i wouldn't have believed i was 
going to hit the guy because it really felt like i had plenty of time to 
stop.
Happy new year!!!  That definitely made me miss the ABS on the 
'88 535i that i was driving before.
so anyway i couldnt go around him because of the ditch and the 
oncoming traffic so i rearended him.  (not that i would have been 
able to steer anyway with the brakes locked) I didnt hit him very 
hard at all, going about 5-10 mph... which i guess is pretty fast 
when you're talking about a collision but his 80's chrysler or buick 
or whatever it was didnt even have a significant scratch.  (to be 
honest, the whole car was a significant scratch before the incident) 
 we exchanged insurance info and i didnt get the impression the 
guy intended to do anything with mine, just a formality.

So we head 1/3 mile back to my buddy's place and check out the 
damage...  Hardly visible from the outside, but when we pop the 
hood it appears that the radiator support has been pushed back 
and is pressing some sort of high pressure hose (transmission? 
anyone?) up against the fanbelt which of course was slicing right 
through it.  We managed to bend it out a wee bit with a fence post 
so i could get it home.  now that hose is still a little sliced, but its a 
really thick one so it didnt cut all the way down, and was still 
workin fine though the fanbelt was still dangerously close.  being a 
lazy evil procrastinator i actually drove it around for 2 weeks like 
that (not often mind you, just to work and back) when i decided i 
ought to have it fixed since i had a little bit of collision coverage.  
dropped it off at the body shop and took a cab home.  
I saw the car again a week later when I came to get my personal 
things out so that the insurance company could take away my 
"totalled" '86 Audi.  
Anyway it probably sounds like i'm blaming my hip tires but really i 
just wasn't used to them yet, and i screwed up.. the little colored 
lines in the tread hadn't even worn off yet from the tire store.. heh.

My difficulty now is that i miss the car terribly.  I'm driving a 68 
Volvo 122S wagon now, which is cute and unique and stuff like 
that, but just not all that fun to drive.  I now have the option of 
recieving from the insurance $2300 or $500 and the car back.  
(that's after what i still owe on it and the deductible) I really dont 
care if the title says totalled, and in fact i dont really care that the 
front end looks a little amiss.  (i actually have a bra that will hide 
that anyhow)..  I JUST WANT TO DRIVE IT!  The estimate they 
gave me was about $2200 for repair...  I thought the guy was 
making a joke at first.  i suppose that estimate included the 
aluminum trim and other such things i could do without, but it blew 
me away and if i had the money for that i'd probably be driving a 
newer audi.
I dont see why the hell i cant just attach one end of a chain to a 
tree and the other end to the radiator support and back up.  BUT i 
am having troulbe making a decision because since i'm not terribly 
good at that sort of thing i'm afraid of getting the car home and 
finding that i'm screwed.  the fenders arent damaged, the hood isnt 
damaged, its basically just that little bar that the hood release 
goes into right down the center, and some misc things like a new 
turn signal.  Maybe a new bumper, i believe that was figured into 
the estimate.
ho hum,  what would you do?  :p
naturally i had just fixed everything, so the suspension was perfect, 
engine was running perfectly, everything was great except A/C and 
thats not something i like to think about in January.. fresh wash 
and wax even.. all shiny..  ::sigh::  It looked pretttttyyyyyy sweet.
anyhow i think i'll stop bitching now and can find something 
productive to do now that i have this off my chest.  :)  B'bye.

Carl