A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Mailbox
“You realize that you probably totaled it, right?”
(sigh) “Yeah, I got to thinking about it around 3:00 a.m. Sunday morning, laying there in bed, asking myself why I could be so bloody stupid.”
Saturday night, around 8:00 p.m., I had my first serious accident. It was a one-car accident. In my driveway. With a tree.
Was I drunk? Nope, but I might as well have been. I had a migraine, and for some unknown reason, I decided that driving my truck was a Good Idea™. It wasn’t. I backed up just fine into my three-point turn to get out of the driveway; when I hit the gas, I apparently did so too hard and jerked the wheel over too far, because I knocked the ever-loving crap out of the left front of the truck. I realized an ohnosecond before I hit that I was going to hit–and it was the first time that the tree registered in my conscious.
Driving under the influence … of a migraine. Dumbass. I’m okay. Darlene isn’t. She’ll probably be DOA today when the insurance or collision guys get a look at her. (sigh)
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to put on a brave face and start surfing for my new car …
WRX!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
July 15th, 2002 at 08:56They have a used silver one at the dealer….. I saw it last week……
July 15th, 2002 at 08:56Oh, I also know of a black saturn for sale
July 15th, 2002 at 08:57I didn’t finish the conversation above, which was what Todd and I had in his truck as he drove me to work this morning.
"Well, you could look into getting that WRX you’ve talked about."
"Yeah, that was my next thought."
I’ll try to be free at lunchtime, Sean … Trillian keeps crapping out on me, though.
July 15th, 2002 at 08:57I ain’t drivin’ no damn Saturn!
Sorry, Kat.
July 15th, 2002 at 08:58I’m having amusing mental videos of you in a WRX, Gee-off.
It could be fun, but only if you let me take it for a spin. 
July 15th, 2002 at 08:59I do have one question: How did you even get to work today?
July 15th, 2002 at 10:01Heather: Sure, after I’ve gotten the N miles they want you to burn off before you open the thing up. Hell, I might drive to D.C. just to burn some of that mileage. I need a longish roadie to do that, and D.C. would work.
Sean: Todd is my hero for the morning. He and I work in a general proximity [the Corps is behind the Post Office on Wynn], so he graciously drove my sorry butt to work. Anthony will be my hero tonight after the SGA meeting, ’cause he’ll be driving me home.
July 15th, 2002 at 10:10And here I was just reading about a friend who had a tree fall on her car (fortunately she wasn’t in it at the time). Ugh. (((Geof)))
July 15th, 2002 at 10:39Heather: I was kind of thinking it would be funny to see Gee-off in a WRX, something about conflicting sizes. It would be like me at 6′4" 285 getting into a Mini Cooper.
July 15th, 2002 at 10:44Yeah, you should have heard what Todd and Anthony wanted me to tell the insurance folks:
"Well, umm, you see, I was driving down the road by my house, and this deer jumped out, and I swerved, and I whapped the tree. And my roommate, you see, he’s got this big ol’ Chevy 2500 HD, so we towed it back to the house and left it there."
Never mind that it’s in a spot that you couldn’t tow it to, and there’s no skid marks anywhere around our house like there would be.
-sigh- I think it’s Darlene who needs the hug. As Todd joked, "Man, that’s almost spousal abuse!"
July 15th, 2002 at 10:45I’ve actually looked at a Mini [bored a couple weeks ago at work] … it’d be cool, but it looks too girly for me. Besides, there’s the whole size issue.
July 15th, 2002 at 10:46Dad told me about it last night on the phone. Yowch, I thought, the days of Geof and Darlene are numbered.
July 15th, 2002 at 10:51That really sucks, Geof. Poor Darlene. May she RIP.
Are you sure you don’t want a Saturn?
July 15th, 2002 at 11:53Here’s the deal Kat, it’s totally cool for a woman to drive a Saturn, they’re nice cars, but a man who drive’s a saturn is a wuss! Especially those guys who buy Saturns and tweak them out. That’s just retarded, but any man who drives a Saturn is questionable.
Geofro needs to go to the Chevy Dealership and get him a ‘vette……..
July 15th, 2002 at 12:23a Chevette that is! Hee hee Ho Ho Ha Ha
Todd, I would say mean and nasty things to you if you weren’t so kind as to cart my sorry ass to work.
July 15th, 2002 at 14:23Sorry man, you know I have to give you some hell. It wouldn’t be me if I didn’t. You know that! Ofcourse I know you agree with me on my stance about Saturns! Nice cars for women and pansies!
That’s not to belittle Kat for driving one, that’s just to say that Saturns are more feminine type cars than say Honda’s. Although I don’t know, the Subaru is pretty cutesy!
July 15th, 2002 at 15:42Someone has to keep me honest. Assuming I get the WRX, though, we’ll see what you have to say after I’ve put 1,000 miles on it and can safely engage that turbo…
July 15th, 2002 at 15:45Wait, never mind, if you and I both got in it at once, it would be dragging the ground …
July 15th, 2002 at 15:45yeah, yeah, I’ve got a turbo too. But you can’t pull 15,000 lbs at 85 mph down the high way. You could park a WRX in the bed of my truck. And I could still do 0-60 in 6 seconds.
July 15th, 2002 at 15:52Sure, yes, you can pull all that. I don’t need to do that. And the WRX goes 0-60 in 5.6 … and it doesn’t drink diesel by the truckload.
July 15th, 2002 at 15:56Todd, if you were here right now, I’d likely slap you around a bit for that comment. Sean used to own a Saturn. And my Saturn is not feminine. At least my car can get close to 40 mpg rather than your measly 4 mpg in that diesel guzzler of yours.
July 16th, 2002 at 09:124 mpg huh? That’s as ignorant as my previous comment, I get close to 20mpg on the highway. Granted that’s not great, but considering the fact that it’s better gas mileage than my old truck which was smaller and far less powerful, I’d say that’s pretty damn good, also considering that Diesel is generally the same price as 87 if not cheaper and I used to put 89 and 93 in my old truck it cost me far less to drive this truck than the old one.
On a side note though, if I were to get in a wreck, I be far less likely to be seriously injured in my truck than your saturn that get’s 40 mpg. Gas mileage is a sacrifice that I’ll always be willing to make when it comes to safety and overall comfort.
Granted not everyone can afford what I have, but I wouldn’t trade for a car. Not when I know that if you put a WRX by my truck on the line at a stop light, the WRX would be hard pressed to get too far in front of me. (Reference drag race with Mustang on California. Not the smartest thing I’ve done, but the mustang was right beside me as I passed 90.) So, nyuh!
July 16th, 2002 at 10:09You aren’t trying to goad me into something, are you Todd?
July 16th, 2002 at 10:20No not at all. Well maybe. I know a WRX would be a fun car to have, but that’s all it is. I guess I like a vehicle that has a little utility to it. Your truck allowed you to do a lot of things. Nobody really needs a truck the size of the one I have, but I kind of just explain the advantages of my truck for me. Better gas mileage and bigger, the power is just icing on the cake for me. And the safety standpoint in terms of pulling that big trailer, it’s nice to have the HD truck to do that.
For you, you don’t need that, but at the same time I know you’re independent enough to not want to ask someone to help you go get that big TV that won’t fit in your car, that Couch that you can’t move unless you have a friend with a truck or you rent something, etc. I certainly don’t mind doing that for you, but you’re lucky right now to have two roommates with full size trucks. Not always the case to have that convenience.
However, that said, you need to get what you really want, because you’re going to be making payments on it for the next two to five years and if you don’t like it, everytime you write that check you’re going hate it more. Personally, I’m not going to say that you won’t see me in a car sometime, but I’ll always have a truck too.
July 16th, 2002 at 10:31Oh, in a couple of years, if I find some old beat-up truck, I’ll probably pick it up and keep it around for that purpose exactly.
I was just thinking you wanted me to drag-race you in the WRX [that I don't even have].
July 16th, 2002 at 10:33Oh hell no. I didn’t even want to race that idiot in the mustang, but if you think you’re going to smoke me because you’re in some p.o.s. redneck sports car, you got another thing coming. Most people don’t put two and two together and realize when you have that much power and you don’t have a load, you don’t have a choice but to be fast. Had to prove a point with him. I don’t have to do that with you, you saw all of that transpire and you’ve been in the truck as well.
July 16th, 2002 at 10:39The thing I don’t like about the WRX is according to GT3 even when you tweak it out with everything you can buy the top speed is only about 130mph. That’s dissappointing. I know it’s rally inspired and all, but you’re going to be driving it on the road. It could be faster.
July 16th, 2002 at 10:40I’d hate to make you feel bad and smoke you.
Mom: No, I have no plans of doing that. Really.
July 16th, 2002 at 10:41Todd: First of all don’t take GT3 as the performance bible for the WRX. THe thing has an electronic fuel cut off that will limit the speed at somewhere aournd 150 mph. Now there are ways around that as well.
And I do agree on the utility of things, personally I would like to have a truck, I did in the past, for for things like road tripping where the WRX can get 30 miles to the gallon, well it would be better to have. I also tend to prefer the ’sports’ part of a sports car, the handling, the acceleration, the ability to drive just a little more aggressively than the folks out there in a camary.
Oh, and I check it out with a Chevy dealer, your truck will go from 0-60 in 9-10 seconds. The WRX will do it in 5.4 Not bad for half the cylinders eh?
THe best thing would tbe to do what Kat’s dad does. He has a car for a daily driver and for road trips, and he has a truck with a lift gate welded on for when he needs a truck. Heck, if I had more space I would consider picking up a small truck myself. But for everyday, I tend to be a car person.
July 16th, 2002 at 13:0331 comments on an IJSM entry … this is what I have to do? Well, I ain’t a-gonna do this again anytime soon, no matter what vehicle it is!
The cargo capacity is why I would rather have the wagon than the sedan. Sure, my furniture won’t fit in the wagon, but everything else will, and hell, the next time I move, I’m either having professional movers come in or I’m renting a damn U-Haul.
July 16th, 2002 at 13:14Sean: Where did you find the 0-60 stats on any truck?
July 16th, 2002 at 14:07I found the stats on your 0-60 by going to edmunds.com and reading a review of the truck. How, I will admit, they only have the specs for the 8.1L Gasoline engine.
http://www.edmunds.com/reviews/roadtests/roadtest/46349/article.html
But I have a good friend who works at a chevy dealer out in Madison. He spoke with a few of the other guys (including the mechanics) out there and the general consensus was that the 8.1L actually will pick up speed faster than your duramax, although the duramax of couse has a bunch more torque for towing. The estimate on edmunds for the 8.1 L was 9.6 seconds 0-60. I went ahead and used that for my numbers.
I had a hard time finding out the info, but hey, I was really curious about this.
July 16th, 2002 at 15:07Proof positive that Sean is the most car-obsessed of us all …
July 16th, 2002 at 15:08oops, make that 9.2 seconds for the 8.1L. I just went back and looked at the article.
July 16th, 2002 at 15:09*sigh* Yeah, and I get to hear these kinds of stats every day. At least next time I go car shopping, I have one of the most informed people out there to go shopping with.
It’s nice to bring experience with you.
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