RIP Xela (8/16/2008 – 12/20/2008)

by skyrien

So… with barely 4 months of life in her, Xela is no more. While driving down 148th Ave NE in Redmond, late Saturday evening, I suddenly lost control, slipped about 90 degrees, and the driver-side door of my car met the broadside of an indestructible pole at about 30 MPH . Needless to say, the damage was crippling: one second I’m driving down the road (straight line, flat), the next, I’m seeing this metal thing come at me really really fast, and the next, I hear a boom(!), a flash of light, and get the wind blown out of my lungs. The window and sunroof, shattered instantly, and the airbag exploded blocking the pole and probably saving my life (or at least, my brain).

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It reminded me of the time I fell off the monkey bars in kindergarten; I couldn’t breathe for about 10 seconds, but had the presence of mind to check to see if I had broken any bones. I don’t know how long I was there, but I remember knocking outside my door, and some kind strangers were saying that they called 911, and asked if I was okay.

I slowly came to my senses, and stumbled out of the car:

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What scared me most was how the pole’s impact was exactly where my head would have been, hadn’t it been for the airbag. With it, I survived, with only a few bruises and glass related cuts. In any case, I’m happy to be perfectly fine, 2 days after the crash. Xela, my beloved Scion tC however, is no more…

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age is for the weak!

by skyrien

[Ah, so I’m giving myself ten minutes to write this out…]

Are we getting old? Sometimes I think so, when I find myself thinking of years and feelings of past years, and now, decades. But maybe it’s just that we have more “past” to think about, showing that our memories and our personalities are getting richer with time. I was wondering this yesterday towards the end of the working day, when I had a conversation with my deaf officemate about benefits of working in industry. And then, to end the discussion, my officemate (who is in his 40s) started a sentence starting with “When you grow up…”.
Somehow, that made me very happy; and I went about the rest of my day feeling younger than I had in years.
~*~
I have a lot to catch up on on my various blogs, and will do so over the course of the next couple weeks. They’ll go something like…
Miami -> Cali Visit -> Northeast visits -> Moving to Naperville -> The Great Trip West -> R.I.P P&S -> Arriving in the Northwest -> Work Begins! -> ???