Friday Five
Aug. 9th, 2002 09:33 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nollyI don't usually do this, because the questions often don't map cleanly to my life. But this one is simple enough, so...
1. Do you have a car? If so, what kind of car is it?
1999 Ford Ranger Supercab. V6. Developing a quirky electrical system which I'll have to get looked at after Worldcon; the wipers sometimes go on when you hit the turn signal.
2. Do you drive very often?
Daily plus occasional road trips. I got the truck in March of 99, and I've put just over 45K on it. Except for 4 months when I was commuting 20 miles each way, my commute has mostly been ~5 miles or less. I drive up to LA a few times a year, and to the Bay area maybe once a year, on average. Plus running around town. I also bike and walk within my neighborhood, though. I've considered trying to bike to work, but the terrain and traffic intimidate me.
3. What's your dream car?
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. *grin*
I really like the look of the PT Cruisers. The Prowlers are gorgeous but utterly impractical. There are a lot of ugly cars on the road right now, but there are several current and classic models I find aesthetically pleasing.
4. Have you ever received a ticket?
Not yet, not even for parking at UCSD without a valid permit, which I've done manymany times.
5. Have you ever been in an accident?
Yes, but only fairly minor ones.
I was in my brother's car with him when someone made a left turn off the shoulder into the passenger side of his car, ripping a gouge down the length of it, totalling the car, and leaving us stranded in Bald Knob, AR for the night. I didn't have my license yet, and he was too young to rent a car, so our parents had to come fetch us and our possessions -- we were headed home from college for spring break or Christmas or something. No one was hurt, and nothing besides the car was damaged.
Another time, we got rear-ended in Nashville, in a small pile-up caused by someone cutting across several lanes at high speed to make an exit. Moved too fast for anyone to get the plate.
On my own, I once barely tapped someone's bumper when they stopped suddenly for no apparent reason on a busy road. If I hadn't been called into work at 5AM and proceeded to work a 10 hour day, I might've realized sooner that they were stopping, not just slowing down. Their car (a rental) was slightly scratched; I needed a new front bumper.
On the same road a few months later, someone rear-ended me at a stop light; I needed a new back bumper, but her car took most of the damage.
Oh, and before either of those, someone had their brakes go out on one side and put a small gouge in my back bumper; it was so minor that I never bothered getting it fixed.
I also have a few dings and dents from posts in parking garages. I don't feel too bad about those; I watched a physics professor from my college put a hole in his fender once in a similar move (plastic car); I figure if it happens to people with normal depth perception and years of experience, it's bound to happen to me occasionally.
1. Do you have a car? If so, what kind of car is it?
1999 Ford Ranger Supercab. V6. Developing a quirky electrical system which I'll have to get looked at after Worldcon; the wipers sometimes go on when you hit the turn signal.
2. Do you drive very often?
Daily plus occasional road trips. I got the truck in March of 99, and I've put just over 45K on it. Except for 4 months when I was commuting 20 miles each way, my commute has mostly been ~5 miles or less. I drive up to LA a few times a year, and to the Bay area maybe once a year, on average. Plus running around town. I also bike and walk within my neighborhood, though. I've considered trying to bike to work, but the terrain and traffic intimidate me.
3. What's your dream car?
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. *grin*
I really like the look of the PT Cruisers. The Prowlers are gorgeous but utterly impractical. There are a lot of ugly cars on the road right now, but there are several current and classic models I find aesthetically pleasing.
4. Have you ever received a ticket?
Not yet, not even for parking at UCSD without a valid permit, which I've done manymany times.
5. Have you ever been in an accident?
Yes, but only fairly minor ones.
I was in my brother's car with him when someone made a left turn off the shoulder into the passenger side of his car, ripping a gouge down the length of it, totalling the car, and leaving us stranded in Bald Knob, AR for the night. I didn't have my license yet, and he was too young to rent a car, so our parents had to come fetch us and our possessions -- we were headed home from college for spring break or Christmas or something. No one was hurt, and nothing besides the car was damaged.
Another time, we got rear-ended in Nashville, in a small pile-up caused by someone cutting across several lanes at high speed to make an exit. Moved too fast for anyone to get the plate.
On my own, I once barely tapped someone's bumper when they stopped suddenly for no apparent reason on a busy road. If I hadn't been called into work at 5AM and proceeded to work a 10 hour day, I might've realized sooner that they were stopping, not just slowing down. Their car (a rental) was slightly scratched; I needed a new front bumper.
On the same road a few months later, someone rear-ended me at a stop light; I needed a new back bumper, but her car took most of the damage.
Oh, and before either of those, someone had their brakes go out on one side and put a small gouge in my back bumper; it was so minor that I never bothered getting it fixed.
I also have a few dings and dents from posts in parking garages. I don't feel too bad about those; I watched a physics professor from my college put a hole in his fender once in a similar move (plastic car); I figure if it happens to people with normal depth perception and years of experience, it's bound to happen to me occasionally.
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Okay, here goes
Date: 2002-08-09 01:35 pm (UTC)2) I drive 20+ miles to work every day. I usually ride the bike if the weather's nice.
3) Subaru WRX.
4) Got one parking ticket from the college (Western Washington University) but, as they didn't have the car I was driving in their database, I never paid it and they didn't have a hope of finding me. Got a fix-it ticket for having too loud of an exhaust (the pipe had come loose from the exhaust manifold the night before, I fixed it myself that evening). Got one speeding ticket for 37 in a 25 zone (which I think was bogus, but it wasn't worth my time to fight it, it's long gone off my record now).
5) Got in a minor collision where I was turning left onto a road with five lanes (two each direction plus a turning lane). I went just after a truck in the lane nearest me went by but hidden behind the truck was a car in the next lane. My foot missed the brake pedal twice and was coming down for a third try when that car brushed my front bumper as it went by making a nice gouge in front of her right rear wheel. I once had the rear wheel of a motorcycle slide out from under me going around a corner causing me and the bike to slide off the road. Got a little road rash on my right arm. Had to replace the two rear turn signals on the bike and straighten out the front end (forks had rotated in their mounts but, fortunately, they weren't bent).