Sunday, January 18, 2009

Al Dente

A pictorial history of my first car...

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This one hurt the most. I'd had my shiny new car for five days when I tried to back out of a really tight spot without hitting the car next to me and scraped the other side on a fence.


Lesson learned: never, ever park in a spot like that.

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See that side mirror? It's pretty, isn't it? That's because I had to get the old one replaced after


I ran into...
Who puts a telephone pole that close to the edge of the sidewalk? I didn't even hit the curb when I bashed my mirror late one night.

Lesson learned: Don't drive too close to my own sidewalk.

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This is by far the biggest one. How it happened, I don't know. The first time I noticed it, my car was parked in front of my house, but it's hard to imagine how that kind of damage could be caused from the sidewalk. Someone else pointed out that it probably happened in a parking lot and I just didn't notice when I got in on the other side of the car.
No note, no apology, nothing.

Lesson learned: People suck.

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While my car was busy resting in Concord while I was doing my internship in Louisiana, I got a phone call from my brother, Eric, that went approximately like this:

Eric: (Long, fairly boring story about helping Jeff put up a new fence on a windy day.) "At one point the whole fence section fell over on the driveway." (Continuation of long, boring story...)
Me: "-- Hey, isn't my car parked in Jeff's driveway?"
Eric: "Yeah, that's why I brought it up."


It's just a little dinged. Really. Don't even mention it.
Lesson learned: Louisiana sucks.

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K-poo's rule: It's time to get a new car when there is no angle to view your car where you can't see a dent.

K-poo's on her second car... I still have one side left on my first.

13 comments:

Karen said...

You should dent that remaining side with all possible haste. Now is a really good time to buy a car.

Theresa B (of Nebulopathy) said...

Um, Karen, you do know that you don't actually need to bash in the car on all sides before getting a new one, right?

Besides, I'm waiting for the Volt to be released. (Bwah-ha-ha)

JJ said...

My car has a lot of dings and stuff. This morning, a pebble hit the windshield and left a little divet. Must call and get it fixed. I'm with you. Until the thing just won't run anymore, why get a new one? At least you don't really worry about any new scratches and dents at this point!

Theresa B (of Nebulopathy) said...

Exactly -- I'd be really bummed if I got a new car and ran somebody over the next day. All that nice new paint for nothing!

Eric said...

I think what I actually said was "the fence fell over and hit the car in the driveway". You probably wouldn't have made the connection otherwise.

Theresa B (of Nebulopathy) said...

You're probably right. I just remember you slipping that little factoid in the conversation and moving right along...

jeff said...

oooh, I like the fence reference, as in 'what time is it when an elephant...'.

damn eric and his winds.

jeff said...

by the way, just a question for jj (jjtef?): People by cars in MI?

jeff said...

damn, I'm now one of those guys who says 'by' instead of 'buy' (or theirs instead of they'res) er, um ...

(hangs head in [public educashun] shame...)

Theresa B (of Nebulopathy) said...

Just to clear up some confusion, JJ and Jojo the Enforcer are two different people.

JJ lives in Boston, knits, and plays with gutta-percha, while Jojo lives in Michigan and is terrorized by two small children.

That said, I don't think it's possible to clear up all of Jeff's confusion.

jeff said...

cripes, we might have to get an more 'fisticated commenting system so we can all ignore this 'jeff' guy.

I know I do...

Theresa B (of Nebulopathy) said...

Well, I certainly spend a significant amount of time ignoring this Jeff guy...but Eric had the same point of confusion, so I felt obligated to point out the difference.

johanna said...

Jo Jo here. I suppose people are buying cars here in MI, but probably only the foreign ones (cars, that is).
Well I'm on my second car, and all I learned from my experience is to never replace a bent hubcap...your car could be totaled a month later.