SuperJason’s Personal Blog

I had a dream last night that someone had finished all of my basement walls, including drywall, texturing, and painting.

Tonight we went to Brian’s birthday party, hosted by his wife Maxine. There was a lot of great food, including ham, giant cookies, and fresh fruit. Everyone seemed to have a great time. Everyone was also excited to hear about our day at the hospital.

Brian got a lot of great gifts. He got some nice clothes, some really great cards, and an alarm clock. There are a few photos in the photo gallery.

Eric played me a pool, and won 2 out of 3. I’m not really sure how that happened. Must have been some kind of fluke.

This morning, Melissa and I got to see our baby with an ultrasound. The shots were amazingly clear. I’ve never seen anything like it. Watching him move around was really neat.

The technology at Aurora is amazing. They were able to look at the heart, and then focus a microphone at it. We were able to hear the heartbeat perfectly without any other sounds. Another neat trick, was that they were able to show us the blood flowing through the heart. The computer colored it to show the motion. I never expected to see everything as well as we did. She didn’t even have to tell us what parts we were seeing. It was very obvious. We were able to tell very well that it is a boy, and she confirmed. They are not 100% accurate, but it would be pretty tough for them to be wrong on this one.

I scanned in the ultrasound photos, and you can check them out here!.

I talked to my insurance company today, and they recommended taking it to VanDrisse Lincoln Mercury. The manager in the body shop was extremely nice. I dropped off the car, and got a loaner. They are partners with General Casualty, so they work together to make the process very streamlined. It looks like I may get the car back some time next week.

The car they gave me is a 2002 Mercury Sable. It reminds me of the Mercury Cougar I used to own. They haven’t changed the design of their controls from that car. The car rides great, but there are a few things I don’t like about it. When it shifts gears, there is a pause between gears, where the car doesn’t accelerate. That is really annoying, because my Chevy Malibu is extremely smooth when it shifts, and doesn’t loose any power. Another thing I don’t like is the visibility. The windshield is not very vertical, so the vertical supports block your view in front of you. In my Malibu, they block the view more to your sides. I guess I could get used to that. I also find it annoying when it locks the doors once you start moving. I had a few times when I walked to the other side, only to find a locked door. The last thing that I don’t like, is that the speedometer only has 20, 40, 60 , 80, etc. on it. There is plenty of space for all the numbers. I found myself going 70 in a 55, because I didn’t have time to count how many ticks away from the last number the needle was.

My drill died yesterday. It was a Christmas gift, so I called Maxine to see if she still had the receipt. Unfortunately, she did not. So after work I decided to go to Home Depot to exchange it. They told me that I had to take it to the authorized Black & Decker repair shop. They said it was on Main Street, across from Streu’s Pharmacy.

I was driving a long, minding my own business on Main Street. I came up to the N. Irwin cross street. As I approached, a lady in a Gran Prix decided that she could make a left turn in front of me. I immediately slammed on the breaks, and ALMOST stopped before hitting the right back side of her car. I must have been going less than 5mph when we hit. The accident happened at 5:44 pm, Aug 3.

She pulled into the Dairy Queen parking lot, and I followed her. She was not hurt at all, and neither was I. She told me that she did not want me to call the cops, so I asked her what she wanted to do. She didn’t have an answer, so I figured the best person to call, would be my insurance guy. I’ve done some computer work for him, and he is generally a nice guy. He said that I had to call the cops so that I had a record of the event, so that I didn’t have problems with the claim. I immediately called the cops after he gave me the number (thanks Gary!).

While on the phone, a guy came over eating an ice cream cone. I asked him if he witnessed it, but he said he only looked over after hearing the crash. He proceeded to tell me that he was under video surveillance by the FBI, CIA, and some other government organizations. He told me he used to be in the military. I humored myself and asked if he had access to the film. He said that it may be possible to get it with a lawyer’s help.

I looked at her car, and I had to ask what damage I had done, because the car was in pretty rough shape. I ripped most of the bumper off. My car on the other hand, just had a hole in the bumper, some scrape marks, and some bent metal. I’m pretty impressed how well the bumper took the impact. The headlight still works! I’m sure it will be difficult to repair however. It’s going to be tough to repair the bumper and metal, and get the paint to match. On my way home, the front end was making a strange noise.

While waiting for the police, I went to the nearby store to use the bathroom, and I picked up a disposable camera while I was in there. I took it back and got photos of both cars, including the license plate on hers. I also got photos of her, and the car of the guy that came out to see her. They are being developed right now, and will be uploaded to my photo gallery soon.

So anyway, it took the police almost an hour to show up. While waiting, I watched numerous police cars drive by. One even waved to me. The funny thing is, they showed up faster for the dog poop incident.

He just gathered all of the information, and gave us the police report. When he looked at her car, he had the same question as I did, “what got damaged?” She seemed angry at the question and gave him a sarcastic response.

So the important thing is that everyone is all right. I am fine, and the car will get fixed. I was glad that Melissa wasn’t with me. I didn’t really need a pregnant wife in the car when I slammed on the brakes.

I uploaded some photos that I took with my digital camera when I got home. You can check them out here. That is also where I will put the disposable camera photos.

Update

A lot of people were asking if she got a citation. I just looked at the police report,

Margie, Gary, and Sarah Hermsen were in town this weekend for a wedding. Rick and Jane had a party at their house, so everyone could see each other. Adam, Jeni, Eric, Mary, and Amanda also joined us. There was a lot of great food, and featured Rick’s brownies (with and without nuts), Melissa’s pasta salad, Brian’s “flaming” burgers, and Sarahs delicious smore’s.

Rick and Jane showed off their new burn apparatus (which I forgot to get a photo of). They also got a tent, which helped shield us from the sun.

Brian showed off his burger making skills by setting the grill on fire, but luckily, fireman Rick was there with his trusty squirt gun.

Since Anita was not there, Erik spent a few hours weightlifting various heavy objects. I tried to impress him, but I found out I peaked physically at 23, and I am now a “girly man”.

All the photo’s can be found here.

Features:

• Large, separated snooze button (not mixed in with the other buttons
• 1 button to turn off alarm (this one should be harder to get to)
• Easy to read display
• Battery backup
• Radio wave time sychronization
• Separate alarms for the week, and weekend
• Display of alarm for the next day

A few days ago, I found some pink lines at the end of my driveway. I couldn’t figure out why there were there. So I went outside this morning, and a construction truck was parked there, and a guy was looking around. He told me that he was hired to come and cut out the concrete that was cracked. That may mean that they are putting the top coat of blacktop on our road. We finally won’t have to endure the bumps and hills.

My dad came out today, and we put the circuit in for my office. We also got all the outlets wired up. There are 8 boxes, 4 of which are double gang (4 outlets). That will definately be a plus for that room. I usually have a huge outlet shortage.

Next on the list is putting a light switch in. After that, I can frame in the duct work, and start drywalling. Then I will be ready to move in. I’m going to have to live with an unfinished floor and ceiling for a while, but that’s no big deal.