Is It An Evil Petting Zoo?

Beware Its Hell-Spawned Power

Do you believe much in luck, either good or bad? I'm not a big luck person myself, but at the same time I find myself often times paying close attention to the clothes I wear or the routine I follow and their direct result on the outcome of a sporting event. I don't adhere to anything specific, but I do find myself wondering about luck in general from time to time. However, if I did believe in luck, I would be thoroughly convinced that my new Element is a giant box of bad luck.

To provide some substantiation to my point, allow me to provide a laundry list of 'activities' that have happened since I bought my E on July 9th:

1 - Sunday, July 10th - The day after I bought my E, Freya was killed by a hit and run driver.

2 - Sunday, September 4th - While driving my car up to Wrentham to go shopping a rock (seemingly from nowhere) struck and cracked my windshield.

3 - Sunday, September 4th - Driving through downtown Providence at night, a Honda Acura ran a stop sign and drove directly into my passenger front tire, putting the Element in an undrivable condition (bent the wheel and snapped the lower control arm). Kerri strained her neck during the incident, but has recovered since then. Note: As of 10/19 the accident report from the Providence Police STILL isn't complete.

4 - Thursday, September 22nd - Literally less than 24 hours after getting my car back from the first accident, an individual rear ends me while I was stopped at a stop sign. Apparently he leaned back to take care of his daughter in the back seat and hit the gas pedal instead of the brake. Why his wife (who was in the front passenger seat) couldn't lean back to take care of the child I will never know.

5 - Tuesday, October 18th - While sitting at my desk at work, a coworker calls me up to report I have a flat rear passenger side tire. Sure enough, when I go out to check I find my tire mostly deflated, and a screw stuck in the tread. Luckily I had a compressor with me, so I was able to pump the tire up enough to make it to one of the local tire shops. I had to wait two and a half hours to get the tire patched, but at least they didn't screw it up.

So everyone at work is convinced that my car is cursed, and who am I to blame them. Several people have told me I should just sell it and start over, but there's that small problem of a car loan, and the fact that there is no way I'm going to be able to ask full price for the car. . . especially not if anyone pulls up the accident history.

The other issue is that, quite frankly, I love this car. I'd wanted an Element pretty much ever since a coworker of mine pointed out all of the lovely little features it had relative to the price it cost. Once I researched it a little bit more, I realized it was the perfect vehicle for me. It is quite possibly one of the most utilitarian vehicles I have ever seen with tons of little design tweaks that make it a true all purpose vehicle. The only tragic thing about the E was that my original justification for buying it was to take Freya camping with us as it was the perfect vehicle to take a dog along in.

My favorite features:

• One piece rubberized flooring (instead of carpet) - The floor of the E is insanely easy to clean out. While you can't hose it out (as some people have suggested), you can easily clean it with a swiffer wet. I added an extra layer of all weather floor mats that have little lips on them to hold all the water and dirt in.
• 'Suicide' doors - The complete lack of a pillar in the middle of the side doors also makes it really easy to load things in and out of the vehicle from the side.
• The rear seats - Aside from having their own cupholders, having adjustable backs, and having a rubberized, stain resistant surface, the seats also fold flat, to the side, or can be removed. The design of them is shear genious, and I've used the 'fold up' feature several times in the few months I've owned the E.
• Clamshell tailgate - the back of the E opens more like a jeep or a truck than like a minivan, even though it has the interior height of a minivan. The tailgate makes it easy to open the back hatch, and not have everything come tumbling out of the back. Add in the cargo tray that was a dealer installed option, and the back of the E is both roomy, and easy to keep clean.
• Head space - this is quite simply the roomiest vehicle I have ever ridden in that is smaller than a bus. There is almost a foot between the top of my head and the roof, and I am not a short person. This is the first thing that most people comment on their first time riding in the E. It's even more obvious in the back seats, which have a 'stadium seating' type of height difference from the front seats.
• The Engine - Not only does it come in a manual transmission (a must for me), the 4-cylinder engine puts out ~180HP at relatively good fuel economy. I get 24mpg on average, which is downright stingy for an all wheel drive vehicle of the Element's size.

Basically the E is designed perfectly for the three types of activities I got it for: Camping, Biking, and trips to Ikea (moving). I've used it for all three, and I don't think there's another vehicle that would have performed as well in all areas (price, fuel economy, power, utility).

So it will remain to be seen just how Evil the E truly is, but I have a feeling even if it continues along it's current trend I'll probably put up with it. I think my love for the car might blind me to the fact that I'm being abused.

I'm Not Quite Dead Yet

First of all, the obligatory 'I don't update frequently enough, therefore, I suck'.

Now that's out of the way, can we continue?

You ever have one of those days that seems like it is never going to end there is so much crap going on, but then that day turns into a week, and then the week becomes a month? Well I'm on month number two of that. So, a quick synopsis of things:

September:
-Got into a car accident, twice. The second accident happened within one day of getting my car back from the prior accident (neither was my fault). In the entire month of September, I only had my car for 5 days. My poor car is only two months old and I've already had more true accidents in it than I did in six years of owning my Civic.

-Participated in 'The Flattest Century In The East' (which it technically isn't), a bicycle ride of approximately 100 miles. Unfortunately my knee gave out around mile 35, but I tried to ride it out for another 35 miles before deciding that the blinding pain was not in fact going to go away. Kerri, on the other hand, finished the whole ride in pretty good shape.

-Attended a Red Sox game (the game Manny won on a walk off Hit By Pitch)

-Participated in Kerri's Mom's Wedding. Managed to avoid getting drunk despite a strong compulsion to do so on several occasions.

-Traveled to Japan for a business trip for one week. Spent two days in Tokyo (Awesome!) and another two in Tsuchiura (sort of a suburb of Tokyo. . . that's 30-40 miles from Tokyo center). Spent a total of almost three days traveling to and from Japan, staying awake for more than 24 hours while traveling both directions.

October:
-Mad a trip to Canada to visit my parents. It rained almost the entire time we were there, so the majority of the trip was spent inside, reading books. Relaxing, but not the most exciting way to spend one's time. Kerri came as well, and was even more bored than I was.

-Worked this weekend. It was one of the worst weekends I've worked in more than a year, with things pretty much running horribly all weekend long.

(upcoming)
-Running (walking?, limping?) a half marathon in North Conway New Hampshire. Hopefully the weather cooperates.

-Theoretically we have the weekend before Halloween free, but I'm getting the distinct feeling that since no one we know is stepping up to the plate to host a party, it will probably be us (which is no big deal. . . Kerri and I have plenty of experience, and lots of left over party favors from parties in the past).

So yeah. . . busy busy. I'm sure I'm forgetting things, but my brain is so addled right now I can't really recall them.

I have some pictures from Japan, and I want to write some things about my car, so yeah. . . maybe I'll actually update some more this week. Stranger things have happened.