Carmina Burana
Wednesday, Feb. 05, 2003

�Original copies.� That was the straw that broke the camels back and forced me to crank out an entry.

There�s this guy who showed up for a �Utilities Meeting� with Director Ratstrangler and some people who didn�t want to be there. DR trapped him and yammered for about two hours, the guy finally excaped. But not without saying �Or you�d prefer original copies?�

No, copies of copies would be fine.

There is, however, such a thing. See, you take a paper you made to a Notary and have them look at it. They then Xerox the thing and put their notary stamp on it saying that it�s an exact copy of what they were presented with. Odd concept, huh?

I was able to get my certificate of semi-decent health for the adoption notarized at the doctor�s office, thus avoiding such freakishness. Aisai didn�t. So she�ll get a notarized copy made.

Or can they notarized things as this is an original? Heck, it�s all so confusing.

Another thing I heard today at work�I had just gotten back from OK-ing the placement of lots of little stakes with yellow ribbons. These yellow ribbons mean �I, Joe Utility Worker, am going to put a pole or an anchor for said pole right here.� So I write OK on the ground in paint. It�s a tough job. Sometimes the ground isn�t totally level. Or sometimes I have to hop over puddles or mud or something.

Well, the thing I heard as I was taking off my muddy armored pimp boots was �Yeah, well, I think they know who�s boss now.� That was this guy who just got his first crew of two others that he�s in charge of. I vote that crew most likely to have a fist fight. I asked Los Manos, our safety guy, if we had a video on fist fights they could watch, you know, so they can do it safely.

All of the sudden, the word safely looks awful odd to me. Egad, and odd, that�s a freakish word. Sudden won�t win any normality contests either.

Ok, back to reality.

Monday, I got home from work. I think I was in a fairly good mood. I got the mail and in it was a letter from the Attorney General of the State of Virginia. I figured it was adoption stuff coming back. No. It was a letter saying approximately the following:

�Give us the $2200 dollars you owe us for that guard rail you damaged in 1998 or in 15 days we�ll have your drivers license revoked.�

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

Well, it�s true. In 1998, I, while taking turns driving the van that was pulling the trailer which was holding the Mustang SVO, lost control of the van when one of the trailer�s two wheels blew out (and we were descending a large hill and the trailer didn�t have brakes), and was in an accedent.

I can�t say I wrecked the van, since after the 360 we did, I just pulled over into the median.

To invision this, we are going down a steep hill at 65 miles per hour. The left, I believe, tire on the car trailer blows and it starts oscillating back and forth behind us. It�s trying to speed up and can�t. Meanwhile, I�m trying to slow the van down, but, if I brake too hard then the weight of the van which is balanced on the front wheels (weight shifts forward when braking) and the trailer will both find a way to get around.

The trailer figured it out first and swung around the driver side of the van and pinched the middle of the van with itself. The trailer�s weight pulled the van�s back end around, which wasn�t hard since it wanted to do that anyway. The van did the before mentioned 360 and then I pulled into the median and stopped. [edited to add: oh, the trailer hitch broke, that's why the van and trailer do differnet things now.] The trailer wedged itself under the guard rail which guarded us from a cliff wall (from hitting it, not falling off one). The Mustang broke its tiedowns and let the guardrail slice it�s belly open (including gas tank, floorboard, etc) as it slid down the top of the guardrail.

We actually have pictures showing that the rail was in pretty good condition with the Mustang on it. It was the wrecker service that tore it apart, but I hope that Tom doesn�t press for this. Just let the insurance handle it.

Well, I called the VADA and they �stopped the clock� and told me to tell Tom to tell them the insurance company and the account number. Claim number would be nice too.

Tom called a little while ago and told me he left a message with the gal.

Tom ended up getting a different SVO but still kept the salvage of the old black one. But he drives a minivan.