With this past weekend, and the purchase of a new minivan, my little family has put nearly all of our recent car accident behind us. Everyone’s (mostly) healed up, and after some searching around, we were able to get a loan for a nifty new dark red Dodge Grand Caravan. Well, new to us, anyway; it’s a 2002 with 89,000 miles, but oddly enough that’s exactly what our last car was when we bought it.
We don’t know what this car’s name will be yet. Usually they just seem to name themselves. Our late, lamented night-blue Kia Sportage was named “Shadow,” and the old Saturn we’ve been tooling around in picked up the nickname “Shifty” since it’s a stick-shift and Kat is only just now learning how to run one. (I never claimed the names were clever.) We’ll see what develops with our new steed.
Funny how vehicles reflect what you’re doing. When Kat and I were jet-setting newlyweds, the Kia was an ideal sporty little car to get us around. But once you add a car seat and baby bags, it sure gets crowded in a hurry. The minivan is what one of my old friends would have derisively turned up his nose as a “suburban grocery-getter,” but hey, even though I’m very much an urban child, you’ve gotta get the groceries somehow. (Now I would tell my old friend “YOU try fitting two weeks of food for three into a sedan trunk right next to the stroller.”)
Now that we’re squared away, it’s off to the List again — my mechanic to do an overall checkup, a report on the car sales place we bought it from, and now that life has calmed down enough to think more than five minutes ahead, making plans for next spring, fixes to the house and the long-term future.
Paul is senior staff writer at
Angie's List magazine.
His favorite album is Blondie's "Parallel Lines," he's more obsessed with
Doctor Who than any American has a right to be, and his desk at Angie's List is guarded by (toy) robots.
A couple of days ago, I experienced what most people avoid and fear — an auto accident. I’ll spare you the details, but the end result is this: My pride and joy, my ever loyal and faithful partner, my trusty friend, my truck is gone. As a result of the impact, my 1999 GMC Sonoma was reduced to a wretched visage of its former self, with a twisted, smashed and broken front end, and it began its journey to that Elysium Junkyard in the Sky.
I consider myself lucky. Unlike Paul’s very scary and traumatic collision, I and the other drivers involved left the the scene of the accident without injury and all three of us were covered by insurance. My insurance company, in particular, has some of the best claims service I’ve ever experienced. Three business days after the accident, my truck has been inspected, declared a total loss, and I have a check to go toward the purchase of a new vehicle in hand. These factors will lead me to rate them highly when I fill out an Angie’s List report about their services.
But as I face the prospect of buying a new vehicle, most likely another truck, I’m sentimental for all the memories I made with Mabeliene (the never-spoken name I gave her when we first met). All the moving we helped my friends with; all the furniture we hauled together; the motorcycles we picked up and transported from places like Chicago, Cincinnati and Cicero, Ind., back to Indianapolis; and the road trips to Brown County State Park, Edinburgh, Ind., and Chicago and Michigan — in all, we spent 40,000 beautiful miles together. Most of all, I’ll miss the daily drives to and from work — though she had her minor problems like a leaky power-steering unit and misaligned driver’s side door, she was dependable and never let me down.
When I collected my personal possessions from the smashed and deformed shell of my beloved friend, I thanked her for doing her job of always getting where I needed to be and ultimately keeping me safe from danger.
Josh is an associate editor at
Angie's List magazine. He has two dogs, Simon and Clem, and likes Thai food, Portland, Ore., and riding his motorcycle. For the low price of $1.00 US, he will give you his sincere and succinct opinion about anything.
If you’ve read any of my previous posts, you know I’m a big fan of motorcycles. This weekend was probably the pinnacle of motorcycle fandom, as our fair city’s beloved Indianapolis Motor Speedway hosted the first-ever Red Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix. Unfortunately, the fates also decided that Indy would also play host to the remnants of Hurricane Ike, making for quite an interesting race. Continue reading ‘A weekend at the races: the Red Bull Indianapolis GP’
Josh is an associate editor at
Angie's List magazine. He has two dogs, Simon and Clem, and likes Thai food, Portland, Ore., and riding his motorcycle. For the low price of $1.00 US, he will give you his sincere and succinct opinion about anything.
As a native Atlantan, I don’t mind Indianapolis. There are a lot of great things about it. For one, it’s the headquarters of Angie’s List. For two, Indianapolians live here. They’re friendly for the most part. Little-known fact: “Indianapolians” is the official nomenclature for Indianapolis residents. Please spread the word.
There’s one thing, however, I can’t praise this city for: public transportation — err, the lack thereof. In the Circle City, you have one option for public transit. Continue reading ‘My transportation challenge’
As editorial intern, Mike writes the monthly employee page, edits content and talks to service providers for the Comparative Shopper column in
Angie's List magazine. His favorite place is the Appalachian Trail (except for the areas that have bears, snakes or birds). His favorite album is "London Calling" by the Clash.
I’ve always been fascinated with vehicles and the vast number of designs humans have devised to achieve rapid, efficient, or just plain fun transport. To be fair, simple methods of transporting oneself such as walking, swimming, or climbing have their benefits, but in my opinion, they get old (though maybe if I was Spiderman or Superman, I’d think differently.) For us non-superhumans, though, there are few cooler things in life than the ability to ride a motorcycle, drive a car, or fly a plane (read on to find out what’s pictured below.)
Continue reading ‘Transportation, Jetsons-style’
Tristan Schmid is host and producer of
List-en up!, the Angie's List podcast. When he's not sitting in front of a computer, working on websites, audio or video production, he stays occupied by taking his dogs for walks, helping
homeless animals find families, and skiing.
My baby died. Actually, I killed her. I delivered a fatal 12-volt shock directly to her brain with jumper cables attached to a car battery. My god, what have I done?
First, don’t believe everything you read on the Internet (the Blue House Blog being the exception, of course). Even if you read on more than 10 websites that it’s OK to use a car battery to jump your motorcycle’s discharged battery, don’t do it. If you do, you may end up like me: a normally cautious, reasonably skilled, amateur mechanic with reduced transportation options. Continue reading ‘And on the third day…’
Josh is an associate editor at
Angie's List magazine. He has two dogs, Simon and Clem, and likes Thai food, Portland, Ore., and riding his motorcycle. For the low price of $1.00 US, he will give you his sincere and succinct opinion about anything.
Alright. I’m hoping this is the last high-price-gas-related post I’ll ever write and you, loyal reader, will ever have to read (yeah right). If you’re like me, you’re fed up with news reports and articles that reiterate the same well-known thing over and over…and over.
Man In La-Z-Boy Watching Television: Honey, check this out — did you hear about this? The six o’clock news is saying gas prices are high! Have you heard ’bout that? They’ve even got a reporter at a gas station interviewing normal, everyday people about how they feel about these so-called high gas prices!
Man’s Wife In Kitchen: Dear — as you well know, I’ve just returned to our home after living under a giant igneous rock for the past two years, subsisting on a diet of rain water and pill bugs — so, no, I haven’t heard about these so-called “high” gas prices.
[Man’s Wife In Kitchen places pill bug in mouth and chews thoughtfully] Continue reading ‘25 Days Later’
Josh is an associate editor at
Angie's List magazine. He has two dogs, Simon and Clem, and likes Thai food, Portland, Ore., and riding his motorcycle. For the low price of $1.00 US, he will give you his sincere and succinct opinion about anything.
“Goodnight, sweet princess.”
Yes, it is appropriate to misquote Shakespeare’s Hamlet in reference to the death of my beloved Honda Accord.
She had 263,000 miles on her when she made that final shift into overdrive, and she was epic in every way a car can be. Continue reading ‘Changing gears’
Matthew is the senior editor for local affairs at
Angie’s List magazine. When he’s not at the Blue House, he enjoys reading and writing fiction, playing guitar and riding his bicycle.
I may not be the best driver out there — there was that unlucky streak of speeding tickets a few years ago, and I’ve driven over curbs and had my share flat tires — but at least I can say I’m a friendly driver. I let people in front of me when they’re switching lanes, I wave a thank-you when someone lets me over into their lane, and I often stop in parking lots to let a car back out of their space. (OK, sometimes it’s because I want to park in their space, but still, it’s a nice thing to do, right?)
But from my experiences in the year and a half I’ve lived in Indy, I can’t say I feel the same about many of the other drivers here. Continue reading ‘Road rage rant’
Liz is an associate editor at
Angie's List magazine. She enjoys eating chocolate chip ice cream on the beach after swimming. She also likes colder, drearier places like London.
I’m one month into riding my bike to work and already the reviews are pouring in:
“We laughed. We cried. Two thumbs up,” say Ebert & Roeper, mistaking my commute for the Italian neorealist drama, “The Bicycle Thief.”
“Keep it short and you’ll limit the helmet hair,” says my barber.
“Um, could you bring an extra change of clothes on humid days?” say my co-workers. Continue reading ‘This is how I roll’
Matthew is the senior editor for local affairs at
Angie’s List magazine. When he’s not at the Blue House, he enjoys reading and writing fiction, playing guitar and riding his bicycle.
