Sunday, 01 August 2010

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It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat. - Theodore Roosevelt

I hope that no one will claim to know the final answers; no good comes from prophets. But even when acknowledging our falibility, we must nevertheless continue to think about these matters and give the advice to others that intellect and conscience dictate. And let God be our judge, as our grandparents used to say. - Sakharov

Baka ni tsukeru kusuriwa nai (There's no medicine to cure stupidity) - an old Japanese Proverb

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Eerie timing that makes you think
Wednesday, 14 June 2006
I left the office yesterday a little early to try to hit the bank so I could deposit a couple checks.  The stupid bank closed at 4:30 instead of 5:00 that I thought, so I missed being able to deposit my checks so I started to drive home a different route than normal.  I went down Mathilda avenue to get onto Central expressway when I started feel my Miata's clutch giving out.  Its already been giving me trouble due to a leaky slave cylinder, but now the fluid must have drained completely... I hadn't bothered to top it off in over a week probably.  By the time I realize it, I'm about to get onto Central.  I manage to get the car into 3rd gear  and cruise on Central until deciding to get off at Lawrence expressway in hopes to coast to a gas station selling DOT3 brake fluid for the clutch slave cylinder.  I manage to coast into a parking lot with a Shell station across the street diagonally as I'm completely unable to put the car into gear now without major gear grindage.   I stop the car and run over to the Shell station to buy the fluid.  I spend a few minutes trying to figure out if they have any and find their last bottle on a stand right outside the door.  After paying, I started walking back toward the intersection and just as I was looking up about 30 feet in front of me an old Prelude that appeared to be either making a left turn onto oncoming traffic or possibly running a red light gets clipped by a truck then gets t-boned by another American sized station wagon and gets thrown diagonally 40 feet through the intersection.  A HUGE crash.  The Prelude's right side of the car is smashed to about the center of the car.  If I was in the crosswalk, I probably would have been tagged.  I was first on the scene, the lady driving the Prelude couldn't understand what had happened and was dazed but ok.  She had a daughter sitting in the back of the car, and fortunately for her, she was sitting on the left side in a baby seat. Her leg was pinned between the smashed side of the car and some seating, but other than a possible broken leg she appeared ok other than she was crying.  I had left my phone in the car, so I made sure some passer bys call 911.  Another young woman stopped and tried to help them, but realistically there was nothing we could have done.  I waited to make sure the woman wouldn't pass out or anything and assure her that her child was ok.  If anyone would have been sitting on the right side of that car, they would have surely been dead.  The driver of the station wagon was shaken up, but he was ok. I believe his airbag went off.  The fire trucks came in about 5 minutes and so I left the scene.

Oh, when I got home, I promptly started working on fixing my slave cylinder.  I had bought a replacement last week.  I jacked the car up and replaced the unit, but to my dismay when I started to pump the clutch, brake fluid was still leaking from somewhere, possibly the main pressurized connector... definitely not the bleader valve.  So frustrating... maybe its time to get a S2000.
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