Big event around here for the evening: A little over a half hour ago, I was returning home to the Compound from my trip to mail the bills. As I drove into the driveway, I noticed a couple of cars parked out on the street directly in front of the house. I flagged this as slightly odd, since usually nobody but guests or residents here park in front of the Compound.

What I didn't immediately notice in the dark, until I got out of the car, was the scene in front of the house directly across the street. Two smashed up cars, artistically arranged (or not), in the middle of the neighbor's yard. A white Toyota on the left side, and an Audi almost all the way over to the right. A good 8+ meters apart.

Almost simultaniously, both of the parental units arrived back at the Compound in my mom's car.

bouncing, who had just called police, came out and told us what he had seen of what had happened. A few minutes before the incident occurred, he had been out checking the mail (the physical kind, not email; novel idea, eh?). As he did so, he noticed two cars racing by the house at an excessive speed, one tailgating and trying to pass the other.

He found this annoying, and went back in the house, where he was considering calling the police just because of the excessive recklessness he had witnessed. But before he could do so, he heard a loud crash outside. When he went out to look, sure enough. The same morons he had seen going by before.

Apparently, while going around the curve above the Compound (around 50 meters to the west), the car in the left line had lost control. Couldn't quite make the corner, ended up running off the road (track marks were still very visible when I looked), knocking down various constructs at the edge of the neighbor's yard, smashing into the neighbor's car which was parked in the driveway, and into a spin across the lawn, which was stopped when the side of the car hit a tree.

Fortunately, nobody was seriously hurt.

The yellow car parked in front of the Compound was the other racer. The one that didn't get smashed up.

Further examination revealed that not just one, but two of the neighbor's cars had been damaged. Their Toyota, yes. But there had also been a car parked directly behind it, which had been hit by the Toyota when it was crashed. This impact sent the neighbor's second red car back into the closed garage door, breaking the door as well. Poor neighbor!

Rough tally: Downed mailbox, torn up lawn (topped with broken glass), smashed Toyota, damaged red car, broken garage door, and who knows if anything inside the garage was impacted. Ouch.

Another witness who heard the crash had come over from around the block. He reported that he had seen the racing idiots driving near his residence, where that had stopped at a nearby house, picked up one or more additional passengers, and while they waited on the street, revved the engines very high. When they departed, they floored it around the corner, back toward the general direction of the Compound.

Soon, a cop arrived on the scene, and began to survey things. Those of us who had not been witnesses went back in to eat our supper. When we looked out a few minutes later, a fire truck and ambulance had also arrived, and all manner of emergency workers had converged on the yard across the street.

Crazy stuff. I guess we're lucky it wasn't our yard.

It seems like it would be fitting to do a mini-rant on how it's adolescent morons like these that are a plague to the world, how it's because of fools like them that I had higher insurance rates when I was a teenager, and how it might just be better if a few more of 'em could've been wiped out due to their own stupidity on just such an occassion as this. But...

Somehow, I just don't feel like going that way right now. Oh well.

Sometimes I'm stupid too.

...

Going back in time....

Today, after work, I did a bit more exercising. (In fact, I even did a little tiny bit in the middle of the day during lunch break.) Went jogging / walking on the bike trails. Took my weights.

Oh, didn't I mention it? I bought some handy little weights earlier last week. I say, 8 pounds in each hand doesn't seem like that much, but after you've been running with them for say... oh... 2 minutes, it really becomes noticable. Good stuff.

I want to get to where I can run a good 20 to 30 minutes straight without feeling like I'm gonna puke halfway through. I know that when you get to where you're really used to it, the experience can be really fun. Just get into the rhythm, with blood flowing, muscles pumping, breath steady, after you've been going for a while. It's the way to go.

I know this because I experienced it 1.75 years ago. For a couple weeks, I tried it almost every day. Doing it regularly, I got to where I could go and feel good at the end. Unfortunately, my life at that point was... let's say, far from stable. That routine didn't last. A pity.

Fortunately, as long as there is life, there is opportunity. So here we are. :)

...

My life....

I feel like it's almost time to make another stride akin to last year's new year's resolutions. To face the wind, put my first foot forward, and say "THIS is the direction I want to go."

The only thing preventing that right now is that I have yet to decide which direction I really want to take.

I guess I could say that, in a way, I had my faith reaffirmed last week when I talked to my therapist. My faith in the universe, that is.

That said, my corner of the world still has some bleak spots, in some ways. Tomorrow, the month of March begins. I've been thinking hard for the last few days, weeks, hours, about stuff. In a lot of ways, I don't like the way things are right now, but they could be worse. And I don't know if it will get better. It's hard to say. The jury is still out.

I have decided to give the jury another month. If, by the month of April, the daily feeling of ickiness still continues, I will know it is time for me to get moving. I hope that things improve.

Now I think there is only one reader who can really grasp what the preceding two cryptic paragraphs are talking about. Others might be able to make wildly educated guesses. Maybe.

Alright. One rambling later, and I'm done. Night time. Goodnight.