Avitable has just announced that donations have topped $1700 for the Puppy Monster Memorial Fund. Thanks so much to everybody who helped out... it's nice to know that our blogging community steps up to take care of their own during tragic times like this. Money is a soulless thing without conscience. But this money will help a father with the financial burden compounding an already unimaginable situation, and there's nothing soulless about that. If you have even $5 to spare, every little bit helps. Visit Avitable's donation page if you can, and know that what you give goes directly to help out our own NYC Watchdog.
This morning on the way back from Seattle, I had probably the most frightening experience on the road since I started driving.
I was on the single-lane stretch of the 522 heading towards Monroe, when a pickup truck came roaring up on my bumper nearly plowing into me. At the last minute they turned sharply, cutting across the centerline. Thankfully it was 5:30am and there was no oncoming traffic or else there would have been a horrible accident. The driver eventually gained control of their vehicle and made it back into our lane, but continued driving erratically. At one point, he tried to pass me... despite the fact that I was already 5 miles over the speed limit AND this was a well-defined, highly-dangerous, no-passing zone.
I was scared out of my mind... not knowing whether this idiot was tired, drunk, or high. My first instinct was to pull off and let him pass me, but there was a motorcyclist ahead of me. If the guy ran into me, I had thousands of pounds of metal to protect me. If the guy ran into a motorcycle, the rider would be dead. So I stuck it out, watching in horror as the driver weaved all over the road, accelerating to horrific speeds, then fading back.
When I finally made it to Monroe, I followed the motorcycle into the slow-lane and came to a stop light. I then immediately took out my mobile phone and was ready to call the police once the crazy driver stopped and I could read his license plate. But he didn't stop. He tore through the stoplight going at least 20 miles over the limit in the fast lane, and sped off through town. I fully expected to catch up to the guy in a bad accident, but never saw him again. I hope he didn't kill somebody before he got to where he was going. Asshole.
The good news is that I went to a screen-printing check for the new Blogography shirts yesterday...
They're pretty sweet, if I do say so myself. Printing on dark colors is notoriously difficult, because you've got to print a layer of white ink first, but everything seemed to work out okay. Probably because my printer kicks ass. The actual print-run is on Monday, and they should be delivered by the end of the week so I can start shipping orders.
To those who bought stuff from Artificial Duck Co. and have been patiently waiting for their order to ship, there is now light at the end of the tunnel. Thanks to everybody for your patience as I worked through some personal stuff this month, and sorry again for the delay.
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Isn’t there a horror movie with a truck like that?
Wait a second… “…since I started driving” ? That’s quite a qualifier! What’s the most frightening experience on the road _before_ that?
For me, the most frightening experience on the road was recently, when I was driving so out-of-my-ever-lovin-mind high that I was all over the road. My foot seemed to have a love-hate relationship with the gas pedal. Thank goodness the idiot in front of me and the motorcycle in front of him had the sense to get the hell out of my way. I mean, couldn’t they see I was high?
Those kind of incidents scare me to death. When I had my big, NASCAR-like accicent (cart-wheeling and flipping several times), I was unbelievably calm until my wife walked into the hospital room and started crying. All of a sudden, the reality of the situation hit me really hard.
I drive part the accident scene twice a day. I catch myself being extra cautious near there. It still freaks me out, four years later.
Anyway, can’t wait for the shirts. Now, I’ll be able to wear one every day of the week. 🙂
Duel, 1971.
I just donated towards the Puppy Monster Memorial Fund. Any friend of yours is a friend of mine, especially in dark times.
We recently did a 5,000 road trip and on one section coming out of L.A. (OMG – smog for 200 miles outside the city!!!) there were motorcycles on the freeway doing the “weave thing” at high speed. It’s “ok” (in California anyway – at least it was years ago) at lower speeds, but not this fast.
Anyway, one particularly wreckless guy went flying by weaving and gunning it intermittently (i.e. being really dumb) and sure enough, about 20 minutes down the road, they were putting this guy in an ambulance rather somberly and slowly – no lights, no siren, etc. The Highway Patrol and Fire Dept guys looked very dejected. He was dead.
Very strange indeed.
Those drivers are the ones that have accidents, kill a family of four, yet they are the ones that walk away without a scratch and expect to receive sympathy because they were “going through a rough patch” at the time of the incident.
Mongrels!!!
God, that’s an amazing amount of money so far. Awesome.
Also, I am glad you weren’t hurt by the assjacket driver!!! What a tool.
If there’s one thing I hate more than anything, it’s reckless drivers. There seems to be more of them these days, in this part of the country, anyway.
Wow, that sounds frightening. I would have called the cops way before that.
Those shirts looks awesome!
Maybe there’s an evil vortex over in Monroe. I was going over there last year, my sis lives there and had almost the same thing happen to me. It was on 405 right before I took the Monroe exit and I saw this car on the side of the road, thought it was a mini cooper but not. Then later I’m looking in my mirror and this same car is going at a high rate of speed and I thought he would switch to the speeding lane but no!!! Fucker hit me and played bumber cars. I almost had a coronary and pulled off the side of the highway. The guys stared to pull over and then took off like a bat out of hell! I saw his face and young and scruffy and looked high or pissed! Of course, it all happened so fast and couldn’t get that last digit on the license plate and so cops would do nothing! Damn, but I just had minor damage and so glad no injuries except a little whiplash.
I’m glad you weren’t hit by this rogue driver! Lots of crazies out there!!
That is frightening. I sometimes wonder what makes people’s brains fire all wonky that they do stupid crap like that.
The shirts look GREAT! I can barely wait now. hehe
I want my BadMonkey and his banana T !!! I WANT ! :-))
Ok. Seeing the Geeky T in pre-production form, it looks better than I imagined it would from the initial pics you posted of the graphic.
Wow, your shirts rock dude.
the t-shirts looks fantastic! looking forward to a summer of total fashion victimness 🙂