Mich-again

I’m back in Michigan.  Moved back in with the parents.  Last I posted, I had just started and ended my new job back in Santa Clara, California – all on the same day – and was just about to begin the cross-country drive.  Not really sure if I was clear enough about the ‘Route 66’ adventure not happening, however that trip did not happen.  There was – for a couple days – still a possibility of me driving back down to Santa Monica, meeting up with Craig as he flew in from Michigan and actually completing that adventure; however, it didn’t happen.  What ended up happening was me driving straight from Santa Clara (well, Fremont actually…) to Allen Park, Michigan all by myself – a quick, four-day drive down I-80.  Other than picking up a speeding ticket (102 in a 75 zone) in Nebraska, the trip was quite uneventful.  I arrived at my parent’s house on a Sunday, early in the afternoon … been living here since.

I think I actually am losing my sanity now.  Nothing seems to make sense to me lately.  It clearly now appears that I should have stuck with that crappy job I successfully landed in Santa Clara.  It most definitely would have been a nightmare – as far as jobs go – however it sure would have let me avoid many of the current situations that I find myself dealing with. First and foremost, I would have been employed.  I now have the pleasure of attempting to solve my lack of employment issue whilst living in Michigan.  This adds quite a bit of complication to a problem that I’ve been working on solving for well over a year already.

The thing is that backend, digital, ASIC, “place and route” – where my expertise is – is not something that is even done here in the Detroit Metropolitan area.  Everything – EVERYTHING – related to electrical engineering around here is directly tied to the auto industry.  It’s also 100% analog in nature.  There are jobs related to ASICs, however all of them appear to be incorporating ASICs designed elsewhere into PCB circuitry sold to auto manufacturers.  I know, “blah blah blah technical crap most people reading this could care less about” – sorry ‘bout that …  It’s just so frustrating to me.  I was hoping to perhaps find something in engineering that I could do around here, but I can’t.  My 20 years of learning more and more about less and less has made me far too specialized.  I don’t do analog circuitry – I don’t remember what I “learned” in college some 25 years ago.

My next plan at solving my lack of job issue was to just throw away my experience and change fields completely.  Didn’t really have an idea about what I wanted to do nor how I would get into it – still don’t.  I applied for a job with Guitar Center as something called an “Operations Associate” as the job posting made it appear that no experience was needed and that training would be provided.  Sent my resume along with a cover letter that I typed up explaining that I was trying to change careers as I figured they would wonder why someone with my resume was applying.  Never heard anything back from that…

Considered (and am still possibly considering) trying to get some sort of IT job but don’t really know what training I would need.  Seems like it’s all very specialized towards what is needed for the specific job one has.  Since, I have no specific job, this makes me hesitant to spend any money and time taking a class that may never be useful for me.  I don’t know … maybe I’m overthinking things…

I’m currently back to looking for a job in my field – as specialized as it is.  Translation – I am looking for a job somewhere other than here.  I’ve got a couple leads for contract positions in California and Texas although I have been applying to opportunities anywhere in the country – even applied to several positions in Canada though I have heard nothing back on those.  I’m basically back to what I was doing prior to landing the job in Santa Clara.  Now, however, I am doing it from Michigan rather than California.  Getting pretty much the same results though – had a few phone interviews resulting in me waiting to hear more and many applications sent resulting with no reply at all.  Sometimes I get rejection emails, but usually I get nothing.  It’s now well over 200 opportunities that I have applied for since deciding to give up on poker.

This decision to move back in with my parents has also introduced several issues that caught me a bit off guard – all related to my car.  Granted, some of these issues only exist because of my pride.  I do realize that, although I do like my car, it is just a car; however, it is a 2002 Firehawk.  It’s a limited edition (only 1501 were built) model with slightly more than 60k miles.  It’s rarely (very rarely) been driven in rain and never been driven in snow.  Although it was involved in a couple accidents in California, I made sure all repairs were completed by professionals.  I’ve done the best I could to take care of this car.  Now I’m back in Michigan.

Michigan, as many of you may already be aware, is pretty much the worst place for vehicles.  The roads are a freaking mess – more potholes than pavement – and when winter comes around things really become a nightmare.  They spray the roads with salt.  Salt doesn’t do good things to cars.  The whole idea of driving my over-powered, rear-wheel-drive car on the icy, salt-covered roads of southeast Michigan throughout the winter makes me cringe.  So … I’ve decided to put my Firehawk in storage.  Now I have no car (well, I “have” one … in storage).  I’ll be needing to purchase a vehicle if I stay here.  So there’s that now…

I was able to obtain a Michigan driver’s license without much hassle; however, was unable to register my car.  I did change my car insurance from California to Michigan; unfortunately, I could not complete a Michigan registration due to not having a title for my car.  I might “have” a title but, if I do, it would be located in my file cabinet.  My file cabinet just so happens to currently be residing in a storage unit somewhere in Nevada along with the rest of my possessions.  You see, apart from my car and few select things I decided to take with me to Santa Monica, everything I own was packed in a truck by the movers I hired in Henderson and taken to storage.  I’m supposed to get an apartment and give that address to the movers at some point to get my stuff delivered.  That’s a bridge I suppose I’ll be jumping off sometime in the future … assuming I ever get myself an apartment and who the hell knows if that’s ever going to happen…?  But, as usual, I digress … back to what I was talking about…

Now I’m working on obtaining a duplicate title for my vehicle – no easy task here…  My initial guess was to try the California DMV.  I filled out a California “Title Application” and sent it, along with a brief letter of explanation as well as a money order for $21 – the duplicate title fee, to the California DMV in Sacramento.  I “should” have taken the moment required to look at my current, still valid, California registration prior to doing this.  It clearly states that no title was issued for this registration.

Okay, so a bit of an explanation on what I have since discovered is in order here.  Apparently, in some states a vehicle can be registered without a title.  Not sure exactly which states are included in the complete list, however both California and Nevada allow this.  I now know this as I did exactly that in both California (twice, actually) and Nevada.  Michigan, however, does not allow this.  In Michigan the owner of a vehicle must possess a valid title to said vehicle in order to obtain registration and plates.  So that got me to wondering exactly how the hell I was going to get a copy of my title…

After looking into things a bit, I was able to discover that I had paid off my loan for this car back in 2008.  I was still “technically” living in Colorado then; although I was “actually” living in California.  For you see, I owned a house in Colorado where my car was stored.  It was apparently in 2008 that I decided to bring my car with me to California.  The reason I believe this is because I was able to discover from the California DMV that the first year my car was registered in California was 2009.  Interestingly enough, it was registered without a title…  This leads me to believe that I need to be going through the Colorado DMV in an attempt to get a duplicate title.  It does appear that it was registered as a Colorado vehicle when the loan was paid off.

I called the Colorado DMV to see if they’d be able to help me with this and basically discovered that, in Colorado, bureaucracy rules.  They told me that I needed to fill out and send in a “Record Search Request” (form DR2489a) to see if a title for my vehicle is in their system and then, if it is, I should fill out and send in a “Duplicate Title Request” (form DR2539a) to request a duplicate title be sent to me.  I then asked if they might be able to save me some time and let me know if the title was in their records over the phone and was told that they couldn’t do that because there was no way to prove I was who I was claiming to be.  What I ended up doing was sending in the “Search Request” followed by the “Title Request” a few days later.  The way I figure it is, if the “Title Request” comes back to me requesting some kind of missing information, I should have the information by then from the “Search Request” I filed.  If I’m lucky, the information I put in the “Duplicate Title Request” will be sufficient and I’ll get my title…

Oh yeah, and to add to this, I’m also a bit in the dark on whether or not the title – should it be found in the Colorado DMV records – will be in my name.  There is still somewhat of a possibility that the lien from the loan was never removed in Colorado.  That was supposed to have been done when I registered my car after paying off the loan … but I don’t think I registered the car in Colorado again after the loan was paid off.  I suppose the lien may still be on my car’s title.  I was able to get a lien release document from the credit union … just in case.  I’m still waiting for this mess to sort itself out…

The latest twist in this pathetic story that is my life is that Ray, one of my oldest friends, is basically offering me a job whilst I continue to look for work.  Yeah, it’s as strange as it sounds and that’s what’s bothering me the most about it.  He’s offering me a chance to work at his company in pretty much a secretarial role as a way for me to earn some money and possibly move out of my parent’s place.  I really do appreciate the offer however I don’t think I could do that.  If I took the job, I would need to get a vehicle.  I suppose that’s not too big a deal, I’m pretty sure I could pick up something half-way decent for a few grand.  What happens, however, if I then land one of the jobs I am trying to get?  I suppose I could sell the vehicle I purchased, but how much of a pain would that be?  Remember now that the jobs I am trying to land all require me to be moving most likely quite far from Michigan.

As for moving out of my parent’s house, I would love to.  Once again though, what happens if I land a job?  I don’t know … I suppose I could always break the lease of any apartment I got although I would need to once again have my possessions (assuming I ended up getting them delivered from Nevada) moved again to wherever the job I landed was.  Getting an apartment of my own would probably be the smart thing to do though as the office for Ray’s company is actually located down in Toledo, Ohio.  I don’t think driving daily between Allen Park and Toledo makes too much sense – heck, the gas cost alone would make the whole endeavor somewhat pointless…

Besides, I can’t screw over my buddy like that.  I fully realize he’s going out of his way to offer me assistance, but what kind of worker would I be if my main goal was finding work elsewhere?  I need to be able to open my schedule for any interviewing that may be required on my job search and I have absolutely no idea how frequently time off would be needed for that.  Heck, there’s been four days in the last couple weeks that I would have needed to be away from work for interviews.  I’m hoping that my interviewing may soon become even more frequent and who knows if I may be needing to travel somewhere for an interview…?  It just seems to me that this whole looking for a job these days is a job of its own.  If I agree to work with Ray’s company, I would feel obligated to do that job as well as I could.  Right now, I just feel that this job hunt I am currently on would get in the way…

I suppose another option here would be to take the job with Ray as a change in career.  It wouldn’t pay even close to what I expect to be able to get should I land a job in my current (“former,” I suppose, when the whole poker bullshit is taken into account) career however that’s assuming I am ever able to actually land a job.  I don’t know … seems like the last few phone interviews I had went decently but you never know these days – will they end up like all the other interviews I’ve had this last year?  I sure hope not…

Oh well … I’m planning on meeting up with Ray tomorrow down in Toledo.  Maybe talking with him will give me some direction…

bis später,

Coriolis

The End of a New Beginning

Well fuck me … that was quick.  Drove the 348 miles from Santa Monica to Fremont a couple days ago.  Was planning on making my new home up in the Silicon Valley – somewhere not too far from the job that I got in Santa Clara.  I had my concerns – mainly about the cost of living and the fact that I needed to somehow find an apartment after not having any provable steady income for the last damn near five years – but I was determined.  Sure, I let myself get low-balled on the salary aspect for this new job (side note here:  NEVER, EVER discount your self-worth … NEVER!) and I knew this was going to make things, in general, a bit more difficult.  Just how much more didn’t really sink in until I began my stay at the “extended stay” hotel where I am currently sitting and writing up this blog post.  You need to be getting paid very well around here if you ever want to feel any sense of security.  I so desperately miss the sense of security that I once had…

Showed up yesterday to my new job.  Arrived at the building at 10:21am – the recruiter that I was working with to land this job had informed me earlier that I was “scheduled” to begin work at 10:30am.  Nobody was there to meet me.  The glass doors to the office were locked and the reception area was completely empty as far as any human lifeforms were concerned.  There was a note taped to one door instructing somebody (I forget the name, but it wasn’t me…) to ring the doorbell if their card didn’t work so that someone could come let them in.  Sure enough, I discovered what appeared to be a doorbell just above one of those magnetic card readers over to the right of these main doors.  I rang it.

Not too long after, some guy showed up in the reception area.  He looked at me standing there with an expression that demonstrated he was most definitely not expecting to have been seeing me.  He did, however, open the doors and I introduced myself and said that I was scheduled to be beginning work there today (well, yesterday, but you get the gist…).  I mentioned the name of the recruiter that told me to be there and was instructed to have a seat whilst he attempted to call her.  Don’t think he ever spoke with anyone on the phone – if memory serves me correctly … I was in a bit of a state of bewilderment at what was happening and hadn’t really had any decent sleep for the last couple of nights prior to this – however he then escorted me into the main office area and asked me what kind of work I did.  Told him I was there to do Digital Place and Route, Physical Design work and I believe I mentioned the names of the engineers that I interviewed with – well, an engineer and a VP of Engineering that I interviewed with.  Figured this would help as this guy was also claiming to be a VP of Engineering – not the same one I interviewed with, however.  He then began leading me toward the cube-farm area of the physical design engineers and told me to take a seat in any cube.  He would try to get ahold of the recruiter I mentioned and send her over.

So, here’s where I really started questioning exactly what I’ve gone and gotten myself into.  We walked through the office – aisle after aisle and row after row of empty cubicles containing a vast assortment of random shelving structural pieces, “parts” of computers (mainly monitors, cables and keyboards that all appeared to not have been used in years) and extremely worn office furniture – leather on chairs that, for large swaths, was no longer leather.  I walked through this junk yard and settled down on one of the better-looking chairs in one of the many, many available empty cubicles.  It was then that this other VP of Engineering gave me the general direction to where I could find coffee or tea while I waited and pretty much disappeared.  I found my way to the break room, got myself some tea (would have been coffee, but none was made and I wasn’t about to be so presumptuous as to brew an entire urn of coffee just for me…) and headed back to the cube I claimed to wait.  Wasn’t sure exactly what I was waiting for, but my selection of “things to do” seemed to be limited to one – wait…

There was a guy sitting in the cube across from the one I selected.  He appeared to be busy with something on his laptop computer.  He was obviously not the least bit interested in why I was there and did a great job of just ignoring me completely.  Not sure what he was doing – none of my business, I suppose – although I decided to do the “neighborly thing” and introduce myself.  I got his name.  Don’t remember what it was.  It was, as they almost always are in my industry, very very Indian in nature – not that there’s anything wrong with that; I just have a lot of difficulty remembering names in general … Indian names, no chance.  Found out that he, too, was there to do Digital PnR work and that was that.  He went back to what he was doing on his laptop and we never spoke again.  I went back to my doing nothing but waiting … slowly growing more and more concerned about the situation…

I believe I spent approximately a half hour sitting there sipping on my tea, waiting for what’s to come next and sending out an update to my friends on Facebook as sort of a desperate cry for help before I overheard my name being mentioned in a conversation occurring a few cube rows away.  I decided to head in that direction to see if maybe somebody involved in it might have a clue as to why I was there.  The recruiter I was expecting to meet was part of this conversation as well as a couple other guys.  One presented me with a laptop and we all headed back to the cube I was now living in.  They asked me if I had been able to access my work email account and I informed them that I had.  They then dropped a couple IP addresses which I took note of (having absolutely no idea why I was being told these) and mentioned something about sending an email to a specific address that I also took note of.  It was all very cryptic and absolutely nothing was making any sense to me.  What were they expecting me to do?  I wasn’t given any direction whatsoever.  I was then asked if I had read “the” email.  What email?  The only email I had received prior to starting work was informing me of my work email account.  I received no email at my new account as of then.

This was going nowhere.  Figured the best thing I could do at this point was to switch on the laptop they gave me (a piece of shit 2012 model with a Windows 7 and an Intel CORE i5 sticker on the palm rest) and basically show them the email I received.  This I did.  Apparently “the” email was never sent.  Hell, I still do not know what “the” email was … perhaps I read it later that day – I really don’t know.  It was then that one of the guys (the engineer I had interviewed with about a week earlier) mentioned something about me setting up my VNC and reading emails to get up to speed on where the project was and they all left.  Okay … what now…?

Figured I might as well begin by configuring this laptop to my likings.  Creating bookmarks for my work email account, maybe doing some interface customization … you know, the standard shit you do when you receive a new computer.  I started doing that.  That’s when I discovered just how out-of-date this machine actually was.  It was originally running Windows 7 as clearly shown by the sticker on the palm rest, however it had been upgraded to Windows 10 at some point.  It was actually in mid-update mode as the “Shut down” and “Restart” selections had the familiar “Update and” text appended to both.  (Oh yeah, and as a side note, I mentioned to the guy that appeared to be the IT-guy that I was trying to update this machine and got the gut-wrenching response about him basically not liking updates.  It always bothers me when IT departments ignore updates to computer equipment … just seems lazy.  These updates are usually released for valid reasons.  Granted they sometimes cause issues to current procedures in IT, however that doesn’t mean they should just be ignored.  But I digress…)  I selected the “Update and Restart” followed by checking for the existence of any more updates to the operating system (it was now fully updated) and then ran DELL’s “Support Assist” tool to see if I could fix the driver issue that was being reported and discovered that this machine was actually two firmware versions behind in its BIOS.

I was able to flash one update to the firmware successfully although the driver issue was not resolved.  Couldn’t update the BIOS to the later firmware version, though.  Something about the computer not having the correct specs – whatever, I left it where it was.  I do believe that this was exactly why the machine was reporting the driver issue but didn’t want to waste too much time on my first day at the new job basically doing what should have been done by their IT department years ago.  No, I needed to start figuring out how to do some real work.  Nobody seemed to want to tell me anything, though.  I did receive a few emails related to PuTTY and VNC settings which were not much help other than giving me an initial password and saying I needed to change it.  I did accomplish this and figured out how to login to a server (exactly what server it was is anyone’s guess) and start a VNC session that I was able to view on my laptop.  Yippee … who cares?  Nobody was giving me anything to do…

That was basically the way my entire day went.  I was giving myself bullshit, busy-work tasks to complete to be prepared for when I might need to actual do such tasks and basically trying to make heads or tails out of the several group emails that I obtained access to at some point in the day.  In time, it became clear to me what this project actually was.  It’s an older project that they’re trying to resurrect.  That’s never good.  Projects die for a reason – often times several reasons.  Why did this project die?  Why are they trying to restart it?  Why does this office look like a freaking junk yard?  Why did they give me a six-year-old computer to use?  Why didn’t they even supply me with a mouse?  Why, on Earth, are they using Office 365 through web browsers rather than installing the “Office apps” on the laptops like all other professional businesses do?  What the hell is going on here?!?!?

The final straw came for me when I decided to ask the engineer I interviewed with where I might be able to get a mouse to use.  His response was to basically look for one in all the junk lying around and started going through random drawers in various cubicles looking for a mouse that might be there.  Seriously???  This is a professional business???  I think not.  He then mentioned that I could ask that IT guy and we both headed over to do this.  His response, after looking through the junk on his desk and not finding one – he could put a req. in for a mouse although all purchase requests needed to be okayed and signed off for by this company’s CEO.  Holy fucking shit!  Really?!?  The CEO needs to sign-off on the purchase of a mouse for an engineer?  This company IS screwed.  That’s when I quit.

No … they weren’t paying me nearly enough to get on that sinking ship.  Pathetically enough, I now get to fall back to my original, pre-Santa Clara plan.  I’m moving back in with my parents … at least for a little while.  Exactly how I’m getting home is still an open issue.  Nothing in my world plays out as expected.  I am planning to check out of this hotel much earlier than I booked it for – most likely tomorrow.  Luckily the manager here is taking pity on me and only charging me for one week (for the three nights I was here) as opposed to the 30-days that is the usual charge for early check-out on a booking scheduled for longer than a month – I had this room booked through the 20^th of October (some 32 days from today).  It’s still not cheap and basically just more to add to what this fiasco ended up costing me.  Any way you look at it, this latest adventure is nothing more than another huge mistake.  I sure hope my luck is better for this long drive I have coming up…

bis später,

Coriolis

A New Beginning

Looks like the ‘Route 66’ trip is officially off.  The one-way ticket from Detroit to Los Angeles that I purchased about a week and a half ago for my buddy won’t be used (I suppose I need to investigate possibly getting a refund on that…).  No … I won’t be driving some 2500 miles east, north-east to move back in with my parents in a bit over a week as I have been planning.  I will, however, be loading up my car and driving some 300 miles north on Sunday – four days from today.  I’ll be heading for a hotel in Santa Clara where I have booked an “extended stay” for a month.  For you see, I appear to have landed a job today…

It’s a bit strange.  I’ve been trying quite hard to find a job once again doing what I was basically training to do for the first 23 years of my life … been damn near an entire year now.  As I mentioned in earlier posts to this blog that nobody reads, I wasn’t having much luck.  Primarily due to the four-year hole that I put in my resume – mid-life crisis delusion of grandeur … you know, same-ole same-ole…  In fact, just two days ago I was still waiting to receive an email scheduling an initial phone interview with a company down in San Diego.  Never received that email and, in fact, never had the phone interview that was scheduled to have happened by no later than yesterday (“3-5 business days” from when I got the initial email notification…).  I did, however, receive a phone call yesterday morning from a different company – one of the other 90 or so companies that I had sent applications to.  A couple calls yesterday, a few calls today and “Viola!” I got a job.

Now, to be completely honest here, what I currently have is a one-month contract (1099 work) that, if I am able to demonstrate my usefulness, will turn into a full-time job with benefits.  Their VP of Engineering just wasn’t sold on hiring me directly full-time because of that damn resume hole; however, I somehow convinced him to let me prove myself.  I’m not too worried though, with some 20-years’ experience doing this work prior to my hiatus, I believe it’ll come back to me in no time.  I had no problem completing the small contract job I picked up earlier this summer.  No, I know what I’m doing.  I’m sure I’ll be able to pitch-in…

Why then am I feeling such malaise?  That is the question that I am currently trying to figure out.  I suppose it’s most likely a combination of things.  For starters, I was actually beginning to look forward to doing the ‘Route 66’ trip with my buddy.  Spoke to him on the phone today and found out that he, as well, was looking quite forward to the adventure – said he’s been working long hours at a side-job in an effort to get more money for the trip.  Made me feel bad to tell him that it was no longer scheduled to be happening.

I was also looking quite forward to moving back to the old stomping grounds.  Sure, I would have been moving back in with my parents for some unknown amount of time and, truth be told, that’s actually somewhat pathetic for a man my age; however, it would have given me the opportunity to spend some more time with them while they’re still around – nobody lives forever…  That and I would have been able to hang out with many of my old friends on a more frequent basis than I get to when it’s only during trips back home around holidays.

I don’t know, seems to me that what I am doing here is once again letting money become more important than life.  We all (well, most of us at least…) seem to do this for a large portion of our lives.  For most, though, the choice is a necessity.  It costs quite a bit to raise a family these days.  I have no family to raise … never even been married.  My choice is far more selfish – it’s merely to make sure that I can take care of myself financially after retirement.  From all the stories I’ve read in the news, seems to me one can never have enough put aside to survive retirement these days.  We’re all just rats in cages destined to be running on our hamster wheels until we drop dead.  Jobs of the olden days used to provide people with pensions after they retired – those are, for the most part, gone now … merely ideas that seem to only have been myths to today’s working class.  Sure, there’s Social Security – for now – but what’s that get you?  Will it be enough to continually let you pay the consistently increasing rent for as long as you need?  I doubt it – that’s kind of why IRAs and 401k’s exist – you’re most likely going to need more.  And just exactly how much more is anyone’s guess.  That pretty much depends on how long you end up living.  Usually that’s an unknown…

Oh well, que sera, sera … I emailed the signed contract back for this job.  Decision made.  Right or wrong, I’m going to be starting work Monday morning.  I actually do think it’s most likely what is best.

bis später,

Coriolis

That Was Stupid...

Well, that’s done.  One mid-life crisis completed.  Did I learn anything?  Perhaps…  Was it anything useful?  Nope.  What it was – and still is – was an idiot (me) throwing away some forty-plus years of life on a completely misguided attempt to become something I’m not and, after trying, don’t ever want to be.  The result of this is that I have now become exactly what I now am, nobody.

About a half year ago, I moved into my buddy’s apartment in California.  The idea was that I would be able to get back into the career I basically abandoned some five years ago.  The horrible job I left and the douche-bag of a boss that forced me out are just side stories that I won’t bother to mention here; the point being that I made the choice then to throw away my 20-years of professional experience.  To be honest, I figured that I would be able to use that experience to get back into my field of expertise later if what I was attempting didn’t pan out.  Boy was I wrong…  Moving back to California was a way to get closer to where most of the jobs doing what I know are located.  Granted I’m living in southern California and most of the work for my skillset is up in The Valley (the Silicon one…), however I figured it would be better than having a Nevada address.  Turns out it really doesn’t matter.  With a four-plus year hole in your resume, you could be living in a company’s actual building and they wouldn’t bother considering you for any open positions they might have.  You are un-hirable.

I was, with the help of my buddy, able to pick up a bit of contract work here in the L.A. area.  I mistakenly saw that as a positive thing.  Made a bit of money and got the opportunity to hone my skills a bit with some technology a bit more advanced than I had on my resume at the time.  Turns out I was wrong about that as well.  The company I worked with was flaky as they come.  I was actually visiting their office once when, on no less than two occasions, they refused to answer the door when people were knocking.  I don’t know why they didn’t answer however I saw how tense the employees got when the knocks were heard and distinctly remember the boss telling everyone not to answer the door.  As far as my interaction with them went, it was basically them giving me the inputs I needed and me completing the work requested.  I constantly attempted to discuss the work with them but was basically ignored and had to figure out everything on my own.  There was literally no professional interaction between us other than a bare minimum.  A complete month had passed after delivering my work before they told me that we were done and asked me to return the equipment they loaned me (well, I had to inquire several times as to what was happening and whether they wanted their equipment returned before they finally said we were finished) and they never even looked at what I had delivered – I asked…  I’m still quite baffled as to what all that was about.  It wasn’t anything I could use other than, as mentioned earlier, the pay.  Having such a short contract job on my resume after a four-and-a-half-year sabbatical actually looks more suspicious than positive.  I successfully completed the contract without issue, however it does still look suspicious…

So, this brings us to today.  I have been keeping a detailed spreadsheet on all of the jobs I’ve been applying for in these last nine months – more than 150 different positions with over 90 different companies and recruiters.  I’ve had a few interviews that all seemed to go well although they’ve all gone mute.  I’ve heard nothing back from any of them even after sending post-interview inquiries.  It’s like I never existed.  Makes me wonder why they bothered getting in touch with me in the first place…?  Was it some kind of sadistic game?  Granted a couple of those interviews were with people that didn’t notice the hole in my resume until I was basically forced to point it out to them during the conversation.  The tone of the interview consistently changed at that point and I knew I had no chance.  20 years of experience means nothing then…

I am currently trying to move back in with my parents.  My savings are most definitely not what they used to be – I will admit that I lost a large chunk playing poker for four years – and there is absolutely no way I could afford an apartment here in sunny Santa Monica without any income.  I very much doubt I would be able to obtain a lease.  I’m pretty sure they’re expecting a tenant to be able to show steady income no matter how high their credit score may be.  No, I need to move back home.  Housing is much cheaper in Michigan – free if I move back in with the parents for a while – and my buddy’s kicking me out.  Not that I blame him – I never expected to be here this long.  Hindsight being what it is, I never should have moved in with my buddy.  Sure, as far as Santa Monica rents are concerned, he gave me a great deal (no, I wasn’t living here for free…) and I honestly thought I would be able to land a steady job by now; unfortunately, the world appears to have had other plans for me.  All I know is that moving back home directly from Nevada would have been so much easier than what I currently face.  What I’m dealing with now is a nightmare…

I’m actually half-way done with my move out of Nevada.  I chose a moving company, had them empty out my apartment in Nevada and put my stuff in storage (for a monthly fee that I am currently still paying) until I was able to acquire an apartment in California that they would then deliver my possessions to.  It’s all described in the paperwork/emails that I have.  I then loaded up my car with a selection of my clothing, a couple of my guitars, my laptop computer and a bunch of things I thought would be useful and drove to my buddy’s.  So now I have a few problems.  I now need to get myself and all the crap I took to my buddy’s over to my parent’s house in Michigan.  I’m also planning on driving my 16-year-old car for this trip.  The same car I drove to my buddy’s apartment from Nevada; however, Nevada to California isn’t quite the same as California to Michigan.  I’ve done my best in keeping my car as pristine as possible but it is still 16 years old – you never know, right…?  And if I load it up with all the crap I drove to California, it’s basically a target for theft anywhere I stop on my trip.  And what about the crap I have stored in Nevada (at the moving company that, by the way, was sold to new owners a couple months ago)?  Will they be able to deliver to Michigan once I get an apartment there (assuming I’ll be able to get that all figured out…)?  Everything is a huge mess now!

I’ll say this much, “I never thought my life would be what it has become.”  I’m basically homeless, jobless and pathetic.  Thinking of shipping the guitars to Michigan, flying a buddy out from Michigan, loading up my car (without the guitars it shouldn’t be too bad) and cruising Route 66 with my buddy from Santa Monica to Chicago then driving home from there.  Fuck it, might as well make an adventure out of this madness.  I’ll deal with the crap in storage sometime later…

bis später,

Coriolis

Public Transportation in L.A.!?

There’s an unexpected – or at least “previously unknown to me” – advantage to the location of my new apartment (the one I’m moving to in a couple of weeks). It seems that it is located easily within walking distance of the LA Metro “Orange Line”. What this translates to is that, theoretically, I should now be able to get around Los Angeles without needing to put Precious (my ’02 Trans-Am Firehawk for those just joining this discussion…) at risk on the mean streets that are the freeways of the L.A. Metropolitan Area. This, as anyone who’s had the privilege to partake in this madness knows, is a good thing … a very good thing…

All I now need to do is figure out the system. I think I’ve made quite a bit of progress in the last few days by investigating the Metro.net website (we’re between tapeouts here at work which gives me plenty of free time…); although I am still a bit confused – mainly with the fares, passes, and this thing known as “TAP”. I’ve even been able to (at least I think…) find two bus lines that I could basically take to work. If I’m correct with my research, then I do believe I’m going to once again become a frequent user of public transportation as I so easily was able to do during the time I spent in Europe. Now granted, this depends greatly on whether or not I have successfully cracked the Enigma code that is the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Here’s what I’ve surmised thus far…

The two lines that I should be able to use to commute to and fro work are the LA County Metro Local line 161 and the aptly named Commuter Express line 422. Both lines (as well as a few other intermediate local Metro lines) were presented to me via the Metro Trip Planner tool. All I did was enter my apartment address as the start point and my work address as the destination. This got me the 161 line. The 422 line was discovered after messing around with the day and time settings a bit and increasing the maximum walking distance. It soon started looking like the Commuter Express (line 422) was my best bet as the travel time was somewhere on the order of half that reported for the 161 line. I decided to check out the maps and timetables for these routes to see why this was, exactly…

I was able to find both a map and timetable for the Metro Local 161 line directly on the Metro website. The 422 line, however, was mysteriously absent. The reason for this is because the Commuter Express lines are actually part of the LADOT (The City of Los Angeles Department of Transportation) system as opposed to the LACMTA system covered by the Metro.net site. The trip planner found on the Metro.net site includes connections utilizing the LDOT (Commuter Express lines – perhaps DASH lines too although I haven’t checked this yet…) routes as well. It’s very convenient although a bit more explanation might be helpful to us newbies there… I was able, in time, to find the map and schedule for the 422 route through the LADOT website.

These two routes differ in a couple key areas. Although the Commuter Express 422 route is actually a somewhat quicker trip (it has fewer stops than the local 161 route), it has the disadvantage of having a much more restricted service schedule. It only travels from the San Fernando Valley (where my new apartment is) to Westlake Village (the location of my work) on weekdays between the hours of ~6:00am until ~8:30am and the return trip utilizing this route would need to be done between ~2:15pm and ~6:45pm. Buses basically run every 20 minutes within these hours and this route is not available on weekends.

By contrast, the Metro Local 161 route (although the trip could take up to an hour) is usable throughout the day from about 5:45am until approximately 8:30pm for my commute each and every day – weekend and holiday service is a bit more limited, however it is available. The main problem with this route is that the buses are far less frequent – runs are scheduled with as few as one run per hour at times. I do however believe that I should be able to figure out an optimal routine utilizing these two routes in time. If only I could figure out the fare issues…

You see, that’s currently what I’m trying to make sense of. It’s rather obvious that I could pay for each trip with cash (exact change only) and keep track of any transfer fees I would need to purchase; however carrying the amount of coins this would require would quickly become a nuisance. What I’m looking to do is purchase some sort of monthly pass that would allow me to use the public transportation systems easily. When I was in Braunschweig, this was easy to do – I purchased a monthly pass at the train station that allowed me to take any bus or tram in the city without hassle. I was even able to figure this out without speaking any German – the system was very user-friendly. Here in L.A. – where I speak one of the common languages rather fluently – it’s quite a bit more complicated … or at least it currently appears so to me…

So I’m pretty sure that what I need to get for my standard work commute is an EZ Transit Pass (“Good for travel on Metro bus, Metro Rail and many additional carriers”) and one EZ Premium Stamp (in order to travel between the “San Fernando Valley” and “Thousand Oaks / Agoura Hills” zones on the 422 Commuter Express line); but what the heck is all this nonsense about a TAP card? Apparently “all Metro passes are now sold on TAP” which is “a durable plastic card you can use again and again.” That’s great for the Metro passes; but what about the EZ Transit Pass? Since this pass appears to be equivalent to a Metro Monthly Pass with additional features (allows travel on additional carriers outside of the Metro system – LADOT, to be more precise…), am I correct in thinking that this card can be used in lieu of a TAP card for intra-Metro travel? I suppose I should call somebody and ask about this…

Whatever the case, it now looks like I’ll have something to occupy myself with once I move into my next apartment. I suppose this is good as my standard routine of doing basically nothing during my free time has become excruciatingly boring. Add to that the sure excitement I’m bound to experience with the myriad of tasks that need to be completed upon my move – furnishing the apartment and such – and it looks like an absolute flurry of activity is soon to be heading my way. Who knows? Maybe I can turn all this into something positive…? The ability to get out and about whilst avoiding the need to drive in the L.A. gridlock sounds like a nice start to me.

bis später,

Coriolis

Once Bitten, Twice Shy

I’ve decided to find a bit more appropriate housing for myself next month. Not that I haven’t been enjoying the ability I’ve had of late to easily increase my overall net worth; I think, however, it’s due time for me to start living like the soon to be 40 year old man that I am. And what that means is that I really need to be moving out of the room I currently reside in and moving into an apartment – a place of my own. I’ve already found the place and am scheduled to be moving to the valley (the San Fernando Valley, that is … like, totally…) on the 10th of April.

I know, “big deal,” right? Well I guess it isn’t. It’s just the next adventure that this rather dull, increasingly lonely life that I lead has in store for me. As for the myriad of details associated with this move go, I’m beginning to wonder if I can cope. It all just seems like way too much hassle for yet one more thing that, to be completely honest, I really don’t “want” to do. But I’ve learned that life – at least my life – really doesn’t give a shit whether the tasks it throws at me are things I want, it’s going to bombard me with ‘em anyway. I suppose that feeling of control over my life that I once had after returning from Germany a few years back was only an illusion. I guess this next move could be seen as a desperate attempt to once again rein in my out of control life; to regain control and return to creating my life rather than just living it. I just hope I can survive…

The funny, somewhat interesting, rather pathetic and quite sad thing is that this is far from the first time I’ve traveled down this road. Hell, since becoming a college grad, I’ve “lived” (for a minimum of seven months) at 12 different “permanent” addresses in 9 different cities, 5 separate states and 2 unique countries. Granted there are many out there that these figures seem somewhat minuscule; however, for a guy who’s initial plan was to get married and live somewhere (perhaps with a family, perhaps just as a couple) happily ever after, it’s approximately 11 addresses too many. For god’s sake, I OWN a house in Colorado! I own a house and have once again begun the process of moving. Will it ever end…?

Oh well … as it currently stands, I’ve got quite a bit that I need to do in order to successfully accomplish this latest move. That’s the worst part about all these moves – they seem to be getting more and more complicated as time goes by. My first half-dozen or so moves were actually pretty simple – I didn’t own much and all that was required was to get my small amount of possessions transported to my new address then arrange for television and internet service to be furnished. It doesn’t get much simpler than that. All my moves were repeats of this same process until I finally bit the bullet and bought a house in ’01. That was, theoretically, supposed to be my last move. I’ve already moved three times since…

My plan has been to keep the house in Colorado, live on the cheap wherever I end up needing to go and, after the stars finally re-align themselves making it possible for me to live in Colorado again, move back into my house. Seemed like a good plan to me when I first decided to implement it some three and a half years ago; however I am now realizing that this plan is flawed in some very fundamental ways.

I attempted to address one of these weaknesses – the problem of property upkeep – by fool heartedly letting my buddy Todd live in my house (rent-free, mind you…) whilst I was living and working in California. The mess that is property upkeep of a house that one is not living in had become evident to me upon my return from Germany. For some reason (ignorance, I suppose) I was under the impression that leaving my house empty during the time I was away in Germany (and subsequently the time I spent with the family afterword – a total of about one full year) would not be an issue. I was wrong about this (check out my earlier post, Smoking Marathon, for more) and actually feel a bit silly about my initial naivety. The obviousness of the stupidity of such an impression is very clear to me now…

But I digress … having Todd actually living in my house would avoid this problem – or so I thought. I figured that we could help each other out – Todd needed a place to live and I could use somebody to take care of my house. This, of course, ended badly as anybody who’s ever been foolish enough to believe a living situation similar to this wouldn’t end badly has assuredly learned. Never, and I do mean never, let anybody live in your house rent free. All it’s going to do is give said person a false feeling of entitlement and, once this has set in, you can forget about your wishes having any import. Once Todd started taking advantage of his side of our deal with little to no concern for the upkeep of my house, I was forced to kick him out. It’s a long story involving alcohol, misguided machismo, some extremely poorly rationalized statements and the Longmont Police; however the end result was that I was forced to kick Todd out. This of course meant that my house was once again abandoned. I needed to do something about that…

So now I own a rental property in Colorado (okay … I actually own a mortgage to a rental property in Colorado to be more precise). My former abode of dwelling is still sitting atop this property however somebody else’s family is living in it. PML (Property Management of Longmont) has been tasked with this property’s maintenance and upkeep and any and all repair costs are passed on for me to pay as well as a small percentage of the rent that goes to PML as a maintenance fee. It’s a pretty good arraignment so far even though I am, at best, only able to recoup approximately 2/3 of my mortgage payment each month – sometimes much less depending on repair costs… Bottom line is that I am dropping a decent amount of money each month already – long before I factor in the cost of housing for me out here in California. If the housing market ever gets back on its feet again, I should however be able to make back the difference (and then some, hopefully…) with the equity I am retaining. I suppose only time will tell on this gambit…

Getting back to the main point of this article, this mortgage ownership that I have has thrown a bit of a monkey-wrench into my usual new rental procedure. It’s actually simplified some things quite a bit as I ended up basically tossing out a large majority of my possessions after asking Todd to leave. And by a “large portion”, I do in fact mean a large portion. Of all my possessions that I had in my house, exactly one 5’x9’ storage unit of stuff is left – my home entertainment system (sans television set), a half-stack, my guitar, a few boxes of clothing and a file cabinet of primarily financial documents. This storage unit (located in a Public Storage in Longmont), along with the stuff I am living with here in California, is everything I now own. In other words, I am now going to need to do some shopping just to furnish the new, two-bedroom, two-bath apartment I am moving to next month. I am also going to need to arrange shipment of the stuff I have stored in Longmont. I’m beginning to wonder if it’s worth the hassle…

I don’t know, perhaps I’m just suffering your standard buyer’s remorse. It wasn’t until rather recent that I was finally able to get myself out from under a substantial amount of credit card debt. I’m very proud to now be able to announce that I am completely, 100% credit-card debt free! Getting here has taught me what I would consider a very valuable lesson – live within your means and do not, under any circumstances, buy shit on credit. I’ve made a complete U-turn when it comes to spending and now only buy things AFTER I have saved up enough money to purchase them. The absolute best way to use credit cards is actually to NOT use them. It almost seems too simple now – why would I want to pay more for something than it actually costs? That is exactly what you are doing when you charge something and keep any balance on your card at the end of the month. Now I realize that my readers are smart people and I’m not telling you anything you did not already know; however it was shocking to see the financial condition that the younger me was able to get myself into. I’m trying my best not to let history repeat itself here…

Now my current situation is great for me, financially. Living where I do (basically a room in a boarding house) is cheap. Very cheap when you consider it’s located in Thousand Oaks. So whipty-doo, I can increase my net worth. However in doing so, I have basically put my life (admittedly dull as it is…) on hold. I wake up, spend a rather large portion of my day at work, spend the remainder of the day in my little room, go to bed and repeat. Weekends are very similar except that, often times, the work portion can be removed. And yeah, I know what you’re thinking, “What’s stopping me from doing more?” You obviously have never lived in Thousand Oaks…

There’s this site name Walk Score where you can enter any address and see how walkable it would be to live there. It basically gives you listings of nearby attractions and how close they are to the address entered. It also gives you a score from 1-100 that rates your address. My boarding house rates 29 out of 100 – “Car-Dependent”. By contrast, the apartment complex I am moving to in Woodland Hills gets a score of 80 – “Very Walkablke”. The way I see it, having the ability to walk places might get me out more. Not to mention that the walking would give me some exercise – something that I have let slip seriously since moving to T.O. Will this pan out in the end? I don’t know, but I’m willing to try…

Apart from the location of my new place, there’s also the much more prudent aspect that it will be MY place. I will once again be able to go grocery shopping. Not that I can’t buy groceries now; however I’m basically limited to one shelf in the fridge to store my groceries. I have been told that I could use the kitchen for cooking; but the whole communal-living aspect of it all is very uncomfortable for me. I’ve done the “living in a frat house” thing long ago; I think I’m past that now…

Also, assuming I am able to get the place furnished correctly, I will no longer feel that I should be spending all of my time at home cramped up in my bedroom. No, far from it, I will be able to watch television in my living room, hang out on one of the two balconies that look out at the pool and communal area of the complex, heck … I can even head down to the gym and get a decent workout. Anyway you look at it, having a place of my own again should make me feel a bit more normal.

But it all comes at a cost and that’s what I’m having a hard time justifying to myself. Don’t get me wrong, I currently can afford it – rather easily, actually. That being said, this apartment will be costing me 3.5-4 times what I am currently paying for room and board. It’s not chicken feed… Even if the unforeseen happens (say I lose my job before the 12-month lease is done), I currently have enough cash in the bank to cover the rent; but then all that work I did at obtaining this savings would have been for naught. It wouldn’t be good, but I just need to consider that it would be survivable. After all, what’s the use of earning this money if you’re going to sacrifice your life in order to keep it, right? I think my attempt at shocking my life back into existence is long overdue. Here goes nothing…

bis später,

Coriolis

Ahh, Now I Get It

Precious has returned home to me, amazingly enough, with no huge hiccups to bitch about. Sure, I needed to finish securing the trim on the inside of the rear hatch and the plastic wire that used to secure the gas cap to the little gas cap door no longer does; however this is miles ahead of what I went through a bit under a year ago when I last got her back from Paradise. Yesterday I even installed my replacement CD changer that I was finally able to find online for a mere $615 – keeping nothing but original parts on Precious can be expensive at times... Now that I’m able to once again eject my disc cartridges, I spent last evening creating another 12 discs of random music from my rather extensive collection of what I guess one would refer to as oldies – you know … your late 70’s thru early 90’s rock that, not too long ago, was considered “garbage” by our parents. You know you’re getting old when you hear a song from some group on the radio and complain about their “new stuff” not being as good as their older, far superior tunes then take notice that the station you’re listening to is billed as “the best classic rock in the greater L.A. area!” and the new tune you just berated is over 20 years old! What can I say? I knows what I likes and I ain’t about to buy that this modern, cookie cutter, electronically pitch-enhanced, American Idol inspired bullshit that the music industry is trying to justify as actual music is anything but the crap that it is. Hmm … perhaps I am getting a bit crotchety in my mid age…

But that’s neither here nor there … I got my car back. I’m tempted to start an office pool on how much time will pass before I am once again forced to rely on rentals (with the way my luck goes, I’d be tempted to bet large on “not very long”…) however for now, at least, I am able to drive the car that I purchased so many years ago. I’m living the dream…

Unfortunately, apart from the return of Precious, this dream I’m living as of late is a pure nightmare. I’m constantly pissed off at everything (and I do mean “everything” … I’ve begun flipping off my television set … this makes no sense – it’s not like the “people in the box” can even see me or anything – however there I am, time and time again, flipping the bird to my Sony Bravia often accompanied by some choice words at the moronic drivel that seems to constantly ooze forth from it…), I’m in what could best be described as a perpetual bad mood and the worst part about all this is that I see no end for this anywhere on the horizon. I do have a trip back home for Christmas and New Year’s coming in a bit over a week; but apart from that, nothing. I own a house (well, I “own” a mortgage) in Colorado that is currently being enjoyed by someone else’s family. I’m living in (and paying rent for) a room here in California which seriously limits any possibilities I might have at wooing any women – “Shall we take this back to my place … oh wait, strike that. Could I interest you in perhaps getting a hotel room tonight?” – although I suppose bitching about this is moot … let’s face it, I’m much more likely to find the Holy fucking Grail than I am to find a woman that would consider me sponge-worthy. This fact has been rather forcefully made clear to me in the past couple of months. I seem to have lost my will to live. I mean, what’s the point?

I suppose this is just life though. You do your best to get through these ebbs in an attempt to ride the next wave as far as you can before inevitably crashing down again, a bit more beaten, a bit less youthful and, if you’re not careful, a bit less human. The wise rely on support from their friends whereas the friendless slowly fade away and become nothing more than vague memories. My list of friends here in Cali has always been short. It currently contains nobody…

Oh well, what’s one to do about it? (Or, more to the point, what am I to do about it???) I wish I had an answer to that question – really I do – but unfortunately I don’t know. All I know is that I can’t continue to do nothing for much longer. I’m afraid I’m going to end up becoming one of those screwy head cases that you sometimes run into mumbling some sort of anamnesis to himself in words completely disconnected from all relevance however important enough for him to be repeated ad nauseum with complete disregard to even the existence of others. Holy shit! That’s what this blog is … the ramblings of a madman. Please don’t tell me my life’s dwindled to nothing more than occasionally posting my completely useless thoughts to a blog with no readers … I don’t think I could sufficiently deal with that reality…

bis spatter,

Coriolis

Why Me…?

So Precious – my ’02 Firehawk – is back at Paradise Body & Paint again. It was a little over a year ago that she made her first trip to meet Bob (back in Doh!) and I was pretty much hoping that it would be smooth sailing from then ‘til I ever decided to sell my Precious. It was a lofty dream and reality is what it is. A bit over a month ago, as I was attempting to merge with the traffic jam that is the 101 on each and every afternoon rush-hour, I got rear-ended by this rather nice lady and her Mercedes SUV. Have I ever mentioned how much I love living here in southern California…?

The collision actually occurred on the 7th of October. As you can easily tell by the post-date of this article, it is now the 17th of November. From what I have been able to gather by speaking with Bob at Paradise and through the several conversations I’ve had with Regina – the claims representative assigned to my case by Encompass Insurance – I do believe that work has at least been started on my car by now. I suppose that’s progress … I’m always amazed at the absolute lack of respect one gets from so-called “professional” businesses these days. Has it always been like this or is this just another symptom of the disease that our modern society has become? To further explain my query, here’s the whole story…

First off, the entrance ramp to north 101 from northbound Lindero Canyon Blvd. – like many of the US Hwy 101 entrance ramps – is pretty much an “accident waiting to happen.” It’s one of those 270°, downward sloping, right-hand curved ramps that ends up going directly under the overpass of the street you are exiting. In this case, the street being exited (Lindero Canyon Blvd.) is a standard inner-city type divided highway and the road you are entering is a 65 MPH interstate freeway. One would think that an acceleration lane of ample length would be provided after the 270° curve to aid in the high-speed merging process; however one would then not be a southern California civil engineer – I think you’re given somewhere around 30 feet or so in reality. Suffice it to say that there’s really not enough room given to merge here in heavy traffic…

As I was attempting this merge last month (something I had done many times before but rarely with ease…), I accelerated into the right-hand lane of the freeway speeding up to match the flow of traffic. It was then that the car I was merging behind slammed on their brakes. I’m still not sure why this extreme deceleration was necessary – probably one of those far-to-common chain-reaction events caused by some idiot ahead – but my only option was to slam on my brakes and prepare for impact. I watched the rear of the car ahead disappear from view and waited for the crunch. It took me a couple moments to realize that the crunch I heard came from the SUV behind me smashing into my rear. Although I must have missed my target by no more than the skin of my teeth, I did not crash into the car in front of me. The lady behind me wasn’t as lucky…

We (I and the now leaking SUV behind me) pulled off to the right shoulder, contacted the police, exchanged information, had both our vehicles towed (mine was on a flatbed, of course) and I ended that excitement by getting a ride home by the very nice flatbed driver – turns out that my place was on the way to where the holding yard was. I was told that I could file an “over the counter” police report the next day, provided the address to do so (I guess the cop at the scene wanted to avoid the paperwork himself) and given a signed confession from Alison (the very nice lady that hit me). My plan was to contact my insurance, get Precious moved back over to Bob at Paradise – mainly because he was already well versed in dealing with this car – then order up a rental car to be used while waiting for the repair to be completed. I would set this plan in motion the next morning … it was too late to get anything started that evening…

Upon contacting my insurance, it was decided that my best move would be to open a claim directly with Alison’s insurance – Encompass. As fault was not questionable in this accident, there really was no reason for me to involve my insurance at all. I had already filed a rather substantial claim about a year ago and was trying my best to avoid any increase in my premiums. I figured leaving my insurance out of this completely was a good idea. As a “just in case” measure, I did head down to the CHP station and filed an OTC accident report later that day. It was yet one more incident that demonstrates the pure contempt that many of today’s police officers have toward the citizens they are supposed to be working for. Here’s how that event unfolded…

I approached the counter and informed the officer that I was instructed by the responding officer, the evening before, that I could head to this office and file an OTC accident report – that was my reason for being there. It seemed that I was disturbing his television viewing schedule (there was a TV mounted on the wall that appeared to have no other use than to entertain this officer during his work hours) although he diverted his eyes from the set long enough to grab an empty traffic collision report form, quickly cross out large sections of it, highlight what he wanted me to fill in and tell me to write a description of what happened on the back. I then showed the signed, written confession I had obtained from Alison and requested that it be included in the report and started filling out the sections marked. I was then told that I needed to go get pictures of the damage to my car before I would be allowed to file the report. I shrugged this off and continued filling out the collision report form…

Everything I could remember was written in my accident description – including the responding officer’s name and badge number. I also made mention of the self-written, signed confession of guilt that was provided to me by the other driver. After finishing the report, I started heading back out to my rental car a bit peeved that I was being asked to waste more of my time obtaining pictures that I saw as being completely useless. The officer said that he needed the pictures to show that an accident actually occurred; even though I had the name and badge number of the responding officer as well as a signed confession by the other driver. I decided then that these pictures were unnecessary; turned around and headed back in to the office.

After patiently waiting for this same officer to finish an extremely important discussion he was having with another officer about some purely non-work-related subject (I forget what they were talking about – something about some chick or sporting event or the like; whatever it was, it sure as hell wasn’t more important that doing what they’re being paid for...), I informed said officer that I believed the pictures to be unnecessary and wanted to file the report as it stood. He then rather insolently asked me how he knew an accident even occurred. To this I suggested that he could inquire with the responding officer and pointed out the name and badge number written in the report. As a second, and perhaps much more obvious proof, I had a signed confession for the other party in the accident. I once again reiterated my belief that the pictures were overkill at best and requested that the report be filed.

It was then that my interfering with his television watching and socializing activities apparently pissed him off a bit. I distinctly remember him saying that I could “ask” him to file the report but I had no authority to “tell” him to file it. Personally, I’m pretty sure that I do have the authority to file a report whenever I feel like it being that I am a legal, taxpaying citizen of this country – granted I could get myself into quite a bit of trouble by filing false reports; however this cop – as seems to be a far too prevalent these days – appears to be suffering from a bad case of superiority complex. I returned his blatant threat with, “Pretty please, will you file this report?” He then sat down at his desk and filed the report for me.

I really cannot tell you how dismayed I’ve become of late about the seemingly endless contempt that law enforcement officers (and not just the cops, but the whole American legal system) seem to have to the populace they are supposed to be protecting. The way that presumption of innocence has turned into a dated concept really bothers me to no extent. But I digress … although the deterioration of the rights we Americans currently possess is an interesting topic, it’s not what I came to bitch about today. I’ll get back to my story…

Okay, so I’ve done my best to make sure that I am, in no way, able to be shown at fault in this accident. Whether or not that even means anything these days is yet to be seen however I’ve gone way out of my way to clear my name in case it becomes an issue. The goal now becomes getting Precious adequately repaired with little to no cost on my part. I contact Encompass Insurance and file a claim. Here’s where the fun begins…

Everything seems to go fine from the start: I successfully get Precious dropped off at Paradise Body & Paint and, after being informed by Regina at Encompass that I would be allotted $25 per day for a rental vehicle during the repairs, decide to switch out my initial rental car (obtained from the Thousand Oaks Avis for $30.99 per day) to a rental from the Avis that Paradise works with for $25.99 per day. It’s still more than the insurance is willing to pay – a fact that I will address later – however it looks to be saving me $5 a day from what I could possibly be held responsible for. Whatever … I suppose I need to do what I need to do. I now need to wait for Encompass to complete an appraisal of the damage before the body shop can begin the work. How long could this take, right…?

At this point, I’m set. I’ve got a rental car to use whilst Precious is in the shop and all I need to do now is wait for that call telling me she’s ready to be picked up, right? One would think … but in today’s world, no frickin’ way. It’s somewhere around a week after my poor, wounded car is delivered to the body shop when I finally decide to call in and see how things are going. What I’m basically told is that they’re not going – something about the appraisal being insufficient for the work required and there being some need for another appraisal to fix the problems with the first … yadda yadda yadda and blah blah blah… I figured I best call Encompass and get their side of things…

I call and – as what will become the norm with trying to contact Regina – am greeted by a voice-mail message that informs me what day it is, what the working hours for Regina are and that I should leave a message with my name, contact number and claim number so that she would be able to get back with me prior to the end of the business day. I leave the requested information. No call is returned prior to the end of her business day nor the complete morning on the day after. I decide to try contacting her again in the early afternoon of the next day and get a bit lucky – she answers the call. I inquire with her about the status of my claim and am told the standard “song and dance” that everyone gets – their appraiser was sent to the body shop and an appraisal was filed. I explain that the body shop is telling me that the appraisal is insufficient for the work required and get the standard response that they are, by law, required to repair the car to a condition prior to the accident and that, since my car was an ’02 model, the appraisal would not include any improvements. It was then that I tried to explain to Regina that my car was a rare, limited edition collector’s item that I had kept as close to pristine as I could. It was, in no way whatsoever, your typical ’02 car. I was doing my best to convey that they were not going to get away with low-balling the repair and they might as well cut their losses (I reminded her that Encompass was paying for my rental as long as this repair took) and pay for the repairs needed. She then FAXed the appraisal for me to look over…

What I got was an initial appraisal of $6989.96 for repairs. This was the official appraisal dated 10-12-09. Interestingly enough, there was also a supplemental adjustment of -$1436.93 dated two days later. I was confused by this and decided to call Bob at the body shop. He received the same thing and this was actually the problem he was referring to on my initial contact with him. The fourteen hundred dollar savings was the removal of a replacement quarter panel from the initial appraisal. Bob was told that he needed to repair the current quarter panel when the second appraisal was filed since, as it appears, the first appraisal was seen as too expensive by Encompass – even though this was what the appraiser priced it at. Luckily Bob refused to do it and insisted that a new quarter panel was required. In his expert opinion – an opinion that was apparently shared by the initial appraisal – the quarter panel was beyond repair and needed to be replaced.

Since then, there have been a couple more (at least) appraisals filed that seem to (trying to make sense of this paperwork is next to impossible for me) bring the total price for repair up to $7475.75. That’s actually more than the initial appraisal – which I find rather interesting – and the new quarter panel has been added back in. From what Bob has informed me, the quarter panel has been ordered from Canada and should currently be at the shop. He told me it was the absolute last one available. It also appears that the rear Firehawk decal is no longer available which bums me out a bit; but I’m hoping to at least be getting my car back sometime soon. Unfortunately I actually have no idea whether or not this will happen…

As of Friday evening, I’m heading back to Michigan for a week. Last time I spoke with Bob, I was told that he wouldn’t have the car completed by Friday. I need to return my rental car then though, so I’m hoping that my car will get completed prior to my return. The reason I’m hoping this is because I was actually able to get Encompass to put my rental on a direct bill to them – not an easy task, mind you… Of course Avis called me earlier today and informed me that Encompass was under the impression that I had been renting this car since the 4th of November. Seeing as it was actually the 8th of October, I think they’re not going to be too happy. Lynette (Regina’s boss) did tell me that they would take the rental cost as a direct bill due to the ungodly amount of time that this repair is taking thanks in large part to delays caused directly by Encompass. Yeah … something tells me this isn’t going to go too smoothly… Anyway, I’m hoping to be able to get Precious back on my return as to avoid the need to get another rental. As if my luck was ever that good…

Oh well, that’s the latest cluster-fuck that I’m being forced to deal with. I hate my life…

bis später,

Coriolis