Hello, world.
I swear, every time I decide to sit down and actually write a blog post, I forget every single thing that I have been thinking of writing about for the last month or so. Where to start, where to start...
... might as well go with the whole car wreck debacle, I suppose. (Disclaimer: It's 2 AM and I'm at work. If, at some point, this post stops making sense, blame that. Thanks.)
So anyhow, a few weeks ago today, Caitlin and I were on our way to the Sunday evening service at our church. Her grandparents were out of town for the day, so we had agreed to let their three-legged Golden Retriever out so that she didn't use the bathroom in their house. Well, we forgot all about the dog until we were about halfway to church. We turned left instead of right at an intersection to start heading back to their house.
Since I have been pulled over a few times this summer for speeding (one for doing 57 MPH in a construction zone - I honestly have no idea how the charges got dropped on that one), I have been making it a point to always follow the speed limit in better interest of keeping my spotless driving record spotless. (Yep, that's right... I got off clean both times that I got pulled over for speeding. I can't see that happening ever again, though.) That being said, I'm a huge fan of cruise control, so I know for a fact that we were doing exactly 55 MPH down Saginaw Road when the little old lady in the burgundy Buick pulled right out in front of us
and stopped.
I slammed on the brakes and braced for impact. It all happened so fast that I didn't even have time to be scared - it was kind of like, "Well, I guess I'm going to hit that car now". One second I was driving down the road, and the next I was choking on chemicals and dust from the airbags. I looked over at Caitlin and asked her if she was okay. She just sat there in shock for a second then started bawling. She wasn't injured (bruises notwithstanding), but she was really shaken up. Satisfied that my girlfriend wasn't about to leave this life and pass into the next, I jumped out of the car to make sure that I hadn't killed the little old lady. (For the record, she made it out of the car under her own steam.)
Fortunately for us, several pedestrians saw the whole thing play out, so we didn't get a ticket or anything. I got a pretty nasty burn on my left arm from the airbag, but that's almost healed now. The car, Caitlin's 2008 Chevrolet Aveo that she'd had for around 2 weeks, didn't fare so well; the insurance company is trying to tell us that there is more money in repairs than the car is worth, so we're still dealing with that situation.
It was a pretty sobering experience. I'd never been in a car accident before, let alone one where I was driving. It made me think a lot about what would have happened if I had gotten seriously injured or killed. Also, I jump a little every time someone pulls out in front of me. 0_o
Otherwise, things have been pretty okay. I work a ton these days... I've been working the third shift at Tim Horton's lately (10p-6a) on weekends, and I work for Bory most of the rest of the time. I actually spent a lot of last week trying to cobble together a working computer for my boss. (Despite my best efforts, I think he's going to end up buying a new computer anyway. There's only so much you can do with an old Dell and a few aftermarket parts, especially when you have a motherboard fry and a hard drive fail. Don't get me started. I'm really starting to rethink computer science as a major, but that's another rant for another day.)
Oh. I almost forgot. I've been actually making some money these days, so I picked up a pair of M-Audio BX5a monitors the other day for about $100 off eBay. They're a little beat up, but they still sound beautiful. I had to go get a ground loop isolator from RadioShack to get rid of the hum, but after that, well... they sound beautiful. I've wanted those monitors specifically for a few years, so this is honestly the realization of a dream of mine. It's a pity that I have NO FREE TIME these days, as I haven't even been able to fool around with writing any music on them yet.
While I'm going on about audio gear, well... see, I have this terrible weakness for old keyboards. They don't necessarily have to be 'synthesizers' - as long as they are old enough to have mostly analogue circuitry (like my prized Casio CTK-310), I'll have a hard time not buying every one that I ever see for sale. I picked up a Yamaha Portasound PSS-480 for $5 at a garage sale that came with the box and instruction manual. As I was walking it into the house, I was reading the back of the box and I did a double-take when I read that it had MIDI in and out. Then, after playing with it for a little while, I realized that it also has a basic FM synthesizer built in! It's a lot of fun to program - I have gotten some pretty evil and gritty bass sounds out of it, alongside the requisite generic bell and lead sounds. It sounds very 80s, which is great, in my opinion. Once I figure out how to configure it to accept MIDI signals and get an audio interface, I look forward to recording with it.
Pictured: the most awesome thing that a $5 bill has ever purchased.
Last week, I made a trip back down to the southeast part of the state to see some family. I spent some time with my nieces (that I haven't seen since I moved out last May) and with my father. I tried snapping a few pictures with the girls, but they came out kinda blurry:
I blame it on the fact that they are little more than breathing perpetual motion machines. Seriously, look at them. They are climbing all over me. They did that pretty much the whole time that I was there.
Well, that about summarizes everything important that's happened lately. I'm starting school again at UM-Flint in a few weeks - maybe I can get back into a rhythm and start posting more again, but I'm not making any promises this time.
-K
