Hit by a train!

It's been a while since I posted. Lots have been going on this year -- separation (which was discussed in an earlier post), then last month I saw the passing of my grandfather and my mom's roommate, the latter of which was self-inflicted.

Anyway, something just happened that I probably should post because I'm sure it'll generate a lot of questions and I don't like to repeat myself.

What was it I did tonight that would cause me to come back to this blog and post? Oh nothing, I just got hit by a train.

In all fairness, the train didn't actually hit me, it hit my car. It also was only going ~2 MPH when the collision hit.

Now, (ho)WTF did it happen? Well, I was leaving the Lowcountry Innovation Center after wrapping up the last planning meeting for #barcampchs. I was following Lisa Berry and her son (at the time I thought it was jaredwsmith, but figured it out later) on the way to the post-meeting dinner. We got to the corner of Noisette (Ave B N) and Virginia, when I saw a man in the middle of the road with a light. Now, I thought he was a homeless guy begging for change. Lisa never saw him, and kept going. I followed. Considering the train was not lit up and there was no flares, alarms or anything in the area, I got my first glimpse of it as it caught my front end and spun my car to the left. There, it scraped across my passenger front quadrant. The car is FUBARed, but it seems to be all body damage, except for the broken windshield washer container. See the damage below:







Here's a picture of the only other sign to warn you that there's a train crossing in the area.




And here's the train. Do you see it? It's there, my car will tell you so.



The train master showed up before North Charleston's finest. I've been told that I'm 100% at fault because in the state of SC (or at least in the eyes of this police officer), trains operate on their own track and are not considered motor vehicles. This means they can't contribute to a motor vehicle collision.

I feel bad for the signalman. If I had known he was a railroad guy, this wouldn't have happened. He told me he's got a 5 yo and a 2 week-old and that they [CSX] will probably fire him over this. I congratulated him on the new arrival and offered to be present at the hearing to say a few words in his defense.

Anyway, I'm now looking at insurance adjusters, getting collision damage repaired, finding rides to/from, etc. That on top of everything else that's going on. It's gonna be a fun few weeks.

So that's my story.


But wait, there's more... Here's some conversations about it in various chat lands. Might be funny to same, might give more insight...

csclug@conference.butterfat.net

(21:37:06) LabThug_hm: So, LabThug, what did you do after the barcampchs planning meeting?
(21:37:12) LabThug_hm: Me...oh, I got hit by a train
(21:37:20) eugenemah: oy
(21:37:20) mcg: WTF?
(21:37:24) eugenemah: how'd you manage that?
(21:37:29) eugenemah: no injuries i hope
(21:37:33) LabThug_hm: followed [Lisa]
(21:37:38) mcg: ding ding, red lights etc
(21:38:19) mcg: details?
(21:38:37) LabThug_hm: sorry, mom on phone
(21:38:39) LabThug_hm: ok
(21:38:49) LabThug_hm: corner of Noisette and Virginia
(21:38:55) LabThug_hm: no lights, no ding-ding
(21:39:02) LabThug_hm: just guy in middle with lantern
(21:39:03) eugenemah: i remember seeing a train sitting there when we drove in
(21:39:15) LabThug_hm: I thought guy was homeless begging for change
(21:39:18) mcg: haha
(21:39:21) LabThug_hm: train had no lights on it
(21:39:26) LabThug_hm: I was following [Lisa]
(21:39:30) LabThug_hm: he made it across
(21:39:31) LabThug_hm: I didn't
(21:39:35) eugenemah: oh boy
(21:39:37) mcg: ouch
(21:39:41) mcg: big mess?
(21:39:50) LabThug_hm: front end is FUBAR
(21:39:59) LabThug_hm: all body damage though
(21:40:02) LabThug_hm: no engine
(21:40:18) LabThug_hm: unless you consider broken washer fluid container engine
(21:40:33) mcg: good thing you didn't make it a bit more across
(21:40:39) LabThug_hm: aye
(21:41:14) eugenemah: no injuries aside from the car?
(21:41:28) LabThug_hm: it caught my front end, spun me around and tore off the passenger front quadrant
(21:41:37) LabThug_hm: eugenemah: none other than pride
(21:41:40) mcg: how fast was the train going?
(21:41:50) mcg: i bet that scared the bagibers out of you
(21:42:08) LabThug_hm: it was going 2MPH
(21:42:15) LabThug_hm: mcg: I was more WTF than anything
(21:42:27) mcg: slow motion?
(21:42:38) LabThug_hm: yeah
(21:42:44) LabThug_hm: guy with light was supposed to stop us
(21:42:48) LabThug_hm: and put out flares
(21:42:50) LabThug_hm: etc.
(21:42:54) LabThug_hm: which he didn't
(21:42:56) LabThug_hm: but
(21:42:59) LabThug_hm: here's the kicker
(21:43:00) mcg: hmm CSX paying for damages then
(21:43:03) LabThug_hm: in the state of SC
(21:43:08) LabThug_hm: trains run on their own track
(21:43:15) LabThug_hm: not considered motor vehicles
(21:43:22) LabThug_hm: so, I am 100% at fault
(21:43:27) mcg: ugh
(21:43:27) LabThug_hm: feckers
(21:43:39) eugenemah: didn't know that
(21:43:40) mcg: they can't ever be at fault?
(21:43:51) LabThug_hm: only when they jump tracks...maybe
(21:43:56) mcg: failure to signal that a train was there seems like an issue
(21:44:41) LabThug_hm: yeah, probably if I get "One call, that's all" involved
(21:44:55) mcg: the "strong arm" maybe
(21:45:42) LabThug_hm: hahaha, forgot about him
(21:46:14) LabThug_hm: USAA seems to have an online claim reporter
(21:48:21) eugenemah: car still drivable?
(21:48:38) mcg: did [Lisa] stop? ;-)
(21:51:43) LabThug_hm: [Lisa] made it to Madra Rua
(21:51:50) LabThug_hm: never knew what happened ...
(21:51:54) mcg: sigh
(21:52:00) LabThug_hm: car is now in driveway and I drove it there
(21:52:28) KingNeziL: LabThug_hm: whoa, are you serious?
(21:53:00) LabThug_hm: naw KingNeziL, the whole thing is a bad dream and you will wake up soon ;-P
(21:53:15) KingNeziL: you're pretty cool about the whole situation
(21:53:33) LabThug_hm: yeah, I usually am in things like this
(21:53:43) LabThug_hm: and with everything else that happened this last year
(21:53:47) LabThug_hm: I CAN TAKE IT!!!!!
(21:54:11) KingNeziL: damn man, you've earned your badge of courage
(21:54:32) KingNeziL: so the lights and arms didn't block off the intersection?
(21:54:45) LabThug_hm: KingNeziL: there were NONE
(21:54:50) LabThug_hm: just guy with lantern
(21:55:10) mcg: http://collecta.com/#q=labthug hah
(21:55:19) LabThug_hm: hahahahaha, USAA give me 120 chars to briefly tell how it happened
(21:55:28) mcg: hit by train!

itc@conference.jabber.musc.edu

(09:21:35) Olloh: last night I killed a rare spawn and looted the fabled: Kitchen Pass =)
(09:23:11) LabThug_Eris: Olloh: last night I got hit by a train ;-P
(09:23:48) peterst: yeah I want to hear that story
(09:24:00) Olloh: that doesnt sound pleasant
(09:24:31) maheug: train: 1 Labthug: 0
(09:24:43) peterst: I think he won since he didn't die
(09:24:47) Olloh: usually you dont get a second chance to score against train =)
(09:25:10) LabThug_Eris: true
(09:25:10) ***peterst thinks about trains
(09:25:16) LabThug_Eris: I'll fill in later
(09:25:22) LabThug_Eris: insurance, etc. to deal with first
(09:25:54) maheug: train: 1 Labthug's car: 0 ?
...
(11:03:08) LabThug: maheug: If the car hadn't been involved, it would have ended up LabThug 1, Train 0
(11:03:10) LabThug: :-)
(11:03:52) peterst: the LabThug is hard to kill
(11:04:30) maheug: lots of hit points
(11:04:55) LabThug: peterst: God knows I have too many mouths to feed, and too few tears will be shed if I pass, so He's not gonna let that happen yet.
(11:05:55) peterst: I figured you were just too mean :P

You can probably find more looking through collecta.com, twitter search, etc. If you really care about that sort of stuff...

The expanding and microsizing blogosphere

Thanks to the folks at http://code.google.com/p/microblog-purple/ I know have acheived pidgin<->twitter success. Now, in one app (pidgin), I can keep track of my digital lives on identi.ca, twitter, and facebook (plus all the other chat rooms/friends I have).

My plan is going exactly as I have forseen.....

New Beginnings

Well, it's been over four months since my last posting. The lack of posting isn't because I had a lack of things to post about, it's just I had the opposite too much going on. Now, I'm finally in a place where I can comment and get back to posting.

Soooo, why the delay? What could possibly have kept me from posting just a few things on this page in over four months? Well, eight days after my last posting, I was told to leave the house in which I was living. This pretty much marked the end of my marriage of 8 years (and relationship of 13) that produced two wonderful daughters.

I spent about two nights homeless before renting out the front room of an ex-co worker's place. Then started the wonderful task of getting items to live with (e.g., bed) and reclaiming the items from my old residence. I left the 61" 1080p TV, the Windows PC, and a host of other items. There are a few things I'll be reclaiming when I can (e.g., Bug Zapper), but the majority of stuff will be left to the past. This period marked a very interesting time -- shuffling through life wondering how I got to the point I did, trying to figure out where this point is, and how I was going to make the most of it. I barely made it through the classes I was taking and honestly most of the other stuff I was doing just kinda blurred together.

I remember leaching WiFi off of neighbors, and turning on my desktop only three times because the upgrade to Ibex FUBARED it royally. It seems my Blu-Ray burner is the source of all my ATA Frozen errors that have graced this blog. I can get the machine to finally boot when I unplug that device. However, I've found that in addition, I've lost my dual screens and my sound. One of my HDD dropped out of the RAID as well, but it seems to have gone back in nicely.

I finally moved into my own place a month ago. It's back on James Island, a region of Charleston that I haven't lived in since my relationship began. In a way, it feels like I've gone full circle. The only difference is that I'm not back at the place I started. I've also been going through things from the past and reflecting...in some ways it's been good...some ways bad. You see the progression you made during that time, and you also think about how things were and wondered why things went for as long as they did.

I got connected to the Internet about two weeks ago through Comcast's Economy Internet ($24.95/month baybe!!!). Last week was wrap up before Spring Break, so I couldn't really sit down and do this until now. It's weird how things happen when they do/how they do. But I'll face what comes with the head held high like I always do.

I'd also like to thank all the people that got me to this point. Watch this space and where I go now. With your continued help, I won't stop.