Mini

This past Friday marked the first full week of my bike commute to work. As much as I’d like to attribute my eco-commute to wanting to add an extra helping of green to the Hupp routine, its certainly not my real motivation. The reality is, about two weeks back my Mini and I were in a car accident. (Because the accident is still under “investigation” by the insurance companies, details will be provided at a later date).

Despite the passage of time since the accident I can’t seem to type this without, a lump in my throat, and the familiar rapid blink of fighting back tears. My perception of feeling like I had ruined a gift took quite some time to get over, but I try, despite seemingly continual bad news to remind myself how lucky I am to have walked away from a car accident, but, it sure isn’t easy.  


Back in October of 2004 I became the proud owner of a 2005, British Racing Green, Mini Cooper given to me as a gift by my parents. Many a drive included basking in the glory of my opened sun roof and smiling at fellow Mini motorists. In past years I’ve been asked if it was a Saab, a BMW or my favorite, a “Cadillac?”. In the past 6 years my Mini transported Jonathan and myself, as well as our animals at times, around eleven states (NJ, NY, DE, MD, VA, TN, AR, OK, TX, NM & AZ) and the District of Columbia.  I never expected that here, in the Valley of the Sun my Mini would find its final resting place.



Below are a few pictures of the damage done to my Mini. After the first, appraisal (pre-opening of the hood) the good word was that it wasn’t totaled. A little over $4,000 would bring it back to new. Wonderful, I’d have my much cherished car back. Then came the popped hood evaluation. The price rose about $3,500 bringing the cost of repair to over $8,000. I was a little nervous at the steady creeping of the cost, but again, I just wanted my little Mini tucked safely back in our driveway, and was happy to hear the news. The straw that broke the camel’s back. was the third appraisal. The results of which were delivered with, “Hello, I’m calling from the Total Loss Department, and I’m sorry to inform you…”"Devastation" doesn't capture the emotions felt.


This week Jonathan and I made the trip to clean out the car at the auto body shop where it has been parked.  As I gently patted its raised trunk lid  I said my farewells to be comforted by the autobody repairman’s comment of its new "donor" status. May my Mini parts bring joy and vitality to fellow Minis in need.

Hood was pushed up.

Top of the mornin Turquoise

Its taken just short of a year but we've finally managed to eliminate all traces of what Jonathan calls "smurf blood" blue from the interior of the house. Our work in the hallway started with the removal of the linen closet doors and the stripping of the wood surround.  We tend to shy from heavy duty chemicals for nature's sake, but boy oh boy nothing removes thick layers of funky paint better than good ole fashion chemical stripper.  Check out the toxic chemical bubbles.  

 

We called in expert help, Mark Foster to repair and refinish the dry wall in both the hallway and the guest room, which turned out great. Following his completion we primed, then slathered on a coat of none other than Honeydew in the guest bedroom, then shifted our focus back to the hallway. (More on this "dew"sy of a room redo to follow soon.)

    

     As for the built-in section of the hallway, we went for an atomic ranch-esque turquoise.  We had a bit of a hiccup with some replacement light issues, but as of this past weekend we were up and running with a new, more appropriate hall light.   

 

In addition to the bold paint choice, we added a little extra class to the linen closet doors with stylish new handles. No plain vanilla in this section of the house!  The finishing touch in the hallway will be the finishing of the floors, but this is a large project has yet to reach the top of the to-do list. 

Up next, hello honeydew!

Los Suns

Our seats in row 111

Thanks to some free workplace season tickets, Jonathan and I attended our first Suns game at the U.S. Airways Center on Tuesday night. They played the Utah Jazz in a preseason game, and unfortunately lost. I enjoyed watching and of course heckling, but I'll admit, I wasn't too impressed with their overall performance. Not being an NBA aficionado I suppose I can't say much, but it seemed obvious that too many fancy dancy moves and poor attention to teammates cost them quite a few missed passes early on.  And, I'm guessing it doesn't take an avid NBA fan to feel the pain of the high number of missed shots.  At one point an air-ball was thrown. An air-ball for crying out loud! At their pay level the ball better at least hit some part of the hoop/rim or backboard.

You can tell the game started a little rough for the Suns in the picture below.

 Lopez's feet haven't even left the court, meanwhile the Jazz player is about a foot and a half off the ground. Ouchie. During timeouts and breaks we were kept entertained with by the much loved Suns gorilla and scantily clad dancers.  My favorite part of the game had to be the strange over sized ref who ate one of the Gorilla assistants. She wasn't a cheerleader,or a dancer, but rather one of those fan-prize-hander-outers who works to give out freebies while the little chickadee dancers gyrate nearby.

Below are a few pics of the famed Steve Nash as well as some dunking gorilla shots.  He's a little blurry, but look close enough and you'll see a blurry flying primate.

Better luck next time Suns.

pretty impressive for a gorilla!

A mighty wind

Tuesday (10-5) Phoenix and the surrounding areas experienced quite a storm.  Winds up to 70 mph shut down runways at PHX, golf ball to tennis ball sized hail (depending on who you talk to) damaged cars and people, all topped off with some good ole fashion flash flooding. I was sure to stay in the center traffic lane traveling home and held my breath every time my little mini had to traverse a flooded dip in the road.  My 4 mile commute, which usually takes me about 15 to 20 minutes, took a solid hour.

When I arrived home I came across two storm casualties.  Worry not, the pets and house were unharmed.  Jonathan's bike glove was victim number one.  We know Jackson is a bit of a chewer, but the stress of the storm apparently threw him into high gear, as seen to the right.  When I first saw the glove I started to say "bad..." in a slightly firm tone, but turned to find Jackson and saw him cowering behind me.  Poor little guy.  He definitely knew he had done something wrong and from his reaction, he may have been abused before we rescued him, so I left it at that.  After a little heart to heart chat Jackson and I went outside to survey the backyard, which is where I found victim number two.  



Sorry dad.



 Despite Maurice's best effort of reducing the size of his leaves, (regular vs shrunken see here) the wind got in a solid punch and broke one of his branches. We're not too worried since Maurice is a hearty tree and will surely make a full recovery.

 

As of Wednesday we were back to the 80s, sans rain or crazy winds, and I have no doubt we'll make our way up to the 90s soon. 

Keyboard ethics

If you're squeamish you may want to look away, or at least wait an hour if you have eaten anything recently.  The pictures below depict the keyboard of a highly educated, grown man.  Don't even dare think this is someone I am related to or married to because its not.

If you look close enough you might find an entire meal...

Gross with a capital G!!