More pics of my car

I took some more pics of my car today. I'll probably need them for the insurance company. Thex won't be getting back to me until tuesday, due to the memorial day weekend holiday. From bad, to worse. I'll fill in some captions later. I've got to run now.

A pic from afar. The lenses in camera phones aren't really that great, and you can see here that the sunshine kind of blurred the image a bit.


A close-up of the branch/tree that remained lying across the hood of my car, which smashed my windshield.



A forward-looking view of the same branch/tree that lies on the hood of my car, showing how it probably hit the front, made a nice hole in the front passenger fender, and damaged the light assembly, before rolling on the hood (denting the hood, of couse) and smashing the windshield.



A close-up of the damage to the front passenger side of the car. You can see leaves and branches from the tree/branch that hit my car surronding the car in this area.


Finally, a side shot, where you can see a whole bunch of other branches, or parts of the tree trunk. I'm not quite sure what happened, or where this tree came from, and how it got to be placed in such a position.

My car sits under a tree

So i spent the night at a friend's apartment last night. Ok, so he might be more than a friend but it's too early to tell. So i wake up this afternoon and in out to my car (a 1995 Buick Park Avenue Ultra) and find it sitting under a tree. Or more specifically, there's a tree lying on top of my car.

Here's the tree lying on top of my car. Actually, I'm not really sure if it's a tree or just a really big branch. But there aren't really any other big trees that would have a branch this large for it to fall on top of my car. It's a very weird situation.

Here's a view showing more of the background.
The front of my car, which you can't see very well because of the sunlight's interference with my phone's camera lens.
Some of the damage to the front of my car. Again, hard to see what's going on.

Gasoline Boycott

So, because the price of gasoline in the United States is at records highs, and the profits of oil companies are reaching record highs as well (for any type of company, and we're talking the profits here, not the gross income), people are starting to talk about organizing a boycott of gasoline. The article, as you'll note, states that there will be a boycott of United States gasoline for the entire weekend of July 4, 2006.

I'm all for it. So stock up before the weekend, and just stop buying.

I mean, this is really getting rediculous. Three fucking dollars and Sixty fucking nine fucking cents per fucking gallon of gasoline is completely out of hand, especially considering that it costs about $0.06 (that's six cents) per gallon to get the oil out of the ground in the first place (yes yes yes, I know, all about the refining costs and what not, but that should put gas at around $1.50/gallon in today's prices.

Of course, we all know not to buy gasoline from Exxon/Mobil (because of the Valdez Oil Spill, and because when Exxon bought/merged with Mobil, they canceled the domestic partner benefits of Mobil employees)

Let's Boycott!!!

New Friends, New Blogs

So I've met a few people lately, and I've helped them set up a blog on-line.

The first person, Brian, I met while on a job. He seemed pretty cool and was very friendly. He had been wanting to set up a blog for a while but didn't know how to do it. I showed him how easy it was to set one up using Blogger's blogging service. He was up and running and creating his first post in about five minutes. Of course, being that I met him at work, he's a bit more computer literate than most.

The only negative thing about meeting him was that, because of my depression, I had this recurring thought in my mind:

I really don't have the energy to go through the process of meeting a new person, learning about them, etc. I'm sure this is a wonderful person, who's very kind, caring, consideration, fun to be around, could make a great friend. But I just don't have the energy to be dealing with meeting new people.

The second person, Donna, is a bit more complicated but, again, like Brian, she's very sweet, kind, considerate, very caring. Also, as somewhat of a bonus to me, she understands my depression and related feelings, as she's dealt with depression. On the negative, she's going to be another one of my annoying friends who winds up kicking my ass for not doing what I need to do (because of my depression/anxiety disorders).

So read their blogs. They're great people, and I hope to be spending more time with them as, well, as the saying goes, time marching on.

Gay Pride Rockland

There's this really great organization, called "Gay Pride Rockland." It's kind of like Heritage of Pride, the people who organize the NYC Pride festivities. But they go a bit beyond that, because they're sponsored by the Volunteer Counseling Services of Rockland County's Community Change Project.

The director of the organization, Phyllis, shares my same last name. She's a sister, of course, but since we share the same surname, we're really related somehow. She's a really great person, very warm, caring, loving, and giving of herself.

I used to be on the planning committee for Gay Pride Rockland, but then I had my car accident. I went to Gay Pride the year of my car accident, and I went again in 2004, but I wasn't able to make it there last year. At the moment, I can't recall the reason why I was unable to attend last year's pride event.

Even though I'm not a Rockland County resident, I have a few friends who live in Rockland and I enjoy going to their pride event. This year, Rockland Pride will be held on Sunday, June 11, 2006, and I plan on being there.

While the actual pride "event" will be on Sunday, June 11, over the years, Rockland Pride has grown from a one-day event into an entire weekend of events. And now, it looks like they're going year-round. Kudos to them, and to all our brothers and sisters out there.