(no subject)

My Spring break has been a busy one so far.

After school on Thursday, I drove to Chicago to visit Lisa. On Friday I went to Aurora to spend the weekend with Danae and her housemates. We went to Fair Game for their weekly open gaming and she bought a copy of 7 Wonders. It's half card game and half board game and all sorts of fun! It doesn't really work as a two player game, but we both liked it enough when we played a test game that she bought one.

Over the weekend, she and I watched some more Numb3rs, which we started on when I was still living in Chicago. We watched from where I'd left off, into the second season. Charlie's hair is not as sexy as it was in the first season, which makes me sad. But the show is still really good. Let's see; we also did another game of Arkham Horror. Danae and I have begun likening Arkham Horror to an abusive relationship. No matter how bad it makes us feel and how often the same design problems plague us, we keep going back, hoping that if we just make this or that little change, then all will be well and the game will treat us well. It didn't work this time either. At some point, some cookies were made, and that takes the sting away. *grins*

We took a trip to Fermilab where I spent a few hours photographing the grounds as Danae chauffeured me around the site. Prior to going, I'd been feeling very ambivalent about what I wanted to do and I couldn't decide whether I wanted to go to Fermi or not. But Danae kind of decided for me and once I got there I proceeded to have a really nice time seeing the sights and buildings again. In fact, being out somewhere with a camera was energizing for me, and helped put me in a pretty positive frame of mind. I did get stopped by a Fermilab security officer once, but Danae's employee ID made it ok.

Sadly, the lighting was not good for shots that were from a wider angle and included much sky or scenery. But the overcast nature was decent for more close-up shots of buildings, or the ubiquitous doors with large colored dots painted on them that are all over the site. I've decided I'd like to try get most or all of those dotted doors in photographs, and then do a slide show where they fade in to each other. That might be neat.

I also really want to get pictures of all the offbeat, geeky art around the campus. From the shapes of the buildings, to the little architectural-art medallions that have depictions of particle collision events, to sculptures like the one over the entrance at Kirk and Pine, there are so very many things to see there. I want to show them to people. I also want to write a post about my fascination with the place. But that will be another post.

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My original plan was to drive back to Kenosha on Monday so I could play board games with my brother akreaveter and his friends. I usually have school on Monday evenings, so it would be nice to have a chance to join them. But Danae reminded me that Monday was the usual board game night over at Fermi, and I really wanted to be a part of that too. I was torn, but ended up at Fermi. I hadn't seen the people there in months, and I missed them. I guess it's a little weird for people express that kind of sentiment directly, but there's something really outside the normal mammalian experience, I think, to develop a friendly relationship with a number of individuals, and then due to external factors, just totally stop seeing them. It happens at work, too, when you move on to a new job or are downsized. That sort of ending is a really interesting concept to me intellectually, and it makes me sad too.

So it was really good to go and see some of the people there again and say hi. And I did tell some of them that I'd missed seeing them. And we played five complete games of 7 Wonders, even passing up a chance to play Power Grid: Factory Manager. I'm pretty hooked on this game. And one of the many, many things I love about my wonderful girlfriend danaeris is that she likes board games at least as much as I do!

So I drove back to Kenosha late on Monday night, getting home around 12:30. I chatted with Tim and went to bed. Tuesday I did some laundry and drove back to Chicago and my sweetie lisagems' place. On Wednesday, we had to drive back to Wisconsin to take care of some divorce paperwork with my ex Moiracoon. Yes, we've been separated for about two years now (wow), but never did anything legal about the situation. She wants to get it taken care of, so I was to meet her at the courthouse at noon on Wednesday. And I'll write about the craziness that was the trip in the next post.

(no subject)

Lisa and I started northward on Wednesday morning. Before we'd made it out of Chicago, we were in an accident. Neither of us were hurt. I don't think anybody was hurt actually, but I can't say for sure because the other vehicle did not stay around to offer that information.

There were a couple of very nice women who saw what happened and they came over to check on us and ask if we were okay. We were, and the concern was very much appreciated. My car, Percy the Swift, was struck on the driver's side front quarter panel, tearing the whole bumper mostly off the car. Only one bolt held the right side up, while the left side dragged on the ground below.

A police officer was right at the intersection when the collision happened, and he came over to investigate. He spoke with me very briefly, asking if I knew what vehicle had hit me (I wasn't sure, but Lisa told him she thought it was a white panel van) and seeing that we were okay. He gave me a police station address to go to and said he would inform the other party that they should meet me there. It didn't even occur to me until Lisa pointed out on the trip to the station that he not only never asked me for me name or license, but he didn't even get my license plate number. He couldn't have; the front plate was on the ground under my bumper, and he never walked to the rear of the car.

At the station, we checked in with the desk officer, who didn't seem to understand the situation. "How could you not know who hit your car?" she asked a couple times. Well, when they didn't stay around to tell us who they were, it makes it kind of difficult. She had us sit in a waiting space for a while. Finally we were summoned to talk to another desk officer. We repeated a description of the accident. He looked in the computer system for info, but the officer at the scene had apparently not filed any kind of report. Nor, I guess, had he found the other party, as no one else ever showed up. When we told the desk officer how the officer at the scene had handled the situation, he actually shook his head and commented "That's some mighty fine police work right there."

He filled out an accident report noting that it was me and an unknown vehicle. He said that a report was necessary and I should contact my insurance company because there was more than $500 worth of damage. I responded that I had only paid $350 for the car to begin with, so I wasn't too worried. But I have the accident report to fill out and send in to the police. I'm not going to report it to the insurance company. Why bother? Damage to my car wouldn't be covered, and the only possible effect would be to raise my premiums.

Lisa's thought on this is that the officer on the scene realized I was driving a POS and that the other vehicle was not on scene and decided that there wasn't really anything to be done and that there was no way I was going to report it to my insurance anyway. He may not have even expected (or cared whether) I'd go to the station afterward, given that he didn't bother to get any identifying information whatsoever about my car or myself.

So Lisa and I left the building and looked at my car, parked there on top of the police parking deck. We decided it would at least get me to Kenosha/Racine, so we bungeed the bumper back on and got on the road. I met Moira at the court and took care of that fun. At some point I'll have to meet up with her to sign a paper, but everything else is out of the way. Lisa and I had Chinese at one of my favorite places, Whey Chai in Racine, and then set a course for my parents' house where I could hole up in the driveway and work on Percy's front end.

We analyzed the situation and made a list of materials, then took my mother's car to the hardware store and back. I got to work, much assisted with extra hands from Lisa to hold flashlights or car parts. It got dark near the end and my mother found a halogen work light in the basement that also helped quite a lot. Finally, with hose clamps, picture hanging wire, strapping tape, and a few nuts and bolts, I got everything back pretty much in place and in a way that doesn't seem likely to fall off in the near future. My "more than $500 of damage" was fixed with about $15 worth of parts. Percy looks a little bit the worse for wear, but he still gets me where I need to go, and I got all the lights to work again, so you know what that is? Good enough is what that is.

Lisa and I hung out at my parents' place for a while and had dinner courtesy of my mother. After that, we stopped at Shirl's in Kenosha for a couple of shakes and drove for Chicago again. I was pretty careful with the car being untried, but apart from the tire rubbing on a bumper when I turn (I'll have to poke at that a bit), all was well, and we made it safely back to Chicago.

Today, after spending the morning working on school stuff, I got online and found that the Powerpoint presentation I've been worried about isn't going to be due for another month and a half. So I put that aside and Lisa and I walked down to Lake Michigan. I'm feeling much less rattled right now than I was yesterday, and my sweetie has just been above and beyond in dealing with the craziness and helping out in getting things resolved.