I had an accident

So I'm driving into Atlanta on Monday for the weekly Touchdown Club of Atlanta meeting. Tons of rain, traffic everywhere, slow going for the most part.

Caleb is normally in the car (drop off with grandma) but since it's Columbus Day, Hilary is at home and Caleb stays there for the day.

Driving our new(-er) car, the Saturn. Heading south on I-85, just a mile or so north of Spaghetti Junction. In one of the far left lanes.

Traffic in the right lanes is nearly stopped due to accident backing people up trying to access I-285. Guy driving a truck in the lane to my right decides my lane is moving quite quickly, decides to enter it in front of me. Tries to, anyway.

Slamming on the brakes, my car stops and gives his truck a big, fat high-five.

No airbags, no OnStar...not really a major accident. Just enough impact to freak everyone out and cause (what turns out to be) about $2,500 in damage to my car. Don't know about his car's damage. Don't know how much his citation ends up costing, either.

We get over, get out in the pouring rain in a flooded out emergency lane and trade insurance (yes, he has insurance!) and generally check everything out. Nobody's hurt (his kid in the car with him is okay, too). Police are called, arrive, assess and write up the report.

The guy is nice enough, very apologetic. Grateful for a nice guy hitting me.

Grateful for the nice part, not the hitting part.

His insurance company sets me up with the repairs and a rental car. Rental is set to be a comparable vehicle to my Saturn (an SUV). It's a 2010 Ford Edge. Nice enough car, but as it turns out, the interior and storage isn't really much more than our Toyota Corrolla. Considering a trade up in the next day or two.

Thankful for:

• No injuries
• Caleb not in the car
• Guy has insurance!
  
• Hilary telling me to drive the SUV (otherwise, I'd have been in the Corolla, and probably would have wound up underneath this guy's truck tires, assuming I could have even used the brakes with all my equipment loading down the car)
• Not my fault
• Having the awareness to not swerve around this guy into the lane to my left, where I would have been the one causing an accident
  
• Free rental
• Did I mention no injuries?

Told that the repairs would take a couple of weeks, will get my car back around November 2nd.

Hrm...definitely going to want to trade up to a bigger car.

Fall is Autumn is Fall

Cut to the chase....random thoughts on the seasons (and the current season)

I hear a lot of people say fall is their favorite time of year. When it's fall.

When it's spring/summer/winter, I hear the same thing (well, maybe not so much with winter). I enjoy all the seasons for what they are, but if I was asked to prioritize, it would be in this order:

1. Summer
2. Fall
3. Winter
4. Spring

So I know you're already calling B.S. on me, which is good, I probably deserve it most of the time.

BUT!

...I'm serious, winter is better than spring for me. Some pros/cons between winter and spring...

Winter - PROS

• Christmas time
• A chance of snow, which means a chance of not being able to leave the house or do anything (which can be refreshing)
• Getting to use the nice coats for a few weeks before they get mothballed again
• Family time, LOTS of family time during the winter months
• No yard work

Spring - PROS

• Warmer weather
• Pretty flowers

...and that's really it for me on spring. As for the cons...

Winter - CONS

• Cold...I mean, C-O-L-D. Even our mild Georgia winters are too much for me. Gimme the heat
• Lack of physical activity, sports (football's over, and basketball does nothing for me)

Spring - CONS

• Pollen
• Yard work
• House cleaning
• Pollen
• POLLEN!!
• YARD WORK!!!!

I think I've made my point.

But fall is now, fall is special. Pumpkins, leaves, football, Oktoberfest, camping, festivals, carnivals...plenty of things going on all the way into Thanksgiving, America's biggest food holiday.

Never mind that fall is when I tend to have the most business. For 2-3 years now, I've had limited business in the first half of the year and blowouts all during the fall months. Dunno why, but I guess there's something to be said about consistency.

Football...not a special year if you're a UGA fan like me. No matter, can't win 'em all, and even thought they're not one of the top games in the country this year, they're still playing good football. And even a bad day of football beats a day of working.

Oh yeah, since I never update my blog anymore, I should mention this....Hilary and I paid a visit to the bro-in-law Blake up in Chicago over the Labor Day weekend. Never been to Chicago before, but really a very nice town. Probably the nicest big metropolis style city you'll ever see. Makes it all the more interesting as to why Rio de Janeiro picked up the 2016 Olympics over Chicago. From what I know of Rio, it is everything that Chicago isn't (and I don't mean that in a good way). Not to be down on Rio, but it seemed like a strange choice. Guess we'll see how it plays out in about 7 years.

But Chicago...great town. Apparently every restaurant recommendation there is made based on whether or not President Obama has eaten there. Ask for a good pizza place, you'll be told about a place and then "...and Obama always eats there." Guess that's how it rolls when the POTUS is a hometown man.

Probably went the same way when Carter was in office and all those people went to tour Albany, GA. Oh, wait.....probably not.

Caleb is getting big. He's in like the 89th percentile on height. Runs everywhere, walks only when asked. Best part of it all....whenever he sees something red and black, or sees a UGA "G" logo, or really even a large G of any kind, he says "Georgia." Love it, now we gotta work on his passing skills.

Goodbye.