Cafe Bucky

Anyone that knows me will know my love for my ‘97 ///M3. Once in a while, that love is put to the test …

Last night I was heading home from Silicon Valley - about an 85 mile trip. 5:45 pm… I was on 280 North, just approaching where 380 joins from the airport … It was dark …

Kaflump! Kablump blump! pssst!!!!

I was in the left lane, and *felt* something passing under the car. For a moment I thought I had hit something. Then the battery light went on. That’s bad … bad bad bad. Surrounded by rush hour cars doing 50 in the left lane.. ewww .. I wrestled the car over to the right (no power steering), and managed to stop in a nice clear spot next to a callbox. Lots of smoke (turned out to be steam) .. Towing was ~$300 (to be reimbursed …)

So what Happened????

• Water Pump exploded …
• which threw that belt off
• which got entwined with the other belt …
• which then shredded up the fan blades…
• .. and then a fan blade pierced the radiator…

In other words, a pretty impressive laundry list of damage from a chain reaction …

I’m thankful to have some track training which helped me stay calm. Feeling a car start to come unglued under you can be disconcerting :-)

Another one for Woody Allen, Bette Midler, and Carol Alt! (and me :-)

I wasn’t ready for this one. It kind of snuck up and tapped me on the shoulder. “psst!”, it said. “more age for you! a big tablespoon of it! .. here it comes!” And I dont mind. What am I gonna do? Take my birth cert back to the hospital and have them change a number?!

Nah, I really dont mind that much. I think age is more of a state of mind. It’s a “how open are you to keep learning new things?” kind of deal. The ones that shut off their mind when they get out of school bore me, and the ones that keep adapting, learning, and creating enthrall me. That’s the nutshell …

You wont generation gap me. I take pride in being on web early, and being in Second Life in the first few hundred thousand. I wont sit around and wait for developments to make their way to Readers Digest :-)

So, Age 46, let’s see whatcha got!