News flash: life becomes much more terrifying when you lose your wallet and your cell phone.
All day long, I was worried I was going to have to identify myself for some strange reason, and upon failing to do so, probably end up wrongfully imprisoned for a few years. Why would I be there for a few years? My lost cell phone has all of my phone numbers in it; I'd be stuck in the clink until I came to the attention of a charitable public defender.
Once I got over that, I started worrying about all of the stuff in my wallet I'd have to replace. For example, the wallet has my old student id. I'm going to have to start paying full price at the movie theaters now? JUst to put Hollywood in its place, I'd enroll in one Spanish class for a semester, get a new id, and probably shatter the grading curve in the process.
The worst part of all of this is that shortly after I realized I was missing all of this stuff, I got in my car and discovered the gas tank was empty. I live 7.7 miles from work; I didn't even want to calculate the odds of me going 15 miles total of hilly terrain in morning and afternoon rush hour traffic in Austin without running out of gas. Luckily for me, I drive a standard and so I was coasting all over the roadways today. I'd get up to 40 mph, throw it in neutral, and hope for strong wind. Did it work? As I'm writing this from home and not from the dumpster of an Exxon, you may assume that it did.
The happy ending here is that the wallet and phone were in Laura's car all day. In the future, I'll keep these in my pants and my pants on my person.
This fellow contacted me recently, saying he was working on a site that catalogues Austin's bars, their offerings and prices, and so forth. Could I help with some market research? As someone who enjoys both the internet and alcohol, I can indeed.
The survey is here: http://www.questionpro.com/akira/TakeSurvey?id=948793. If you fill it out and list me as the reference, then some money gets donated to a charity of my choice (National Parkinsons Foundation). If you have a minute, do it up.
Posted by Cody at May 27, 2008 9:40 PMI regret to inform you the Texas Transportation Code, Sec. 545.406 states: an operator moving on a
downgrade may not coast with the gears or transmission of the vehicle in neutral.
I will be contacting Austin PD about this matter. Expect you ticket in the mail shortly.
Posted by: Danza at May 28, 2008 8:56 PMTurn me in, eh? I'm glad I forget to mention I was smuggling bauxite at the time.
Posted by: Cody at May 28, 2008 9:51 PMI'm a fellow! Thanks, Cody!
And I'm sure someone would help you out if you ran out of gas. I've bought gas for random people several times before. I even gave some drunk guy a ride home from Hyde Park. He was wandering around my neighborhood dressed like a Native American in gym shorts (his Halloween costume) and carrying an empty tub of protein powder.
I asked him what was with the jug and if he'd stolen it from a party or something. He said he put his wallet, cell phone, and keys in it. Which is a smooth move, right? It's big and hard to lose, and it can fall into a pool with the lid on and still keep the contents dry.
Then I dropped him off behind a Whataburger and he stumbled up the stairs of a nearby apartment building. I should have gotten his email address or something.
Posted by: Keith Peffer at May 29, 2008 6:39 PMAustin is a small town. I propose we start a countdown until Keith's protein powder dude shows up.
Posted by: Cody at May 29, 2008 10:13 PM