Category: Driving

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Things that Make Me Go Mad: Driving Drunk

1 Local Cy-Fair girl dies from a drunk driver who hits the school bus and her

2 Houston judge’s daughter sues driver she ran into while driving drunk

What the hell is the world coming to?!!  If there are more things that make me madder than stupid politicians and hungry rich execs, it’s the stupid drunk drivers!  Link one shows about how a drunk driver sideswipes a school bus and then hits a girl and then speeds off!  He had to be pursued for miles before being caught!

And then there’s Elizabeth Shelton, whose father is a juvenile judge(?!), who got into an accident last year and ran into a pickup truck in front of her which ended up KILLING her boyfriend!  Now, she’s SUING the driver that was in the front?!  This is some crazy and stupid things I have seen and heard but it’s just un-freakin’-believable!

If we continue to let DWI/DUI-convicts to go around so carelessly, I shall feel obligated to move elsewhere (like Japan) where such thing will pretty much ruin your life for good!  If you are drunk, WALK home or take a cab!!  I hope that guy gets life in prison, and that girl gets COUNTER-SUED!  And what is her father, the “venerable” judge, even thinking?!!  😡

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Car Accident Update

I need to vent… so here I am again.

I got the call from State Farm that our beloved ’99 Lincoln is officially considered totaled.  🙁  While I have been wanting to do that, the sudden reality hit harder than expected.  After all, it’s never an equal trade when you try to find its replacement.  And on top of that, the Admiral went out completing its duty to the end protecting its owner even though it meant taking itself out.  Sniff…

So here’s where it gets somewhat worse…  They valued it at roughly $4600 retail through NADA.com prices.  When they re-add on taxes and other stuff, it was at $5100.  But it still came back to $4600 because of our $500 deductible.  State Farm rep told me that I can get the deductible back from the other party’s insurance so I call them (also ambulance cost was over $500!) only to find out … that it was never filed!

So I had to spend half hour talking to the other insurance company giving them all the info!  Erg… Now I have to wait till next Monday before they assign an adjuster.  What a pain.  To make things more irritating, now that the car is considered totaled, they will cut the car rental short!  😡  I have to probably get the other party’s insurance to pay for the rental to be extended.  So much hassle…

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Soojin’s Accident Yesterday

So as many of you know by now, Soojin was in an accident on the way to BSF leaders’ meeting. Usually, JJ would be riding with her but since it was a holiday week for Anna, Soojin asked her co-worker to watch them in the morning. Thus we are so thankful that neither of the kids were in the car.

Though I do not know the entire details, here are what is known about the accident. Soojin was on Pineloch left lane and a landscaping truck was on the right and there was a contact that made her veer off the road into the median and hit the big lamp post. The car was totaled in my opinion. The entire front was gone along with radiator, the wheels, and both of the airbags that went off. The other vehicle and 3 people were fine. I only saw a dent on the side of the drivers door. They didn’t seem to speak English or worse, didn’t have insurance and thus didn’t say anything. I felt bad for them but at the same time mad.

Soojin was bleeding badly in the eye but turned out to be due to a small gash between the eyes. My current hero(ine) is a woman named Ginger. She is the good Samaritan who saw Soojin crash and pulled over to help her get out of the car and stayed with her until I got there. Ginger is now my current favorite name of the decade!

Soojin complained of large pain in the right abdominal side and was rushed to ER. I had asked Pastor Shawn to pray for Soojin but he ended up coming out to the hospital (after I gave him the wrong hospital name! – Southwest Memorial Hermann when it should’ve been Southeast). Her CAT scan came back negative for internal damages, so we are thankful for that as well.

And Younhe with her two kids came by to see Soojin at home. This does not include all the family and friends that prayed for Soojin and gave all the kind words. So I wanted to thank everyone who took part in caring for Soojin in this difficult times.

Please pray for the car that the insurance would file it as totaled and not try to have it fixed, and that the amount for the car would be favorable. After that, we will have to shop for a replacement car. That Lincoln Continental was named as “admiral” since it felt like a boat. It served faithfully to the end protecting the driver to its end. 🙁 Now that I have to say goodbye to it, it’s a bit saddening having developed “?” (jung that means emotional bond) for it.

I don’t know why the accident happened nor will I likely find out, but since God was with her, we are trying not to question it, and just being thankful for all that came out of it… 1) no kids were involved and 2) Soojin didn’t incur any serious damage. “God is good all the time. All the time, God is good.”

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Visit to Dallas

After having visited Austin two weeks ago, I visited Dallas this past weekend.

I got to see Jun Kang, an eclectic friend of mine, who is a movie/film director/editor/producer. He is a very artistic guy, and I always think of that director dude from the series “Entourage”! 😛 Had lunch with him on Friday and hung out at the Dallas Museum of Arts. Then we hung out at the museum’s little gravel garden. It was good catching up with him…

After that, I went to see my ex-roome, Jin Chung. He came back from Washington, DC where he worked for a great non-profit organization called IJM (International Justice Mission) but came back home to take care of his parents. He’s a good guy really… misunderstood like the most of us… but a great guy with passion. We had fun catching up and reminiscing on the good ol’ times.

Then, I met up with Erica Quinn (now, Erica Bittner!) and her hubby, Travis, and my old favorite Daniel Quinn for dinner! We met at a neat Chinese restaurant called May Dragon. We had an awesome time catching up and having some of the best laughs I’ve had in a long time! And very glad to find out that Travis is a good guy and easy to get along with. My boy Daniel was now all grown up and working… sheesh… where does time go?!

Then I spent the night at Mo’s place. Dude… he lives too far!! Frisco!! But we had good time catching up and awesome breakfast at Le Peep’s nearby.

Then I met up Joohee Kim and her new hubby, Kihyun Kim for lunch. I think we went to the same Soon Tofu place that Alex Lee loved so much! I had missed Joohee’s wedding since I had to stay longer in Korea. She looked pretty happy so I was glad to see that. Joohee’s husband is a jundosanim (pastor-in-training) and he seemed sincere enough.

Then I headed over to Deborah Ahn (now Wingate) and her husband, Jon Wingate’s place! But since Erica didn’t know other couples like herself (Korean marrying Caucasian), I had asked Deborah if it was ok for Erica and the family to join us for dinner!

Added bonus was that I got to meet the Editor-in-Chief of “The Brew” magazine, Eric Beach! 😀 It is always nice to meet people in person after you meet them online. The two couples seemed to hit it off and I am glad to have been the link.

Afterwards, I had great talks of all kinds with the Wingates. Then the next morning, Deborah cooked awesome breakfast of bacon and eggs!! 😀 Mmmmm… and more great talk and catching up.

I attended Binnerri Church for service and see Mo again. But afterwards, I wanted to see Brian Shinn and his kid! So I met him up at local Chili’s resaturant. Last time I saw him was at least 8 years ago so it was great catching up with him. He had gained some weight… but he still was the same Brian! Since his kid was sleeping, he came alone. So I drove to his place to see his kid, Tyler, and meet his wife for the first time! Tyler was sooo cute!

After all that, I drove back home and got home around 7 pm. It was tiring… but awesome just catching up with old friends.

By the way, Jun, Jin, and Mo are still single if some of the readers are single women! 😉 LOL…

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Water-powered car!!

Japan has developed a water-powered test car!! 😮

It can sustain 80 km/h for an hour on 1 liter of freakin’ water!!! How come we don’t have that already?! I will tell you why… it’s because of those money and life sucking oil companies!! That’s why!! 😡 All those oil companies better get on the right gear ’cause I’m not paying freakin’ $5/gallon!!

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Changing the Driving Habits: Reaction to Gas Prices

Now, gas prices near my area has gone up to $3.70/gallon! 🙁 So in order to conserve fuel as much as possible, I have adapted myself to change the driving habits.

  1. When coming up to red light ahead, I take my foot off the gas pedal and cruise as much as I can.
  2. Use cruise control in highway if weather and traffic permits.  (Using cruise control in rain is not safe!)
  3. Accelerate as mildly as possible.  When you gun it, you force the engine to not fully combust the fuel.
  4. Avoid driving in the heat/daytime if possible.  Driving in heat will make your engine and other things run less efficiently.
  5. Drive slowly.  Or to clarify, avoid driving fast.

The last point is what has been the most difficult.  Yesterday, on my way back from the Montrose Street Outreach, I decided to keep cruise control at 60 mph.  That’s even slow in my book!  😮  But I thought to myself, it’s not like I have people waiting for me at home or need to be in a hurry.  That put the engine speed at 2200 rpms.  Usually, cruising at 65 mph would keep that at higher revs of 2500 rpms.  Just remember, lower rpms the less gas it uses.

I seriously don’t know how much this will save on gas… but as I also bike to work more and more, hopefully, all things will help ’cause it sure don’t seem like gas prices will be coming down anytime soon!  Or at all!