to blog or not to blog...

I have not been blogging. Not that I don't want to, not that I don't have anything to say, but mostly because how I feel is too melodramatic to commit to paper (or in this case a blog entry).


My sister's birthday is coming up, after that it will be my Dad's birthday. What should have been a celebration is still very much a cause for sad reflection. And as I navigate through conflicting emotions, I find that indeed, I am suffering from basket case depression. There is one more reason for my current state of mind, but on that I chose to keep quiet.


So what do I do to alleviate my depression? Let's see... I traded in my car for a new, and as my friends tell me, a better car than what I had. Expensive way to amuse myself, but there it is. I did it. I wasn't sure at first if this is the car that I wanted, truth is, I wasn't sure I'd be qualified to get a new car. Apparently, I have reached that state of credit worthiness.


So, why did I change my car? Hmmm, let's see. The car squeeks, it needs to have the brakes changed, its due for the 45T miles maintenance, and it reminds me that part of the reason why I got it in the first place is to use it to take everybody for trips out of town. The first three reasons requiring a lot of money and the last, well... since we're two members of the family short...


But all is well, I like my new car. And though I still haven't figured out what the hype is about over satellite radio, I'll figure it out eventually. I love the ergonomic seat which now provides full support for my back. The old car has it too, but the new one felt better on my back. I now have less space as the new car is only a 5 seater, but that would mean less junk left in the car ;p And now, I have better chances when I get lost... the car has a compass though still lacking a GPS (still too expensive for me). It feels weird though because it has a screen that tells you a door is open, two doors open, back door open, or you have so and so miles before gas is empty, etc... weird... and the key! OMG! I thought I broke it the first time I took it off the ignition. It doesn't have the part where you see the metal teeth. Sorry, but I'm clueless with car technology. It's called a Fobik key (though not the one with remote start, pity... that would make it a "Kit" car he he). I found that out after reading the manual.


And so after two days of driving the car around, I'm still not at full excited mode but I'm slowly getting there as I discover all the features of my new Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo.

Happy Birthday Elline

Hay! another birthday celebration missed...

Metrolink crashes with freight train

I never liked reading newspapers. Most of the time it's got some really depressing headline splashed across the front page. Once in a while I would watch the news channel but only to make sure I did not miss anything catasthropic.



Friday afternoon. I had my daughter leave work early. I'll be taking them to watch a concert at the Verizon Amphitheater in Irvine, CA. It was traffic, bad. I was beginning to worry we won't make it by 6pm, the time they said people will be allowed in the venue. On the way at I-5S, there was an overturned vehicle. It was curiosity causing the traffic. What's curious to me is how they could end up in such a bad accident with so much traffic. I cannot imagine how a car can get up to the speed it would require for a car to flip over and another car to lose it's entire hood all with Friday traffic. But all ended well, at least for us. We got to the concert's venue in time, we even got and early entry pass because we bank at WAMU. My son later said it was a good thing because it's quite a walk to actually get to where they'd be sitting.



Little did we know that as we prepare to have a relaxing evening, at the other side of town, a tragedy is unfolding. A Metrolink train crashed head on with a freight train. Kyla later told me that some of her friends texted her to make sure she's alright. How that could happen is currently being investigated. As of today, there's been 25 fatalities, 135 injured, 40 of them in critical condition.



Today, I hastily glanced at the LA Times... the main headline is about Wall St. (something to do with a bank filling for bankruptcy), but the main photo was of the train crash. It said investigators are focusing on whether the signal was broken or if it was missed by the engineer. The crash happened on a curve, but I'm a lot more curious as to why these two trains are on the same track... signal or not, they would have been too close to each other traveling at a speed that would make it hard for any of the trains to stop. I should say that there was no mention of some sort of side track where the other train could have moved to had they been warned by the signal.



Towards the back of the paper, there was a feature story on the lives lost in this tragedy, and some story of the people still struggling to survive. Loss of a loved one is always a hard thing to understand