So last week, I was working on my car. Front end work. Ball joints and tie rod ends. I finished it all and took it in for an alignment. Alignment guy said I had a bad inner tie rod, so I took my car to a friend's house and I replaced the inner tie rod, only to discover that wasn't the problem.

By the time my g/f and I got out of there, it was 11:30 and it was about 22 degrees outside. We drove all of a quarter of a mile and my accelerator cable snapped. A call to AAA and we had it towed to a shop I actually feel I can trust.

Two days later (and about $200 later) I have a fresh alignment and an accelerator cable.

Friday morning at 3:45am, I was heading up to the office, as the entire team was heading to Kansas City for the Midwest Convention. Company's Prez supposed to be showing up, etc. I hit a patch of black ice and the back end slipped out. I corrected and slowed and then it just flew out.

My options were to either hit some poor guy's 88' Honda Civic, or yank the e-brake to force the back end into a heavier spin to launch me past him. So that's what I did. I cranked the wheel left, and I pulled the e-brake hard. My trajectory changed completely, and I missed the Honda by just a few feet ('twas close). So now I'm whipping around, and I hit a recessed drainage ditch (stupid frigging design if you ask me). My drivers side wheel hits the corner perpendicularly. (The road was a long curve from north to east.)

The damage: Shattered hub, warped hub assembly, dinked wheel, bent control arm, shattered ball joint, damaged rack&pinion, the alignment I just had done, broken strut, broken cv axle, and what looked like damage to the frame. Oh, and my pride. To top this off, the AAA guy took a chunk out of my front bumper during transit.

Then came the fun piece. Flu. My body is apparently on fire, and I'm actually using frozen pizzas on my head to cool down because I have no ice. Good times.

If I didn't have a sense of humor, I probably would have suicided. lol.