***Minor Content Warning in the Videos***

Friday night we were driving home from seeing The Proposal.... because I am a good husband- that’s why. When we turned on the street close to our house, we saw two punk kids walking and they looked like they were up to no good.... started making trouble in my neighborhood.

As we drove by I heard a THUD and saw something hit the front of my wife's car. I slammed on the breaks and turned around to see them looking back and laughing. My first instinct? I can take them both. I put the car in reverse ready to take both of them on, but my wife insists that I let it go. She is concerned that they might be holding a gun or something. And thus ends my "Bruce Willis in Last Man Standing" moment.

We call the cops and I want to circle back, and find them, but my wife wants to go back home and check the car. We go home. So no sweet fights and no sweet recon work…. *sigh.

With disappointment in my voice, we call the police and give a description of the two blokes, but its late (like midnight), dark, and they two guys are not exactly standing in the light so we can get a good look. What we do notice we relay to the police.

I drop my wife off, clean off the car, look for damage, and hop in my other car (in case I do see them again I want the element of surprise) and head back to the scene to see if I can find those punks. I am driving around looking for these guys and as I am on route, my phone rings. It’s a police officer. The officer says they have two people matching the description I gave and they are holding them, but they need me to better describe the punks to positively ID them. The police had the right people. Of course I “just so happened” to be out and about at this time, so I offer to pop by and say howdy to the boys.

I have already given up on my “sweet tales of glory as I beat up 2 guys all by myself” and I have already given up on my “locate and recon” dreams, but I have one plan left. I am desperately hoping for that "Police officer conveniently takes a phone call out of ear shot and line of sight” scenario.

When I got there I was very happy to see the two punks in handcuffs....

"Is that them?" asked the officer.

"Oh yeah.” I replied. “That is them"

There was an awkward pause as I waited for the officer to ask if I wanted to teach them a lesson or introduce them to our friend "Billy the Club." I mean, I didn't want to be the one to suggest it, but I think officer knew where I was coming from.

"Ok, we will arrest them" the officer said.

"Do you need me to do anything else?" I asked (hinting that I could probably make the two a lot less "mouthy" if given the opportunity)

"No, we are all set, but you will want to look at your car for damage. If there is damage you can press charges." The officer replied.

Disappointed, I told the officer I would.

I got home a told my wife what had happened. At this point she was ready for bed and practically falling asleep. I wondered how she could sleep while something so exciting was happening all around us, but she was very capable. You know I honestly think she had already forgiven them!?

My phone rang again and the officer asked if we wanted to press charges. There was a scratch near where the egg had hit, but I couldn't in good conscience say authoritatively that they had caused it. Also, it probably could have been buffed out with some wax. I asked what would happen if we did or didn't press charges. The office said that if we did, they could be charged with a felony. If we didn't they would still be charged on breaking curfew and would still get in a lot of trouble.

From the sounds of it, the office didn't think we should press charges- especially if we didn't have any major damage. My wife and I discussed and we didn't press charges.

In my mind I am more a fan of vigilante justice.... the kinds where I get to perform an arm bar or triangle choke. Upon reflection, however, I should probably learn how to do them before I attempt them live with my wellbeing on the line.

So the punks got arrested, but didn't get felony charges.

At the end of the day, they were just punks, but they should be grateful my wife was in the car with me because she has the crazy thing called common sense.

She promised to keep sharing it with me as apparently I have none.

So we bought our house and it had "never leaked" in the basement in the 6 years they had owned it. Of course its leaked 3 times in 2 years for us.

One to waterproofing.

Quote 1 12k

Quote 2 9k

I talked him down to 7k if we move everything out of our basement....

I have a kidney on eBay if anyone is interested and the buy it now price is right around 7k.

We are shooting to have that done next month, but we have to do something with the space after its waterproofed or it will look like black bubble wrap completely enclosing you. Apparently that is not the most friendly look know to man, so we have started the process of redesigning our basement. I will upload some of our highly technical drawings and feel free to give us some thoughts.

I wrote this for a friend who is not getting treated well by her agent.
She is tired of dealing with insurance and I am sure they rely on that get quick settlements, but it seems to me that you have to be the squeaky wheel.
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After our last conversation I am worried I left you with the wrong impression. After talking to my father, friends, and my lawyer I want to make sure you understand where I am coming from. I told you that I just want this to be over, but I am realizing that I am really no closer to resolving this than when we started. If anything, we are further apart. You see, I can't accept any of the blame for this.

I know you deal with complex situations quite often. The good news is that this is a very simple case.

1. I was in a cross walk
2. the cross walk said walk when I stepped into the crosswalk.
3. the car broke the law, went into the cross walk and hit me.

I am worried that you think I neither have the will nor the patience to endure, but let me assure you that I have both the resolve to make sure I am made whole and the resolve to let this case run its full course in settlement or suit.

Let me be perfectly clear. I have been very reasonable and only asked for medical expenses. I have not tried to get anything for pain and suffering. That doesn't mean I wasn't in pain and it doesn't mean I wasn't suffering. Have you ever broken a rib? Have you ever been hit by a car while riding a bike? I can assure you that pain and suffering always follow. I think that is pretty common sense. I have also missed work, incurred costs, been extremely inconvenienced, and already consulted a lawyer, but to date I have not asked for anything for those major inconveniences.

Against my lawyers wishes and advice I attempted to work with you to try and get this resolved, but the offer you have come back with is wholly unacceptable and with each passing day I become more inclined to take my lawyers advice and go after not only all my medical bills, but all my legal fees, pain and suffering, missed work, expenses incurred, and everything else.

I promise you this- I have both the will and the time to see this through to conclusion. Don't mistake my fatigue for lack of resolve and don't mistake my kindness for weakness. I will not let myself be taken advantage of by a systems who wants nothing more than an inexpensive and expedient resolution. If this goes to court it will be both high cost and slow turning. I don't want this, but it is a preferable alternative to the options you have presented to date.

I have been doing a lot more micro media than formal writing for two reasons.
1. faster
2. easier to put content in.

I am going to be syncing up all these resources here through my facebook account.

In the short term, let me give you the cliff notes of life to date.

1. Life/Wife is good.
2. Work is challenging, but good.
3. MBA is done[
4. Getting ready for our trip to Israel.

It has been a crappy week and I can't wait for it to be over. All I want to do now is simply kick-back and watch a bit'o the madness.

watch the madness with me

The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

I loved this one.