i spent all night dreaming of my pascal lab assignment. i knew there was a way to solve the problem, i just kind of wish i hadn’t had to sacrifice some rem sleep to finally get it. all’s well, though. i figured it out and reclaimed my genius status. now i have a week to complete my next major assignment. you know, the one they gave us three weeks to do. the one i haven’t even started yet.
you’re lucky i’m alive, you know. the suv in front of me stopped suddenly on the highway and my wheels locked up and i came to a very loud, very swervy stop not eight inches from his very large bumper. three things saved me: my having left lots of room between me and that fucker, the gas i’d put in the car adding extra weight and it not being any wetter on the roads. fuck. well, if anything was going to wake me up this morning, nearly dying was surely it.
the ontario road trip is officially off. do you know how much road trips cost? i had originally proposed it as a cost-saving measure over flying, but it would actually cost several hundred dollars more. then there’s also the amount of time to take into consideration. so, instead, i’ll be flying back east in august.
the glitch is the fact that i’m going to a small, northern ontario town called sioux lookout. it’s really nowhere near anything, so the closest i can get to it is either winnipeg or thunder bay, both of which are still a five to six hour drive away. now i have to try to wrangle a bus from either of those airports, but the only bus into dryden (the nearest big-ish town) is once a day and leaves at 10:30am, which means i have to spend a night because there are no flights from here to there that arrive in time to catch that bus. i’m getting really peeved at my family for not living in a major urban centre, dammit.
i’ve been having lots of deep thoughts about what i want from myself and a partner. the boy is being slightly difficult in a number of ways and it’s making me rethink things. the whole situation would be so much different if he lived here, which he’s actually talking about doing, but i hate to be the sole reason for his relocating. it just seems like too much pressure. especially if it doesn’t work out. i’ll be the evil woman who lured him away from his home and family and then didn’t turn out to be who he wanted me to be. at least that’s how it goes in my mind. we’ll see. as far as i know, he’s still planning to come here to visit for my birthday and i refuse to rush any of this. if it’s going to be real and good, there’s no reason to.
so many idiots with SUVs have no idea that they can’t brake like they do in their little Hondas they used to have, nor can they take corners like that either…it’s baffling. As a new owner of a Jeep I’m finding that I’m getting cars change lanes right in front of me whenever I try to get some room happening too. Hmph. But yeah, baaaad SUV driver.
Sucks about your decision about the road trip. Drove coast to coast last summer and had a total blast. Yes, even the praries! A flight will be an uncomfortable few hours that will be completely unmemorable in your life – a roadtrip across Canada will be a trip that will stick in your mind forever.
Ah well, if it doesn’t work out this time you can save it til later.
i am, indeed, disappointed about this turn of events. i drove back east ten years ago and, like you, had a blast. if i win the lottery between now and then i’ll change my plans. =)
the extra weight of “gas” in your car would not have effected your stopping distance at all.
newton’s second law states that the rate of change of momentum (mass x velocity) is equal to the sum of applied forces. in this case the applied force is the kinetic (wheels locked up) friction between your tyres and the road which is propotional to the weight (mass x g) of your car. so the extra momentum is cancelled out by the extra friction (since the mass appears in both). you get the same result (of course) from energy arugments: change in kinetic energy (1/2 mass x velocity ^2) = work done ( friction force x distance).
that’s (probably) why, when they talk about the stopping distance in “don’t speed” campaigns, they don’t mention the size of the car (which otherwise they should since some cars must weigh about twice as much as others: a significant difference).