Live Free or Die (Updated)

No, I'm not martyring myself for the cause of international wombat freedom.  We drove up to New Hampshire to visit our friend (and my former cow-orker) DJ, another of those people who makes me feel totally inadequate and lacking in any marketable skills, even more so after seeing his house (which he built himself with family assistance).  I swear if every computer in the world dropped dead at midnight tonight, DJ could make a very good living building luxury houses.  All the way home, our kids were saying they wanted to go back to "the big blue house".

So anyway, on the basis of a brief flying visit, we love New Hampshire.  And it's a sane state!  Freeway signs don't say "Buckle up, it's the law," they say, "Seat belts required until age 18, common sense for all."  Common sense!! What a concept!!!  New Hampshire doesn't have a motorcycle helmet law, either.  And you know what?  All but a handful of the many motorcyclists we saw were wearing helmets.  It's amazing how rationally people can act when you tell them "Use your head" instead of "Do this, do that, don't do the other, go there, come here, think this, don't say that, sign on the dotted line, stop thinking, we'll do your thinking for you."

Unfortunately, on the way back home, we got rear-ended on I-91 in New Haven, CT when merging traffic ahead of us stopped suddenly.  One VW about 200 yards ahead of us almost rolled -- he was sideways and spinning with all four tires smoking.  cymrullewes, who was driving, made a full crash stop, and we stopped safely with a couple of feet to spare.  Unfortunately, the guy behind us didn't.  He almost stopped, but close only counts in horseshoes and hand-grenades.  None of us was injured (although my upper back and shoulders are stiff and sore today, and I don't know whether that's connected to the accident or just the long drive), and the damage to the car APPEARS from my initial inspection at the accident side to be confined to the rear bumper and the energy-absorbing substructure.  NC insurance working the way it does, though, if we claim against our insurance, we're out our $500 collision deductible, and we don't have $500.  That's not a problem if we claim against HIS insurance, only we seem to have mislaid the note with his insurance information on it.  (We do, however, have all his contact information, and I've sent him email to ask him to send us a fresh copy of the insurance information.  Worst case, we may be able to get it from New Hampshire DMV.)

So .... anybody need to hire a geek in New Hampshire, or within sane commuting distance thereof?

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Update:

We managed to get in contact with the other driver who hit us, and we now have complete insurance information; including the claim number and a contact number for the agent handling the claim.  I'll be calling them tomorrow.

Successor to Halon?

You can't buy Halon fire extinguishers in the US any more, because halon depletes the ozone layer.  However, this stuff could be a good replacement.  (Spotted by cymrullewes)

The cheese stands alone. Mostly.

fruitylips found this.  Blame him.