mondays. and the loser has a name: douglas read

sunday night my body decided it wasn’t too excited about something i’d eaten recently and determined mass evacuation was the best course of action. i managed to sleep okay despite this situation; however, when i woke up in the morning my body told me i needed to head toward the bathroom. i got out of bed, put my left (injured) leg forward and put my weight down on it, and immediately felt a piercing pain on the front left pad of my foot. i thought i’d stepped on some of the stray cat litter crystals my cat occasionally leaves around the house to sabotage me with, but the pain made me quickly realize if that were the case she must have taken the sabotage up a level and sharpened it into a makeshift crystal shiv. i dropped back onto the bed so i didn’t step on my foot again, and to try and see what was going on down there. unfortunately, i can’t really bend my injured leg very well so i couldn’t see my foot. then i saw blood dripping from my foot onto the floor. i figured that wasn’t too good. after sitting there a bit dripping blood, my body reminded me it was serious when it told me earlier i should head to the bathroom, so i jumped up and managed to hop into the bathroom. after dripping blood in the bathroom some, i managed to get my leg and foot angled just enough i could see something barely sticking out of my foot. i reached down and grabbed the edge of it and pulled it out. it was some shard of clear plastic or glass about 1/4 inch wide by 1/4 inch high, and somehow i’d managed to shove it pretty much all the way up into my foot. i got some toilet paper and held it on the spot until it mostly stopped bleeding, while i let my body continue its cleansing of my digestive system. so began my monday morning.
i had hoped to practice driving my pickup over the weekend to see if i thought my knee and ankle could handle it okay, but i hadn’t gotten to do that. there was a meeting at work in the afternoon with several vendors and such i wanted to attend, so i decided to go ahead and try driving. after sitting for 3+ weeks, my pickup still managed to start up okay. after trying my leg some in the driveway, i got on the road. it was a little awkward as far as the amount my knee would bend, and it hurt a little, but not too much. in my state of focusing on getting back to work and driving i forgot my cell at home, so i’m glad things went alright. unfortunately, the ride there was in the middle of the day and there wasn’t much traffic, but the ride home was around 5pm and there was a lot of stop and go traffic. i didn’t feel intense pain or like i messed up my knee or anything, but it started hurting enough before i got home to make me decide maybe i should put off driving until i see the ortho doctor again to see what his opinion is on what i should and shouldn’t be doing. i called his office the next day and have an appointment for the 7th.
i applied online for a credit card with 0% interest until june 2010, and was approved. so hopefully here pretty soon i’ll start the process of putting a new engine in my bel air. yea.
yesterday i called hpd reports division to find out info about the police report. after about 30 minutes on automated hold, a person got the incident number from me, the date of the incident, and my name, then said “okay, your report is ready. you can pick it up at 1200 travis.” i asked about that, then asked how much it cost (since i’d seen some cost stuff when finding the phone number to call) and she said $6. then she added or i could use “vectra” (?) and pay $7.50 online with a credit card. i assume that’s a web-based report ordering thing. from the conversation it sounded like she’d already sent my report to be printed, so i figured i should go ahead and go downtown to get the report as i didn’t want to pay the $7.50 and then also get a bill for $6 too. the hrc came and got me and i went to the building and picked up my report.
neither of us had eaten, so i decided while we were already downtown we should eat at frank’s pizza. during the drive, i looked over the report. it appeared they used the license plate to get registration info on the car. but the driver was just listed as “jamie” and there was no insurance info. they also didn’t really get the description of the accident completely correct, as in the drawing it made it look like they were turning right and only partially blocking the lanes. but whatever, i guess. there were accounts from two witnesses. evidently one of them had just gotten dropped off at his job at petco by the two people in the car. he claimed he didn’t know them very well. i guess that’s how they got the female’s name. both of the witnesses basically corroborated my story. i also noticed the acronym “fsra” was written in several places by the info for the other car, but i didn’t know what that meant.
while we were eating at frank’s, a cop walked in and got some pizza. i had left the report in the car, but as we were leaving i asked him if i could query him about something. i explained the situation and asked if there was some way i could go about seeing if there was insurance on the vehicle or what the status of the investigation was. he told me i should go by the hit and run division offices, which are over by the municipal courts. the cop actually asked if the report said “fsra” or something else on it, and i said it said fs-something…i think ra. he responded in surprise and said it must have been a pretty good wreck as that’s for “failure to stop and render aid”. i thanked him for his help and we left.
i decided since i was in the area and it was still an hour or two before 5pm, i’d go ahead and drop by the hit and run offices. we drove the short distance over there and i went and asked about my incident. the secretary said the name of the officer investigating it, called his desk and he was in, so i went in and talked with him. he said he’d been looking into the case, and basically the guy is a loser, on drugs, living from place to place. the officer had gotten in touch with his wife, whose name is also on the vehicle, but she said she hadn’t talked to him in several months and she’s been trying to find him to serve him divorce papers. evidently she was crying on the phone because she’s shocked at what a fsck-up her estranged husband is or has become. the officer said she said she’d taken insurance off the car when her husband took it and left with it or whatever, so he’s sure there was no insurance on it. he said if they caught him i could sue, but there’s not going to be any point. i didn’t really care about suing, other than to cover my personal medical expenses and motorcycle losses. i was hoping there would be vehicle insurance though. i guess progressive (my motorcycle insurance) and my personal healthcare providers are going to be eating this one unless they can get money out of mr. read or his mostly unidentified companion who was driving.
so… on march 7th, 2009, in front of the petco on the 2100 block of shepherd, a 2006 green 4-door hyundai with Texas plates 359kym, driven by “jamie” with douglas read (the listed registered owner of the vehicle) as a front seat passenger, pulled out in front of me quickly and then just as quickly stopped, completely blocking both lanes. after i put on the brakes and tried turning to my right some, i hit them and my left leg was smashed between my bike and the car, jamie screamed and i hopped off my bike as it fell to the ground. douglas (doug?) read then said “go. go! go! go!” and jamie squealed the tires and they took off. my bike was totaled.
so thanks “jamie” and douglas read. many happy returns.