The Daedalus, 1994-2009

The Daedalus, a Pontiac Grand Prix, passed away this past Friday, October 16, 2009, at the age of 15. The Daedalus entered into the life of Emily Davis in 2007. She loved him immediately, mostly due to his stellar stereo system. He helped Emily move to her first apartment after her mission, and consistently fulfilled his mission of helping Emily get to work on time. After Emily moved to a different part of town, the Daedalus started suffering from a series of mechanical problems, including a faulty starter. Rather than throwing in the towel and giving up, he overcame this setback and went into remission for the next year.

After living in Salt Lake City for approximately a year and a half, the Daedalus moved Emily to Provo, Utah, where he had a run-in with the law: he was towed for parking illegally (though multiple witnesses testify there was no way to know it was an illegal parking job). After reuniting with his beloved owner, he faithfully served her and became one of her only allies in what they both considered to be "enemy territory." He was never ashamed of his red coloring, and knew that he was helping his owner show her true colors as a U of U fan.

Sadly, his good health did not last forever. About 6 months ago, he started having problems with multiple systems, including electrical issues and transmission problems. On Thursday, October 15, while being driven by his owner's roommate, his air conditioning pump seized up and caused the entire engine to fail. He was declared dead the following morning by Dave the mechanic.

He is survived by his owners: Emily, her parents, her cousin Fielding (his previous owner), and whoever owned him before Fielding. He will be donated to Kidney Kars on Monday, October 19. Those wishing to offer their condolences can post comments to this blog post.

Tis the Season

In the past two weeks, I have had both the swine flu (we think) and pneumonia. Oh, and I lost my voice to top it all off. As you might imagine, it has not been my favorite week. However, I managed to use the week as a learning opportunity. I learned the following during my week of lung-crushing torture:

1) I'm actually a social creature. I've always known that I'm okay with solitude. I've lived on my own on two occasions, and really enjoyed myself both times. This past week, however, I think I went a little crazy after staying home by myself ALL DAY. I missed seeing my friends, and spent a great portion of each day wondering when my roommates would come home and entertain me. I suppose I enjoyed both of the times I lived on my own because I could leave and visit people and do social things. While I was sick, however, I couldn't leave my house, and went slightly insane from spending hours doing nothing except staring at a TV set. So, lesson one: I really do enjoy people.

2) When I'm sick, I develop a smoker's husky voice. Which is actually pretty cool. Especially when I use an Armenian accent, since the huskiness makes my accent actually sound authentic.

3) Doing drugs is fun; at least its fun when the drug involves a nebulizer and you get to pretend that you are using a water pipe.

4) The part of my brain that gives me motivation to do homework decided to turn off when I got sick. I'm still trying to find the switch to turn it back on. If anyone finds my motivation, please return it to me as soon as possible. . .

5) I don't make a good first impression when I'm sick. I got a phone call from a guy my friend wants to set me up with, and managed to say about four ridiculous things during the one minute conversation. All done while sounding like a smoker. If the date turns out to be anything like that phone call, its going to be one of those bad date stories in HIS arsenal of anecdotes.

That's about it. I can tell you what I did NOT learn during my week: I did not learn a single thing relating to public administration.