I'm in a motel in the middle of Colorado, with my sweet little brother snoring next to me. Well, in another bed, that is. I'm using his *ACK* PC laptop because my new G-3 is history. Maybe spare parts is a better description. Lucky for me, the last time I was in CaCa Land, I spent the time to configure his system to talk to mine. Well, it can log on to showme, but *reading* mail is another thing. I keep getting this message that says "Your terminal is of the dumb variety..." Well, once I found out that the FML knows about the crunch (rumor travel fast, don't they?), I thought I would suffer through my severe headache (the PC) aa well as my aching head to let people know what is going on. I offer my sincerest apologies to the Portland people and their ferret show. I am very sorry I didn't show up. I tried, but, it didn't quite work out. I was only about 500 miles away, when on Friday morning, my beautifully restored baby-blue TR was t-boned by a young lad crossing the same intersection I was driving through. I saw it coming and swerved to the right, which probably saved me lots of nasties, because he hit the rear of my door at an angle rather than head on. I guess he was going about 40 and clearly didn't stop for his red-colored sign. The car is totaled. So is one of my cameras (and 300mm lens), my G-3 laptop, a bunch of CDs, and <sob> my brown-wool Padres baseball cap from the 1984 world series. I was planning to wear it to a game this week. <double sob> The three little ferrets with me were slightly shaken up (thank heavens the pickup truck hit *my* side of the car), which really didn't amount to much of anything except Taz went ballistic in the cage, thinking it was a new game. BB got a small scrape on his upperback, and no one else was hurt at all. Well, not entirely true; Taz decided BB caused the whole thang and latched on to his neck, causing a couple of welts--worse than the accident scrape to be honest. I got a few bites (minor) to go along with the glass cuts on my hand when I reached in to break it up. As for me, a couple of broken ribs from the steering wheel and/or seat belt, lots of cuts on my legs and hands from the flying glass, a cut lip, a big bonk on the head with an even bigger lump, and a compression fracture of my right calcaneum. Not bad considering the damage to the car. I took some neat pictures after someone pried open my door and I was able to get out. I had to cut the seat belt because mt seat had smashed into the passenger seat, trapping the release. I did get a neat ride to the hospital with my ferrets in tow. The nurses and the doctor seemed to pay more attention to them than to me. I wouldn't let hold them for fear of biting, but told them why and they understood. Still, it seemed everyone had to come and take a look at them, and the ferrets hated it. You could tell by the way they were digging at the cage to get out. Not. They *loved* the attention. The docs wanted me to spend the night in the hospital because of the bump on my head, but I refused until a sweet young thang (my doctor, actually) promised to take the ferrets home with her and keep them safe until I left. David arrived Sat. morning, I checked out of the hospital and retrieved my ferrets, then we went to the junk yard to look at what remained of my blue baby and to salvage whatever stuff I could. I made my brother load the lot into the back of his van, and we started back to Missouri. I should get home tomorrow and on Monday I'll see my doc. I plan on taking a few days to rest, then I'll load up the red car and start this trip all over. Andrew was very upset when he heard of the crash; I want to think it was because of worry for me, but in reality I think it was because he knew he had to give me back my red car and he couldn't use it for the next 5-8 weeks. BTW, for those of you who might think I have bad luck; not on your life. I walked away from this, and that *PROVES* how much good luck I have. Sure I am stiff and sore, my foot and head hurts, and I'm covered with cuts and scrapes, but I got off easy. heck, I've hurt myself worse rock climbing. And I might have lost some stuff, but it is only material goods. I'm ok, as are my ferrets. That is what counts. Well, not entirely true. I'm still *very* unset about getting a shot in my tushie. It's soooore. Well, one good thing came out of the whole mess. I'm hurting enough so I don't worry about the chicken pox itching. Bob C with three calling long distance [Posted in FML issue 2431]