I don’t understand the weather; I think we don’t understand the weather enough:

• these tornadoes happened late in the day, with some unconfirmed reports around midnight in central Maine.  This is unexpected with our general understanding of how the weather conditions come together to create this.
• the sky was reported as green over Springfield in between the two big storms cells that passed there.
• in Waltham, there was lightning flashes happening every second, for over 40 minutes; ground strikes were as few as 3 seconds apart in the brunt of the storm.

Additionally, I think our understanding and tools are sub-par for detecting & predicting them:

• the weather service uses doppler-radar cell values to detect areas of high discontinuities and label them as likely tornado locations.  Note we have no way of directly, remotely detecting them reliably.
• animals in nature can tell when bad weather is approaching; reports of silent & birds and bugs are very common in the “calm before the storm”.  How can they tell what’s going to happen, without satellite imagery and a sophisticated physical model?
• I heard a weather-person say that the tornadoes were causing the frequent lightning strikes.  I think cause, effect and correlation got confused in that statement.

Anyway, it’s a rare experience for me, and has me thinking.

I upgraded recently, and all went smoothly.  The one difficulty was that my WebDAV shares through Apache were no longer able to write to the file-system.  Turns out I wasn’t the only one who experienced this and the fix was very simple.

March 31st, a Friday — driving home from Boston during mid-day. I was in a great mood, and the weather was warm and bright. I had driven all the way from Medford, on I-93 and I-90 through Boston into Worcester, navigated through the construction of Rt. 146, and made it into my “old” stomping grounds around WPI. I was a mile away from my apartment, on a route I travel nearly everyday.

And then I was sideswiped… I was traveling along with traffic that had been waiting to pass through an intersection, maybe 15 or 20mph. Fairly thick traffic, as it was about 1PM. On the right was the parking lot for the local Price Chopper. And there was a car pulling up to eventually merge into traffic, but they were slowing down and would have to stop since there was no gaps in traffic. So I continue to survey the other cars & people in the area. And as I’m passing this car and parking lot of my right, my peripheral vision detects that the car has not stopped, it’s just coasting into traffic, into me. Time dilation kicks in, but no last minute maneuver seems like a good idea, so I accept this situation as the nose of the car plows into my right-side doors and pushed me a foot or so to the left as my momentum keeps the car going forward.

I pull over, and after some apprehension, so does the other driver, Susan. We get out and start the information exchange. A by-standard has called the police. Traffic… copes somehow, I didn’t pay attention. (The traffic there can be very erratic.) I inspect the damage to my car: a gouge that runs from the back of the right-front door, deepens into the back-right door, and terminated on the back-right wheel-well & tire area. I inspect the damage to Susan’s car… two patches of plastic are ripped up from the surface of the front bumper. How ironic.

The police show up promptly. Amazing. He talks to each of us, takes down information, inspects damage, etc. Things seem to be going really smoothly. I’ve got her license-plate number, VIN, drivers license number, insurance agency name and policy number. I should be all set. I’m fairly calm and sedate… which I think is odd but don’t second guess. But Susan, an older woman, seems to be very nerve-racked by the whole experience, and afraid what her husband will think. Eventually the police pass out copies of his initial report, tell us the steps that we should go through next, and leaves.

I get to drive home… more cautiously this time. The car seems to handle just fine… so the back-right tire isn’t that bad. After relaxing for a bit, I call my insurance agency Progressive. I want this dealt with quickly, while it’s still fresh on my mind. By 4PM, I’ve been assigned a claims handler, Mary-Kay, given her all the info available I have, and do the formal phone-interview about the details of the accident.
April 3rd, the following Monday — Mary-Kay calls. The insurance info for Susan incorrect… no, incompatible; it has a different format than what I saw and wrote down. *sigh* Okay… maybe in the heat of the moment I missed something; I’m not familiar with Massachusetts registration forms. But here starts the first delay, not even able to contact Susan’s insurance company to start a claim there until we can find out her actual policy info. I’m anxious to get this going, and am powerless.

April 5th, 6 days after the accident — we have finally got the right info, and a claim has been started with Susan’s insurance company, MetLife. I give my phone interview to the MetLife claims handler Nicole. She hasn’t heard from Susan yet…. they’ve sent out some mail to try to contact her. In the meantime, a claims adjuster will come out to assess the car. He’ll be there on Friday.
Now… around Wednesday of this week, I was sick… and got worse through the weekend and well into the next week. It was miserable, and I was stressed and slightly depressed. The assessment Friday went well; the adjuster was more than fair to my car’s value, and assessed damaged at over 1,300$ I’m very pleasantly surprised. I also finally filled out my additional crash report info for the Worcester Police that Monday, and got it into them. During this time, I call fairly regularly, waiting to hear when Susan will report her side of the accident. But this was never to happen.

Apparently, insurance agencies in Mass have some formal process to go through to order copies of accident reports. And apparently there are many delays. Mine wasn’t available until April 24th. Yes, three weeks past the time of the accident.

Now MetLife can assess probable liability, and go from there. This took a week of time. To read once piece of paper, where the officer states:

Vehicle #1 going West on Highland St. when vehicle #2 pulled out of the driveway at 255 Highland St. and struck vehicle #1 on the passenger side with its front end.

Five whole business days for Nicole to read that one line, and comprehend it. I’m still annoyed at this, and regret not calling every single day to pressure her to act quicker. But eventually, her and her supervisor review the claim, and find their insuree at probable liability.

May 1st — a month after the accident, MetLife has assessed liability against Susan. Finally. But, they need to send another letter in the mail to Susan to inform them of the pending assessment and charges against their policy. Oh yea, they need to give them 10 days to respond. The next day after being told this, I call Nicole’s supervisor, just to verify this.. this.. these extenuating circumstances and policy. All for naught.

May 8th — Susan finally contacts her insurance company, and doesn’t contest the assessment. Finally, a check has been sent out in the mail. 38 days later.

May 12th — I have the check, and I go to deposit it. My band informs me that any “insurance claims” check they hold 5 days until it clears. I can get 100$ now, though. I’m speechless.

May 17th — I make plans for the rental car. (At least the rental car will be reimbursed through MetLife.) I expect Friday will be when the check will be cleared, and I will bring my car in for work. At first, I was looking to see if maybe I could rent a Toyota Prius, but it seems that all rental companies have had their reclaimed, or sold them, due to high demand for the car. Oh well, any commuter car will do.
May 18th — The check has finally cleared, and I’m making arrangements for the body work to be done. Friday shall be the day.

May 19th — I bring my car into Chicken’s Customs around mid-day, and get a ride over to Enterprise. Once the guy there finds out I’m a WPI CS major, he tells me he used to do EE, and starts chatting it up about working with companies like EMC and DEC. I end up with a Hyundai Elantra.
So now, I wait a week. Hopefully my car will fair well, and not go over on price for the body-work. In the meantime, I commute for a week to my new job in a rental car. That’s not so bad. Overall, things are okay. I’m just annoyed that it’ll nearly be two months since the accident to when my car will be fixed up. Allot of little life lessons learned here, I suppose. But it’s hard to see that until the problem is fixed and behind me.

(In writing this, I can see it would have been advantageous to actually post as events happened, instead of this recap. But I was very stressed, and rather talk about things that have happened, or are nearly guaranteed to happen, as opposed to ranting & raving and speculating until my fingerprints wear off on my keyboard.)

I have lived in a decent number of apartments during my stint here in Worcester, and have experienced less than sub-par living conditions. So, I feel it is pertinent to review what points I am looking for in a prospective apartment.

• Location – Obvious, yet cannot be stressed enough. Security, sense of a good environment, accessibilty (via car or walking), services in the immediate area (stores, food, etc.) and many other things play into this. For many years I didn’t have a car, so I was tethered to my university and my workplace, and never lived more than a 5 minute walk away. Nowadays, this is not such a concern.
• Parking – Worcester is a full city, and the both sides of most streets are filled in the evenings. Off-street parking is a great bonus that previous landlords have charged extra for, or limited to 1 or 2 for an entire floor. Also with snow-removal in the winter, off street parking means no winter parking bans to dance around, and likely means your landlord has arrangements for your lot to be plowed.
• Decor – Perhaps a little frivolous, but the style of the place can play a large role in satisfaction. I’ve lived in places where everything is white… including all the trim; one word…. blah. Likely a landlord in a hurry to repaint a place that was trashed in years gone by. Once I moved from one floor of an apartment to another, partially because it looked better. Wood floors are nice; easy to clean, and you can choose your own carpeting style.
• Heating system – Perhaps you don’t immediately think of this, but I’ve seen how this can affect living conditions. Steam radiators taking up valuable floor space (and potentially corner space), forced hot-air units that only operate in the winter and smell of burnt stale dust, and base-board heating that is always underfoot and getting banged up. I’d opt for the last choice.
• Locks – You can tell how seriously your landlord takes your security / privacy with this. Got several worn out keys to keep track of? Got doors that barely latch? Windows that can easily be jimmied open? Obviously a determined individual will overcome any security system, but this is a sign of the quality of ones landlords.
• Windows – Experienced everything from 70-year old windows that have sagged over time, to newly installed windows while I was a tenant (in the same apartment, no less.) This plays into the heating and security issues mentioned above. Part of the upkeep of an apartment, and can make a huge heating-bill / comfort level difference in the winter.
• Storage – Closet space, open areas to place shelves, cabinet space in the kitchen / pantry. This can be the difference between a cluttered / disorganized apartment to a spacious and clean feeling home. I personally can use two “closets” of about 2 meters in width. Kitchens need to have space to organize everything, else clutter and constant shifting of items will come to dominate.
• Drop-ceilings – I have wired nearly every single apartment I’ve lived in for computer networking. Drop ceilings hide the mess, and make running cables easy. I’ve put up christmas-lights, rope-lights and various other decorations with drop-ceilings; without them, unless you have a sturdy drywall and solid ceiling, you’re gonna be out-of-luck on this one.
• Power outlets – Remembering that most apartments in Worcester are 100 years old…. these places weren’t wired for… anything. Even through 5 apartments, I’ve only seen one place that had “3-prong” power outlets, and that was after a complaint. Other places the landlords just don’t seem to understand the power-draw and sensitivity of entertainment and computer equipment. Placement and numbers also matter allot. You don’t want extension cables running halfway across your room, or have an outlet with two power-strips powering all your kitchen appliances.
• Kitchen appliances – Refrigerators and stoves. It’s amazing how many functional improvements these have gone through that benefit the general college / guy apartment. Flat-top stoves that are a cinch to clean; a refrigerator with full height freezer and normal compartments with clean shelves and pull-out trays. But don’t fool yourself; I’ve never seen this in Worcester, and I’ve seen two stoves replaced, but with the same crappy genero setup that is such a pain to clean. If I ever find these… I dunno, I might just faint.
• General layout – Most layouts I’ve seen have been okay, but here are a few things to keep in mind. The main “hallway” for an apartment travel can travel through common rooms; this space should be considered part of the hallway, and lost functionality for the common room. Separated common room areas are nice… people gabbing in the kitchen playing cards aren’t disturbing the guys in the livingroom watching a movie. Bedrooms off of common rooms can be annoying for the bedroom occupant, depending on general living habits. Devoted entryways are great for keeping the dirt / cold / distraction away from other areas.
• Bathrooms – If you live with 4 or more people, or you have many guests over, a second (or half) bathroom is a godsend.
• Porches – Had several back porches… great for outgoing garbage to pile up, or other bulk storage such as a bike. Porches in general can also be great for summer socializing, chilling, storm or people watching, etc.
• Telco distance – This is a specialized concern, but if you want decent DSL service, you should be within a mile of the Central Office of your local phone company. This information can be found out by DSL provider’s webpages generally.

Well, that’s it for now. I’m sure a few things will come to me… but most likely after I’m gone through the apartment.