Pete Dudchenko

I got rear-ended on Saturday. I’ve had the truck about a year and already its been tagged in the back twice. The first time was minor and only resulted in a small scratch to my hitch. Last Saturday was a bigger deal. I was at a stop light and looked in my rear-view mirror and saw a gray Celica coming up on me fast. The driver was looking somewhere else and didn’t realize how fast he was coming up until it was too late. He slammed on the brakes and swerved to the right but ended up hitting my back end. I could see the whole thing coming through my mirror which made it tough because I knew I was going to be hit but I had nowhere to go. I was surprised that he didn’t push me into the car in front of me.

We pulled into a plaza and I looked at my car to see the back passenger side bumper was all dinged up. Other than that though there wasn’t too much damage. His car was a different story. The front corner of his car was smashed up pretty bad. He couldn’t open his driver’s side door and it looked like part of the car was wedged into the wheel. He ended up having to get the car towed.

We swapped insurance and I went to a collision center today to get an estimate. The preliminary cost is around $1400 and I should be without the truck for about a week. I won’t have to pay anything which is good since it wasn’t my fault but what a pain. No one was hurt either which is always a good thing.

Now I’ve got to get in touch with his insurance and work out the cost for a rental car and see if they need to inspect the car before I get it fixed.

Every year around the 4th of July, I meet up with family on my mom’s side in Hilton Head, South Carolina for a mini family reunion. We usually rent two houses right on the beach, and spend the time either on the beach, on a golf course, or just recently, on my Aunt and Uncle’s boat.

This year we golfed at Hilton Head National and another course off of the Indigo Plantation. In addition we spent a lot of time on the boat water-skiing, tubing, wake-boarding and killing all the horse flies that seem to like hanging around.

Its also become a tradition between Drew, myself and all the kids to catch some crabs when the tide is going out and then making a meal out of them. This year we made a crab bisque which was pretty good.

We even got some surfing in which I didn’t think was possible there (with the smaller waves) but with our immense surfing skills we were able to pull it off. Actually the smaller waves probably made it easier. I’ll try to post some pics on my website in the near future.

So I experienced my first earthquake today. It happened about 3:30 PST. I was walking in the office and heard a tremble move through the building, although I barely felt anything. I wouldn’t have even realized it had it not been for everyone talking about it immediately afterwards. Below is a small press release:

SAN DIEGO (AP) – A 5.1-magnitude earthquake centered in Baja California shook downtown San Diego on Tuesday afternoon, but there were no immediate reports of damage or injury.

The temblor struck abut 3:28 p.m. and was centered about 60 miles west of Tijuana, Mexico, said Deborah Hedges, a spokeswoman for seismologists at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

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Yesterday I went to the Del Mar Fair which is held every year at this time at the Del Mar Racetrack. There were a couple of things that surprised me about this fair compared to others. The first was the duration that its in town. I think this fair is around from now until after the 4th of July which is about a month or so. Second, and someone pointed this out to me, was how all the “carnies” were wearing the same t-shirt. Almost like a uniform. I kind of missed the torn shirts (or no shirts) that I have come to associate with fair-folk. Third was the lack of funnel cake stands around the area. We actually had to look for one and hunt it down. I always thought that funnel cakes and cotton candy were the two easiest things to get at a fair. Overall it was fun though and the June Gloom was nowhere to be seen which made for a great day.

I’m also in the process of trying to fix my surf board. Its acquired a few dings which I like to think is from all the great waves I’m riding but which is probably more from carrying down the stairs to my car and smacking it on the stairway. On Saturday I bought some ding repair and tried to apply it to the board. Its this gel like goo that you put over the ding and then let cure in the sunlight to harden.  I have no idea what I’m doing but the one bad ding that was on the end of my board is a lot more solid now. The only thing that is left is to sand down the gel to be flush with the board.

I went surfing again last night after work. Its funny to hear me say that. I guess I’m still not used to being so close to the ocean that I can hit the beach after the day-job is done. It used to be only something that I could do on vacation. Now I do it in between work and dinner. How cool is that?

Anyway I hit the same beach that I was at on Monday although things weren’t as good as they were that day. The tide was at high-tide which pretty much made the beach disappear. Plus with the water crashing into the cliffs and then bouncing back, it disrupted the waves enough to make it tough to ride one.

I did see some body-boarders hanging out by the cliff base though. It was pretty amazing. The cliff was basically a natural stone wall that the waves would roll into and then crash up against. The body-boarders would hang out around there and as a wave hit the wall and bounced back, they would ride it back out to sea until they hit a big wave coming at them which would launch them into the air where they could flip. Pretty amazing.

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So I went surfing again this Memorial Day and this was my best set ever. I still suck of course (I fall more than I stand up) but there were a couple of good rides in there. I relate surfing to golf in a lot of ways. It takes a lot of patience and persistence and can be very frustrating, but it only takes one good ride to make it all worth it. Plus, in order to be any good, you have to keep doing it.

Yesterday, I had two good rides that really showed me that I was making progress. The first one was on a bigger wave and although I crashed right away, my timing was just where it needed to be. I actually dropped into the wave and it was because I wasn’t used to timing it just right, that the board shot out under me. Why would a crash be such a good ride? It was because I knew what I was doing wrong and I now had a feeling of what its like to drop into a wave.

The next ride was the same thing although this time I learned from my previous mistake and stayed up. That was the one “great tee shot” that makes me want to go back.

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