Taking things in stride

As some of you know, I recently bought a fantastically fun car, the Honda S2000. Befitting a fun car, I took it to an iconic track (Mazda's Laguna Seca Raceway), and tracked it. Due to oil loss and a misshift, it is quite likely that I spun a rod bearing. In short, I trashed the engine in a car I've had less than 2 months, for about 1.25 hours of track time. To put this into perspective, a new engine for a S2000 costs $9k and labor is about $1-2k.


A similar unexpected incident happened about 1.5 years ago, while playing basketball in Rengstorff park. It was a friendly pick up game with a group of nice guys on Saturday morning. Nothing serious. A big guy drove towards the basketball hard, and I had position and set up to take a charge. He led with his right elbow (instead of the shoulder typically), and jammed his elbow straight through my lips into my teeth. After the initial "oh shit" reaction, and dripping blood on the court, I went to my dentist, got sewn up, and had some stabilization braces inserted into my mouth. Two teeth were almost knocked clean out. The estimated out-of-pocket bill was $10k.

Turned out ok. Was researching everything, including a medical vacation to Thailand for treatment. But the teeth survived, and it turned out fine. Same goes for the car. It'll be about $3500 to fix I reckon, and so be it. If I didn't have the money to fix it, well, I guess I'd have to sell it as is and get a cheaper car.

Guess the point of these personal anecdotes is simple. Take things in stride. Life can surprise you, both in good ways and bad. Badass Gentlemen don't let themselves get too carried away in it. They just deal with the part that they can control.