Boom, boom, out go the lights

It's been a bit bumpy lately. Literally. My beloved 1997 Mazda Protege was brutally assaulted by an inattentive driver on the Rock Creek Parkway last week. Now the thing about a 1997 Mazda Protege is that although it would likely have been able to go on functioning for years to come with just minimum annual expenditures, the total monetary value of the car is not worth what it would cost to replace the airbags. So, given that my airbags did in fact deploy when I made impact with the, shall we say dimwit, my insurance company determined that it is time for Bartlebones to get a new car.

Crunch.

Now I wish it were so that I could use this opportunity to re-examine my life choices, reduce my carbon footprint and rearrange things so I used a bike instead of a car. But as it stands, I have yet to figure out how to get rid of my day job which for the time being is halfway around the Circumferential Highway. So, a shopping we will go.