So, I bought a new car. A gleaming, brand new black-on-black-on-black 2006 Honda Element Ex (4wd).

I promptly named it "Adventure Galley" after the peculiar, boxy, but effective ship of Captain Kidd - a man unfairly tarred by the brush of history as a pirate, though he was in fact honorable and a pirate-hunter. He just had collosally bad luck, you see?

I theorize that the fates love a good laugh, and don't much care for pirates. Because on the maiden voyage of the Adventure Galley - meaning, driving home from the dealership, I got in an accident. An SUV on the 101 came to a sudden and irrational stop in the middle of traffic. I slammed on the breaks, but wasn't able to come to a halt. At first I thought no damage was done at all - it certainly appeared that it was just a very slow bump, and no harm, no foul. But we pulled over, and there was a small, perhaps 1/4" dent on my front bumper, and about the same size dent on the other car's rear bumper. We exchanged information. This was Saturday.

Yesterday, I noticed that the Adventure Galley was leaking coolant. With some concern, I took her in to the dealership this morning - right after finding out that my contracting payroll company didn't pay me for the last two weeks, and has shorted me for over 108 hours since I started. I left the car, and waited to hear back from them.

They want over $1500.00 to fix her. I choked. WARRANTY! says I. But they claim it was the collision. Crap. So I call the insurance company, who agree that the car is covered even though it wasn't on my policy yet. However, after hearing about the very small body-damage, they say that the adjustor will probably rule that the damage is not caused by the collision, and they won't pay for the repairs.

So, the dealership says it's not a mechanical fault of the car, and the insurance company says that it's not the collision - so neither one of them will fix my car, which was apparently, despite all evidence to the contrary, spontaneously wounded with some sort of automotive stigmata - not covered by either warranty or insurance!

I should have known better to name her after Captain Kidd's ship. And so, I give you the new name of my livejournal...

Captain Kidd Karma.