(Untitled)

[kishiriadgr]

As americanstd mentioned, yeah, we had a bit of an accident today while I was driving. Nothing major; I was backing out of a parking space and there was a very, very high tree truck behind me. I was watching out the driver's side window for incoming traffic (this is the Carl's Jr/Green Burrito in the Linda Vista/Morena/Napa triangle so there's that traffic

Comments

[taxlady]

Bummer, sorry to hear about the fender bender, though it was actually window cruncher. That's why I always back into parking spaces (unless I can go straight through to the one on the other side and can still be "nose out"). It's just too hard to see properly when backing up. You want to do the backing up when it's easy, i.e., into the parking space - nothing is hiding or moving behind you. If you look, you'll notice that truck drivers always do this.

The other thing that makes backing up easier and safer, is to put your right arm on the back of the passenger seat and look out through the rear window. If you can raise yourself a bit with your left foot, that's even better. Control the car using only the brakes (okay, that get's tricky in a standard, but it works find with automatic). Also, when looking out through the rear window, make sure you can also see out both rear passenger windows. Apparently, in Quebec, it is legal to undo your seatbelt for backing up, as this makes it easier to properly see what is going on behind you.

[kishiriadgr]

I think I'm going to utilize these hints from now on, although I'm not sure about the seat belt law here. I'm a bit leery about backing into spaces since a lot of vehicles here are huge, high, and have trailer or boat hitches which can lead to the same problem as I had yesterday, though not on as traumatic a scale.

[electorprince]

Run a search on "Cathars" in amazon.com's Books section. I just pulled up about a dozen. Sadly, the best of them seem to be out of print, so it's a matter of hunting them down (ironic when discussing Cathars). A concurrent search under "Albigensians" led to some more.

[kishiriadgr]

Yes, but how good are the in-print ones, as opposed to being related to the "Da Vinci Code" craze? I ran into that problem when I was researching Black Virgins. The best-known work on them is New Age twaddle.

[kishiriadgr]

Just checked...most of these came out in the 21st century and I did my research in the last decade of the 20th, so obviously there was a surge in interest in the Cathars a few years back. Some of them are twaddle but some of them look damn interesting. Wishlist, ho!