My car is no more. Rest in peace, Bonneville.

The story thus far

Imagine my suprise this morning when I read that forte, meaning “something in which one excels,” is properly pronounced with a single syllable, as ‘fort.’ As you know, I am irked when double-syllabled words are pronounced with a single syllable; in this case, it appears that the opposite is true. I had always assumed that the musical forte, meaning ‘loud,’ was pronounced the same as the ‘has great talent’ forte. I was mistaken: the adjective/adverb (musical) form hails from Italian, whereas the noun form emigrated from French. Fear not: according to Dictionary.com, the two-syllabled elocution is fast becoming the norm. The editors go so far as to warn that the speaker risks listener confusion if the single-syllable rendering is used. Ah, progress.

Thursday night, Minnesota played Michigan in the 2002 Men’s Frozen Four semifinals. I got together with some of my Brothers from Michigan, and we watched the game. The evening ended in Minnesota’s favor, much to my delight. Thanks to an upset earlier in the day over New Hampshire, Maine was set to play Minnesota in the Championship game. I really wanted to go to the Championship game, as I would be home in time for the start and it was being played at the Xcel Center. Unfortunately, the scalpers’ prices were too high for my taste, so I find myself “watching” the game via the internet – watching the score ticker, that is. The game just went into the overtime period (score: 3-3). Depending on how fast I type, I might append the result to the bottom of this entry.

As I mentioned in my previous post, my need for speed was revived by the ride in the Firehawk. Naturally unsatisfied with the status quo, I went looking for something that could outdo the beautiful red Trans Am. I found my answer in the Suzuki GSX1300R Hayabusa, one of the world’s most powerful production motorcycles.

The Hayabusa is propelled by an inline-four pushing 160 h.p. to the wheel! This immense power (more than my first car) lets the Hayabusa run to 60 in about 2.2s, blast through the quarter in under 10s, and reach a 200 mph terminal velocity. In other words: wow. Any car, save for the 833 h.p. Hennessey Viper, would be demolished by the Hayabusa.

I mentioned my newfound affection for the Hayabusa to my friend Eric. In response, Eric mentioned that a Maple Grove Senior High student had been killed the week prior on a motorcycle, though he did not know the victim’s name. Immediately, I worried that my friend Kyle (a.k.a. Jake) had been involved, as he was the only person I knew at MGSH that rode a bike. I went over to the Star Tribune, did a search, and… well… found that my suspision wasn’t entirely true: Richard Des Marais passed away as a result of a motorcycle accident near the intersection of Bass Lake Road and Interstate 494 (it involved the guard rail, and yes, he was wearing a helmet). Richard was Kyle’s brother, and as such, I had a casual acquaintance with him. If you look close enough at the photos on JakeandtheFatMan.com, you can find a photo from a LAN party that has him and me in frame. Life is short, enjoy every second of it.

Well, the post is done, but the Gophers game is still going. According to my score ticker, the Gophers just got a Power Play goal, giving them a 4-3 advantage. The Gophers won! Duffman says, “Oh yeah!”