it's been a week since i sent my motorcycle to the shop. i was getting concerned that they never called me back, not even with an estimate, so i was going to get in touch with them today. luckily for me, they called me this morning with a surprise: they already fixed the bike! "the guys never seen a damage like that," the mechanic told me, "how the rear break pedal could bend like that without snapping off." i told him about my accident. he was surprised that i had some broken bones because the bike itself wasn't in too bad a shape. so the cost for blowtorching the break pedal back into position, re-aligning the handlebar, and a basic tuneup was $383 plus change. about twice what i thought it'd cost but less than what my father estimated.

since i still couldn't ride, i had to get my father to pick up the motorcycle. he had to wait for the weather to clear up because suddenly a sunny morning transformed into a dark day and the sky just opened up with a downpour. he finally got around to the bike shop (with the help of my sister) in the early afternoon and rode the bike back to belmont. inspecting the motorcycle, he said the handlebar still seemed off. i won't know until i see it for myself.

there was a report on the news about a crash in the NYC chinatown involving a fung wah bus. apparently an out-of-control garbage truck hit the back of the bus while it was stopped to pick up passengers, pushing the bus onto the sidewalk. a woman was killed when a street sign fell on her, causing a heart attack. the fung wah bus is notorious for safety violations, but this particular accident wasn't fung wah's fault. it is however the first time somebody has died in an accident that (indirectly) involves said bus company, which probably won't help with its already-tarnished reputation. but here's the thing: there's no cheaper way to travel between boston and NYC than these chinatown buses. at $15 a pop, it's still a steal (it used to be as low as $7 when they had an adjustable rate and the buses were much smaller). people who thumb their noses at fung wah and say they'd never ride it because of the various safety violations are elitist at best and perhaps closet racist at worst. let's talk about those safety issues. various speeding violations - i like the fact that the driver is trying to get me to my destination in the fastest time possible. that one time a bus tipped over? nobody died. the bus fire? freak accident. none of these problems are exclusive to chinatown buses. i think it's easier for people to say that they don't like fung wah because of safety concerns than to say they don't like it because the people who operate and ride it are dirty immigrants who can't speak english. what's safer than a bus on the road? they don't have seat belts because you don't need them. in a collision accident between a bus and another vehicle, chances are it's the other vehicle that's going to suffer more. maybe some people don't like the fact that they're not the VIP treatment they think that they deserve. fung wah isn't about holding your hand and sometimes they don't even honor reservations. but if you're riding a bus and demanding special treatment, maybe you should seek an alternative form of transportation. i see fung wah as the people's carrier, versus some of the other national bus companies like greyhound and peter pan, big corporations. it's because of the fung wah buses that those companies have reduced their ticket prices in order to stay competitive. say what you about fung wah, but its existence helps out all bus riders. and to see how a little underdog company run by immigrants who can hardly speak english rise up to challenge the big boys, that's a sight to behold.