History of the Flamie

Here is an abbreviated history of why this blog (and many other things of mine) are called Flamie: Near the end of December 2005, if memory serves, I got a new car. It was purchased from our family mechanic's son. My Mom and I went to check out the car at the shop and I think the first thing we noticed was that this nice little white car had huge black flames down the side, dark tint, and a spoiler. Well, we ended up buying the car because aside from the incredible flames, it was in good condition and ran well. Pretty soon my Mom gave it a nickname: Flamie. Being who I am, I kinda loved the style of the car and the new nickname stuck. Also, since the car stood out so much, it was pretty memorable and easily recognized, so everyone soon knew its name and its association with me. Sadly Flamie met a premature end on dark, rainy day in Toronto. Rowan, Jen, Mark, and myself were heading to a party (I was at the wheel). Proceeding straight through an intersection on a green light, a mini van in the opposing traffic decided to make a left-hand turn in front of me. I knew we were going to crash about a second before it happened and hit the brakes, but Flamie hit the van dead on the side, almost a perfect T-bone. Thankfully since Flamie was mostly plastic and foam, and designed to crumple well, everyone escaped with only minor bumps and scrapes. This was the end of Flamie, as the entire front end was reduced to nearly half of its original size. Rest assured Flamie lives on, though just in different forms. The most notable being my laptop, which is called Flamie-Bot and has big red flames on its cover.