This morning, we headed off to Hertz to rent a car to hold us through the duration. Since we’re paying for the car out of our own pockets, I wanted to get something inexpensive, and $23/day seemed like a tolerable price, even if the car was a Chevy Cavalier.

Wrong!

I’m not sure I’ve ever driven such an unpleasant car — the seat doesn’t quite go up all the way, the steering wheel seems to be at a slight angle, the seatback is lumpy — in short, the car is a piece of junk. I don’t know if this is a typical Cavalier or if it’s been specially mistreated by previous renters, but I’m getting rid of it as quickly as I can (with any luck, tomorrow morning). Paying a few bucks more every day will be worth it, though I hope it won’t be for very long.

On a different note, I also called Toyota to ask why the side airbag didn’t inflate; they said that it’s basically there to protect against impact into the B-pillar (the one between the doors). The door itself is reinforced and foam-filled so that it’s able to absorb the impact of a vehicle hitting directly on the door, which is what happened in our case.

I haven’t heard from the insurance adjuster yet; I hope to hear tomorrow.

Diane and I have just finished collecting DNA samples to send to the Genographic Project. I found it very strange that the only information required when you send in a sample is a form stating what sex you are — I’d expect that to be obvious from the DNA. (The form is also the consent form to allow one’s DNA to be analyzed — it is an anonymous consent form, which, itself, is an interesting concept.)

The collection process is very simple — you use a swab to take a little tissue from your cheek. And then eight or more hours later, you do it again (I chose to use the other cheek :-)) to make it more likely to get a good sample.

Then you put the samples in the mail, and in a few weeks, you check the website, input your random id (Diane’s and mine differ significantly, even though our kits arrived in the same mailing box, so there is a good deal of randomness in the assignment), get the results, and the opportunity to contribute your data in the aggregated results the project is creating.

The most painful part was paying for the kit!