What a fucking day.
Thing 1: I never do this because I pride myself on always being situationally aware. Against my better judgement, I was listening to a podcast on my way to work on the Metro. I’m so into this Dan Arielly podcast that as I walk through standing traffic from the metro to my office, I fail to pay attention while coming around the front end of the standing bus and get hit by a bike commuter who was coming between the parked cars and the bus. Neither one of us was hurt but it was my fault for being unaware of him or anything really. As an additional insult to injury, Dan was talking about when your day starts out bad, it sets you up for everything else going badly. That should have been my first clue.
Thing 2: I’m in a meeting and my phone start going off. It’s my son. Says it’s an emergency. I pick up and he tells me his car broke down on the way to work and all the oil on the inside of the engine is now on the outside and on the ground. So I’m at work. He’s got to get to work. So we’re arranging for a tow and I’m sure the bill will be astronomical for the tow and repair.
Thing 3: Stephen Hawking, RIP.
Hate to break it to you but the car may not be repairable, short of a new engine. Hope you have an honest mechanic you can trust.
Well, that would be the perfect ending to the day. 
We had a blown head gasket last year and wound up just donating the car. I wish we had replaced the engine rather than buy a replacement. Good luck.
Ouch, QuickSilver, that is a rough day! My guess on the car is that best case, it lost an oil seal - may be repairable depending on how much damage was done by running it low on oil. Worst case is a thrown rod, which means the engine is junk.
Was the cyclist obeying the rules of the road and you were jaywalking? In Chicago, the vast majority of cyclists are jerks and don’t believe any rules apply to them.
Ditto for New York… cyclists, taxis and anyone else on the road.
Update: He must have bottomed out on something. It’s a cracked oil pan. No engine damage (phew!)
Re the cyclist: Like I said, it was my fault for j-walking and not looking.
So, his car didn’t “break down” so much as he broke it? Sounds like something my son would do!
Yes and no. In all fairness, this is the second time I’ve replaced the oil pan on that car. I cracked the original but it didn’t strand me because it was only a slow dripping crack that was diagnosed during a regular service. The car is built low from the manufacturer and some years ago I added a Neuspeed suspension and did a brake upgrade. I’ve regretted, and paid for, the decision ever since.
The engine still pulls like a champ and the compression is very good. Still running on the original clutch. It was my daily commuter car and I might put the suspension back to factory and continue commuting in it when he goes off to the Navy.
Anyway, just glad it’s an easy repair and not scrap.
I’m glad everything worked out OK! Well, except Stephen Hawking. But, you know, everything else.