Welcome to twenty-ten.
I’ve spent most of this year so far, messing with my Mac and trying to get simple everyday things like NFS mounts to work and show up in the Finder. And then there’s the iTunes fun; that is a slow-ass program with a crappy interface. Importing my remote share of music made everything cry.
I’m back and mostly recuperated from the four day weekend spent in Vegas. It was pretty warm but I wore jeans for most of it. I dragged Erica to the place she hates most for Eric and Sayori’s American wedding.
The ceremony at the Bellagio was short and nice but the best part was the surprise video from Sayori’s friends in Japan. Their group karaoke was awesome.
The bad part of the weekend, as always, was the toxic cloud of cigarette smoke.
Oops this was left as a draft for over a week.
The soon-to-be-sister-in-law flew down on Saturday to pick out bridesmaid’s dresses. We reserved a Zipcar to drive out to SFO to pick her up. The available ride was a Mini Cooper. Things were going peachy keen until the ride back.
The car’s “starting to get hot” light was occasionally flashing on the way back so I was trying to keep it slow and not work the engine too hard.
This was not enough, we got onto the Bay Bridge and shit went downhill quickly. First, the red version of the temp light came on, which is a pull over and cool down indicator. Then the OIL! light showed itself. This was followed by the burning oil smell and grinding sounds of an engine intent on destroying itself and I had just reached the halfway point of the bridge; Treasure Island.
30 mph with the hazard lights flashing is no way to cross the Bay’s largest bridge son.
I was finally able to limp off the bridge and pull over somewhere relatively safe. I called Zipcar and had them send out a tow truck. A friendly moto-cop pulled up and informed me that said towtruck would not be able to reach me as this was a restricted highway. He told me he had called for a CalTrans truck as they were the only people able to drag the car elsewhere. They would only take me to a safer spot and I’d then be able to get towed “home”.
About an hour later the friendly CalTrans guy shows up and attempts to get the car all hooked up. This is where we run into “too-complicated-design syndrome”. I had stopped too close to the exit divider so the tow truck couldn’t get all the way in front of me. So the guy says “put it in neutral”. I cannot. The damn thing is just stuck in park. I try with and without the key, pressing on the break etc., it just won’t budge. Apparently this is a “safety feature’. To re-enable the transmission you have to remove the grommet from around the shifter, go into the emergency tire tool kit in the back, find a small h0ok/key thingy and then use said key to pull and unlock shifting mechanism. This has cemented my decision to never buy a Mini.
We get towed basically across the highway to the parking lot at the Toll Plaza. I call Zipcar again and they say they will arrange for a tow truck to come and get us. Many minutes pass by. Zipcar calls me back and says that the truck will be there in “no more than 45 minutes” and will tow the car to a mechanic in SF. That’s great except that I’m trying to get back to Oakland. They tell me to call a cab and they’ll reimburse me. Great.
The truck shows up after 50 minutes. I call a cab and (this is the best part of the day) there will be one arriving in 15 minutes. Things are going pretty well now except that the truck driver doesn’t know the address for the car’s destination. I don’t know that either, it’s not my car and I’m beyond caring for it. I call Zipcar again (again again again) and have them tell the guy the address. He aways with the busted mini and we are left stuck on Highway 80 at 8:30pm on cold windy night. The cab takes about 20 minutes to get there but he arrives and quickly whisks us the stupidly short ride home. Story ends.
Relaxing at home, eating pizza I get a call from the tow truck company telling me that there isn’t a parking lot at the address they were given. I end up calling Zipcar a final time and tell them to deal with this. The zipcar dude says OK and that he’ll call me back. I never hear from him again.
Fin.
So tonight, of course, the gym was practically dead and all the new equipment was open, if rearranged and tricky to find.
Crunch (my gym) had decided that today was a good day to get rid of some old equipment. This meant the were no elliptical machines, a few less flat benches and only one, instead of three, benchpress spots. Just the sort of thing to have on your busiest evening.
Yay.
This stopped me from moving me bench to weight ratio past even. Booo.
It’s pretty tough.
33
Lots of bart cops on BART tonight.
umm btw, we’re ok. Though Erica was scared walking home with all the police and helicopters and stuff around. :(
A picture of the sparse dining room.
