THE LAST FIVE ...

Closing up shop
- Wednesday, Aug. 02, 2006

It may be time for a change
- Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Entry in the air
- Friday, April 21, 2006

Still here
- Thursday, April 20, 2006

Music of the moment
- Wednesday, March 1, 2006

Or ... BE RANDOM!


GOOD READS

101 in 1001
American Road Trip, 1998


OTHER PEOPLE

Chupatintas
Dancing Brave
Fugging It Up
Kitty Sandwich
Mister Zero
Sideways Rain
Ultratart
Velcrometer


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Monday, Jul. 01, 2002 - 8:48 p.m.

If only my car were as indestructable as K.I.T.T.

I need to get my car looked at.

I think it has a bull's eye on it.

Birds seem to find it during their fly-over shits, because I park it in a parking lot with no trees anywere. I ran into the problem with the window a few weeks ago (the driver's side wouldn't close and required a new regulator, at a prohibitive cost), and the trip to the dealership for the repair uncovered two other needed repairs -- one the fan belt, the other an expensive replacement of the intake manifold gaskets. Those, apparently, are a problem on all Pontiac Grand Ams, and for various reasons, the part wasn't available. It was on national backorder. Until Friday, when my mechanic -- no more of this dealership crap, with the outrageous labor costs, now that my warranty has run out -- finally received the part. He won't be able replace it until I return from my vacation (and he assured me my current intake manifold gaskets will hold out), but at least he's got the part. The thing is, he showed it to me, and it looks like one of the plastic pieces you use in assembling a model car. And it's going to cost several hundred dollars to fix.

But that's not all. No. On Friday, while leaving the Lakewood ballpark (where I should've been staying for the game) to return to the office to work on the desk, I manage to get hit by an idiot in an completely empty section of the parking lot. I saw him pull in, far ahead of me, as I'm leaving to exit the lot. I'm driving along one of the designated lanes, not across any parking spaces or white lines or anything. He pulls in, and I figure he's going to stay there. Or, at least, that he sees me, the only moving car within 500 feet. But as I pass, I hear and feel the bump and my car jolts. The teenage parking attendant nearby looks, I stop and get out and look at a gray-haired 40- or 50-year-old man who says, "I didn't even see you." Well, maybe if you looked, bonehead.

Problem is, his stunt scratched up the fiberglass of the right rear corner of my bumper (between the rear wheel and the end of the car; two more feet and I would've been clear), so that's not easily buffed out, nor will it be easily straightened (there's a slight dent in it). I went to a body shop today, and they said they can fix the scratch, for the most part, and maybe ease the dent (though not completely erase it) for about $390 plus tax. That guy's gonna pay, because I know he'd rather keep the insurance out of it, this being New Jersey.

AND, today as I'm leaving Edgewater and driving along Route 5, I see a cable truck come around the S-curve on one section of the road. All of a sudden, things start falling off of it, bouncing on the pavement and rolling into my lane. As I brake and approach them, I realize they're cable boxes, six or seven of them. Somehow, I manage to stop and avoid them all, though I'm sure one came to rest under my car. I was bracing for the impact, and a likely ding in my driver's side door. Miraculously, none hit my car, and as I look back in the rear-view mirror, I see that the Jeep behind me ran over one in an unsuccessful attempt at the slalom.

But now I feel all the bad luck is in the past, and we'll have an uneventful trip out west. Hopefully, when I return and get the gaskets replaced and (hopefully) the bumper fixed without too much hassle, everything else will start to pick up.

^ ^ ^

Hey, you there across the country. I'm thinking about you. I don't know what else to say, and I'm not sure anything I could say would help, so just know I'm thinking about you.

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