My Week in Review
All I can say is "insanity."
Sunday March 2:
5 PM - I discovered that my car was hissing. Upon further inspection, I learned that it was the front right tire.
7 PM - I go outside and as expected, my tire is completely flat. Cannot drive to MCAS (Marist College Anime Society) on this. I pop open the trunk and take out the donut. I notice that there is no jack included, and remember that it's underneath my second seat. Lift seat, remove jack, assemble, rejoice. I jack up the car (that sounds filthy, but how else can it be worded), and return to the pit below my seat for the tire iron. It didn't take long to notice that the hex (the important part) of the iron was rusted through. Great.
8 PM - My landlord shows up to collect the rent for March. "Hey, wait!" I say to myself, "He drives a jeep also." So I borrow my landlord's non-rusty tire iron, and I remove the flat and apply the donut. 4 minutes, 12 seconds. It was not NASCAR time, heck, not even Busch League, but I was damn impressed. I bid farewell to Mr. Landlord and head inside to wash my hands.
8:15 PM - Armed with an apple, a bottle of Poland springs water, and a bag of grapes, I head out to my *ahem* repaired vehicle. As I move to get into my driver side door, some ice sneaks up on me [sneaky, sneaky]. I almost fell, but not quite. Casualties: about 12 grapes, no huge loss.
8:19 PM - My car is started and I am leaving my driveway. I am a little bit late for MCAS. I get about 12 meters from the mouth of my driveway and hear as well as experience what can only be described using comic book-esque onomatopoeia: "KA-THUNK KA-THUNKA KA-THUMMMPPPP . Depressed already about what I would probably find, I parked the car on the shoulder and walked around the front to my tire. Sure enough the spate tire is now equally flattened. Knowing that I have no spare tire for the spare tire, I back my now rim-riding vehicle into the driveway and park it again behind the house.
8:25 PM - I've never been called a quitter, and this was not going to be the first time. I dug my bike out of the mess of useless junk and toys or my upstairs neighbors. I struggle, but finally remember the combination to my bike lock. I put on some warmer clothing, put my food into a backpack, and I am off like a radiator in July.
8:30 PM - I get just past where my car failed, and breathe a sigh of relief. "Well, at least my bike has not gone flat," I think to myself. As I try to get off the road and onto the sidewalk, more misfortune found me. Traveling maybe 5 feet per second, I try to transition onto sidewalk. However, cold as it was, the moisture from the air must have laced the 1-inch gap with a layer of SUCK. My tire got attacked by the SUCK, and caused me to fall. My front tire slid to the left , and I continued forward. I hit the pavement face-first, and slid about three feet across the sidewalk's own layer of suck.
8:33 PM - My unistrap backpack had made its way over my shoulder and was now aside my head on the sidewalk. I pull it back into it's rightful position on my back, and stand up. Although the SUCK had caused my fall, I suppose it also saved me from major cuts and damage to my clothing from the fall.
8:35 PM - I try to get on the bike and continue my journey, but notice that my front handlebars are turned completely around [Not 180, a full 360 degrees]. This, unfortunately, had created too much tension on my front hand brake and it was now making permanent contact with my wheel. COOL!
8:39 PM - After fighting with the brake and refusing help from a Poughkeepsie Vagrant, I lose interest and totally disconnect the front brake. I am off.
8:52 PM - I made it to Marist without falling again. Wheee! Lacking a front brake was no detriment to my ride. If anything, it gave my rear brake a reason to make a cool "SQEeEeEeEeeEeEeEEeEeeeEeEeEeEeEeEeEeEEeeeEEeeEeeeEEEEEEE" sound whenever I tried to slow down for a stoplight or a hill. That was rocking.
8:54 PM - I am in the PAR just in time to catch the end of Episode 6 of Gasaraki. I told my story of my misfortune to Seamus and Carlo and Tom. The I ate my surviving grapes.
Monday March 3:
12:10 AM - Time to go home. MCAS is over. But wait, Tom has offered me a ride home. It was tricky, but by removing my front wheel, my bike just barely fit into the backset of Tom's Grand Am. Funny part of it was that Rick slid in and crouched on top of the seat so that he did not have to walk through the mean streets of Marist to get to his cushy Gartland Deluxe Suite.
12:20 AM - I unloaded my bike from Tom's car and thanked him for the taxi service. I reattached my front wheel, stowed my bike, and went inside the house.
10 AM - I woke up and got ready to ride my bike in to school. As I am about to go out the door, Glenn appears from the kitchen and says, "Hey, man, you sure you don't want a ride to school?" SCORE! I caught a ride in and went to class.
5 PM - After a day of One class, followed by a few hours of "working" on campus, I was ready to go home. Problem was, I had no ride; Glenn works until 6, Dave had class, and Rob was going to study with Carlo for a midterm. I decided I would wait for Glenn. To kill time, I challenged Krod to a battle in the mighty game known as Bushido Blade.
5:15 PM - What is this? There is no Bushido Blade to be played, instead, Rob, Carlo, Luke, and Krod are hitting up Yeung Ho II for some food. I tag along.
5:50 PM - By the time we got back, it was just about 6. I left B6 and headed to the ResNet office to meet my chauffeur.
7:30 PM - After getting home, then making and subsequently eating some food, it was time to get back to my car's issues. Glenn took me and my original flat tire to the gas station. We filled the tire and quickly came back home. In the kitchen I was able to locate the villainous hole in my tire and mark it with both chalk and permanent marker. Glenn introduced me to his can of tire-sealing air. It was much like the traditional Can-O-Air that we use to clean out keyboards (as well as freeze foods until they shatter. If you haven't tried it, you're missing out) except this air can had a threaded cap and came in the form of foam. It did the trick, my tire stopped hissing at me and actually did its job and retained air. Only problem now, I can't reattach this tire with my current tire iron situation.
8:15 PM - My search for a socket set is fruitless. I call home to see when someone is coming to Poughkeepsie next and could possibly deliver one to me. My Dad refused to let me wait and insisted that he come out immediately. Who was I to argue.
9:15 PM - My dad shows up and hands me a 4-way tire iron and says it's a gift from K-Mart. I put it to use.
9:20 PM - The tire is on. Now that the car is down off the jack, the tire does not look as firm as it did while not supporting weight. Dad, in the meantime, asks why my the interior of my windshield is coated in SUC....er, frost. I have no clue. He pops the hood to check for an antifreeze leak. Nope, antifreeze seems to be intact. HOWEVER, two of my fuel injectors are pouring out gasoline. That explains why I smelled gas while my car was idling for the past month. What he pointed out was, aside from the fumes and the loss in gas mileage, that it was dripping right above my exhaust manifold. Hooray!
9:30 - I drive to the Mobil station as he follows. I inflate the tire to its capacity, and listen for hissing. There is none. WHEEEE! Dad heads home, and I rejoice.
Tuesday March 4:
4:00 PM - I should be in Japanese class right now, but I declared today my monthly skip-day. ::phone rings:: "Hey, it's Dad, bring your car back here Thursday night. I'll give you a ride back out to Poughkeepsie. The car is getting looked at on Friday." I have no qualms with the plan, so I accept.
Thursday March 6:
10:50 AM - I am awakened my Glenn. "Yo, man, aren't you going to class?" I get up to notice that my alarm is turned off. One of three things must have happened: 1.) I forgot to turn on the alarm when I set it to ring at 10:15. 2.) I woke up at 10:15 AM and turned off the alarm, then 35 minutes later had no recollection of it. 3.) Elves.
11 AM - I look outside and see that it has snowed a lot and my road had yet to be plowed. I E-Mail my professor and say that the roads are bad and I am not coming in.
12:15 PM - I am awake now. I drive in to Marist to go to work. Yeah, the roads are bad, but I have Four-Wheel Drive. Besides, when weather is bad and Marist closes its offices, hourly workers still get paid for the rest of their usual shift.
2 PM - Marist closes its offices and sends me home. Darn. I just hate getting paid for work that I don't actually do.
5 PM - The snow has not let up yet, there's no way I am going to drive to Wingdale now. If I did, my family would have scolded me and made me stay there for the night. Fat chance.
Friday March 7:
6:30 AM - I have not gotten out of bed at 6:30 for over a year. It really IS as bad as advertised.
7:30 AM - I am ready to make the trek. I have $7.00 in rolled nickels and dimes to buy some gas on the way. DAMN, it's so cold this early in the morning. I go back inside and add a hoodie to my apparel as added defense from the cold.
7:45 AM - I have gassed up the car and go in to pay. I have my hood over my head, my jacket zipped up, and am wearing gloves. The cashier says, "You look like you're ready to go to New Jersey."
...
HUH!?!?!?!?! What, did I miss something? Did New Jersey become the Cold Capital of the world? Alaska, Canada, Antarctica, all acceptable places known for cold climate, but New Fricking Jersey?
This confuses me even now, but it was echoing through my head all day Friday.
7:50 AM - Now that my head hurts from thinking about New Jersey too much, I realize how much I also hate rush hour.
8:30 AM - I am at the Garage, and my sister is supposed to pick me up and bring me back to Poughkeepsie.
8:40 AM - I get concerned and page her on the Nextel. She's a few minutes away.
8:50 AM - She drives up and asks me to scrape the windows for her. ::sigh:: I comply, and soon enough we are on the way.
9:10 AM - Her car is out of windshield washer fluid, so this is the first of many times that we need to stop and throw snow on the window to clean off the mess of sand and road salt thrown up by other drivers.
9:30 AM - Nicole stops at Dunkin Donuts to get breakfast. I can't complain, I got a free bagel out of it. Screw that cream cheese garbage, I ate mine raw.
9:52 AM - We approach Innis Avenue, this is where my sister usually turns to get to her College. She reminds me that she has class at 10 and is running late. She guilt-trips me into walking the rest of the way. I figured it was maybe another mile to my road.
10:08 AM - It occurs to me that the span between Innis and N. Hamilton is greater than I thought. The unshoveled sidewalks really don't help.
10:18 AM - I am home. Phew. I grab a drink and drop a cereal bar into my pocket. It's too icy still to ride my bike, so it looks like I have to walk to work now, I decide not to take my software and boot disks et cetera with me.
10:28 AM - Walking to Marist, I do know will take me about 25 minutes. I should be on time.
10:58 AM - Again, the unshoveled sidewalks hinder my progress, but I have made it. I clock in 2 minutes early.
5:20 PM - I got caught up in work and did not feel like leaving it until Monday. I stayed late to finish up my projects. This was a mistake because any potential rides had gone home by the time I was done.
5:50 PM - I am now home. I had to walk again. My legs hurt from so much walking. At least it warmed up a bit during the day. A few minutes later Dad called and says that he and Mom are bringing me my car. Finally, some good has come of the day.
7:20 PM - My parents deliver my car to me along with a bill, some canned food, and two new shirts. I liked getting the food and clothing, but paying so much money to have my fuel injectors replaced was a disappointment.
7:40 PM - I drive to work at The Loft. It's only two blocks away, so walking would not have been so bad, but as sore as I was feeling now, driving was a blessing.
Saturday March 8:
Rob was here hanging out for most of the afternoon. We made a trip to the mall where I picked up FLCL DVD #2. Also, I found Bomberman Party Edition for PS1 and a Multitap (for $10 used. It ruled). I came back in time for the party here at my house. It was initially to be a Marist Ski Team Party, but then it was turned into a "Ski Team + lots more people" party. Rosanne picked up a 1/4 keg of Busch, and I got cups on my way home. Krod and Matt from B6 were the first guests to arrive. The party went well and Glenn lost to Krod in Beirut, a stigma for which he is still chastised even now. Later in the night Seamus showed up and began schooling everyone in the drinking game. Carlo and Luke showed up even later into the night with his crazy friend Will. This kid was hysterical as he tried to pick up chicks (of which there were many; far more than there are at a typical 5 Orchard party) by saying "Do you wan to play uno with me?" I don't think a single girl played with him, at which he said, "Aww, you paaty poopaa, come on." This gets my award for funny random event of the night.
I was really tired at about 2:30 and went to bed. I hear that later in the night, Seamus had to beat Glenn in Beirut just to win back the keys of a sober driver so that she could go home.
Sunday March 9:
I woke up to find Makeoutmusic stickers all over my house. There was no doubt in my mind that Steve and his band went to work on this project after I went to sleep. Luckily, Steve is poor and had cheap stickers made, so they peeled off easily. I just chillaxed all day. It rocked.
Monday March 10:
There's no heat in my house. This is like, the 15th time since Thanksgiving. It really annoys me.
Sunday March 2:
5 PM - I discovered that my car was hissing. Upon further inspection, I learned that it was the front right tire.
7 PM - I go outside and as expected, my tire is completely flat. Cannot drive to MCAS (Marist College Anime Society) on this. I pop open the trunk and take out the donut. I notice that there is no jack included, and remember that it's underneath my second seat. Lift seat, remove jack, assemble, rejoice. I jack up the car (that sounds filthy, but how else can it be worded), and return to the pit below my seat for the tire iron. It didn't take long to notice that the hex (the important part) of the iron was rusted through. Great.
8 PM - My landlord shows up to collect the rent for March. "Hey, wait!" I say to myself, "He drives a jeep also." So I borrow my landlord's non-rusty tire iron, and I remove the flat and apply the donut. 4 minutes, 12 seconds. It was not NASCAR time, heck, not even Busch League, but I was damn impressed. I bid farewell to Mr. Landlord and head inside to wash my hands.
8:15 PM - Armed with an apple, a bottle of Poland springs water, and a bag of grapes, I head out to my *ahem* repaired vehicle. As I move to get into my driver side door, some ice sneaks up on me [sneaky, sneaky]. I almost fell, but not quite. Casualties: about 12 grapes, no huge loss.
8:19 PM - My car is started and I am leaving my driveway. I am a little bit late for MCAS. I get about 12 meters from the mouth of my driveway and hear as well as experience what can only be described using comic book-esque onomatopoeia: "KA-THUNK KA-THUNKA KA-THUMMMPPPP . Depressed already about what I would probably find, I parked the car on the shoulder and walked around the front to my tire. Sure enough the spate tire is now equally flattened. Knowing that I have no spare tire for the spare tire, I back my now rim-riding vehicle into the driveway and park it again behind the house.
8:25 PM - I've never been called a quitter, and this was not going to be the first time. I dug my bike out of the mess of useless junk and toys or my upstairs neighbors. I struggle, but finally remember the combination to my bike lock. I put on some warmer clothing, put my food into a backpack, and I am off like a radiator in July.
8:30 PM - I get just past where my car failed, and breathe a sigh of relief. "Well, at least my bike has not gone flat," I think to myself. As I try to get off the road and onto the sidewalk, more misfortune found me. Traveling maybe 5 feet per second, I try to transition onto sidewalk. However, cold as it was, the moisture from the air must have laced the 1-inch gap with a layer of SUCK. My tire got attacked by the SUCK, and caused me to fall. My front tire slid to the left , and I continued forward. I hit the pavement face-first, and slid about three feet across the sidewalk's own layer of suck.
8:33 PM - My unistrap backpack had made its way over my shoulder and was now aside my head on the sidewalk. I pull it back into it's rightful position on my back, and stand up. Although the SUCK had caused my fall, I suppose it also saved me from major cuts and damage to my clothing from the fall.
8:35 PM - I try to get on the bike and continue my journey, but notice that my front handlebars are turned completely around [Not 180, a full 360 degrees]. This, unfortunately, had created too much tension on my front hand brake and it was now making permanent contact with my wheel. COOL!
8:39 PM - After fighting with the brake and refusing help from a Poughkeepsie Vagrant, I lose interest and totally disconnect the front brake. I am off.
8:52 PM - I made it to Marist without falling again. Wheee! Lacking a front brake was no detriment to my ride. If anything, it gave my rear brake a reason to make a cool "SQEeEeEeEeeEeEeEEeEeeeEeEeEeEeEeEeEeEEeeeEEeeEeeeEEEEEEE" sound whenever I tried to slow down for a stoplight or a hill. That was rocking.
8:54 PM - I am in the PAR just in time to catch the end of Episode 6 of Gasaraki. I told my story of my misfortune to Seamus and Carlo and Tom. The I ate my surviving grapes.
Monday March 3:
12:10 AM - Time to go home. MCAS is over. But wait, Tom has offered me a ride home. It was tricky, but by removing my front wheel, my bike just barely fit into the backset of Tom's Grand Am. Funny part of it was that Rick slid in and crouched on top of the seat so that he did not have to walk through the mean streets of Marist to get to his cushy Gartland Deluxe Suite.
12:20 AM - I unloaded my bike from Tom's car and thanked him for the taxi service. I reattached my front wheel, stowed my bike, and went inside the house.
10 AM - I woke up and got ready to ride my bike in to school. As I am about to go out the door, Glenn appears from the kitchen and says, "Hey, man, you sure you don't want a ride to school?" SCORE! I caught a ride in and went to class.
5 PM - After a day of One class, followed by a few hours of "working" on campus, I was ready to go home. Problem was, I had no ride; Glenn works until 6, Dave had class, and Rob was going to study with Carlo for a midterm. I decided I would wait for Glenn. To kill time, I challenged Krod to a battle in the mighty game known as Bushido Blade.
5:15 PM - What is this? There is no Bushido Blade to be played, instead, Rob, Carlo, Luke, and Krod are hitting up Yeung Ho II for some food. I tag along.
5:50 PM - By the time we got back, it was just about 6. I left B6 and headed to the ResNet office to meet my chauffeur.
7:30 PM - After getting home, then making and subsequently eating some food, it was time to get back to my car's issues. Glenn took me and my original flat tire to the gas station. We filled the tire and quickly came back home. In the kitchen I was able to locate the villainous hole in my tire and mark it with both chalk and permanent marker. Glenn introduced me to his can of tire-sealing air. It was much like the traditional Can-O-Air that we use to clean out keyboards (as well as freeze foods until they shatter. If you haven't tried it, you're missing out) except this air can had a threaded cap and came in the form of foam. It did the trick, my tire stopped hissing at me and actually did its job and retained air. Only problem now, I can't reattach this tire with my current tire iron situation.
8:15 PM - My search for a socket set is fruitless. I call home to see when someone is coming to Poughkeepsie next and could possibly deliver one to me. My Dad refused to let me wait and insisted that he come out immediately. Who was I to argue.
9:15 PM - My dad shows up and hands me a 4-way tire iron and says it's a gift from K-Mart. I put it to use.
9:20 PM - The tire is on. Now that the car is down off the jack, the tire does not look as firm as it did while not supporting weight. Dad, in the meantime, asks why my the interior of my windshield is coated in SUC....er, frost. I have no clue. He pops the hood to check for an antifreeze leak. Nope, antifreeze seems to be intact. HOWEVER, two of my fuel injectors are pouring out gasoline. That explains why I smelled gas while my car was idling for the past month. What he pointed out was, aside from the fumes and the loss in gas mileage, that it was dripping right above my exhaust manifold. Hooray!
9:30 - I drive to the Mobil station as he follows. I inflate the tire to its capacity, and listen for hissing. There is none. WHEEEE! Dad heads home, and I rejoice.
Tuesday March 4:
4:00 PM - I should be in Japanese class right now, but I declared today my monthly skip-day. ::phone rings:: "Hey, it's Dad, bring your car back here Thursday night. I'll give you a ride back out to Poughkeepsie. The car is getting looked at on Friday." I have no qualms with the plan, so I accept.
Thursday March 6:
10:50 AM - I am awakened my Glenn. "Yo, man, aren't you going to class?" I get up to notice that my alarm is turned off. One of three things must have happened: 1.) I forgot to turn on the alarm when I set it to ring at 10:15. 2.) I woke up at 10:15 AM and turned off the alarm, then 35 minutes later had no recollection of it. 3.) Elves.
11 AM - I look outside and see that it has snowed a lot and my road had yet to be plowed. I E-Mail my professor and say that the roads are bad and I am not coming in.
12:15 PM - I am awake now. I drive in to Marist to go to work. Yeah, the roads are bad, but I have Four-Wheel Drive. Besides, when weather is bad and Marist closes its offices, hourly workers still get paid for the rest of their usual shift.
2 PM - Marist closes its offices and sends me home. Darn. I just hate getting paid for work that I don't actually do.
5 PM - The snow has not let up yet, there's no way I am going to drive to Wingdale now. If I did, my family would have scolded me and made me stay there for the night. Fat chance.
Friday March 7:
6:30 AM - I have not gotten out of bed at 6:30 for over a year. It really IS as bad as advertised.
7:30 AM - I am ready to make the trek. I have $7.00 in rolled nickels and dimes to buy some gas on the way. DAMN, it's so cold this early in the morning. I go back inside and add a hoodie to my apparel as added defense from the cold.
7:45 AM - I have gassed up the car and go in to pay. I have my hood over my head, my jacket zipped up, and am wearing gloves. The cashier says, "You look like you're ready to go to New Jersey."
...
HUH!?!?!?!?! What, did I miss something? Did New Jersey become the Cold Capital of the world? Alaska, Canada, Antarctica, all acceptable places known for cold climate, but New Fricking Jersey?
This confuses me even now, but it was echoing through my head all day Friday.
7:50 AM - Now that my head hurts from thinking about New Jersey too much, I realize how much I also hate rush hour.
8:30 AM - I am at the Garage, and my sister is supposed to pick me up and bring me back to Poughkeepsie.
8:40 AM - I get concerned and page her on the Nextel. She's a few minutes away.
8:50 AM - She drives up and asks me to scrape the windows for her. ::sigh:: I comply, and soon enough we are on the way.
9:10 AM - Her car is out of windshield washer fluid, so this is the first of many times that we need to stop and throw snow on the window to clean off the mess of sand and road salt thrown up by other drivers.
9:30 AM - Nicole stops at Dunkin Donuts to get breakfast. I can't complain, I got a free bagel out of it. Screw that cream cheese garbage, I ate mine raw.
9:52 AM - We approach Innis Avenue, this is where my sister usually turns to get to her College. She reminds me that she has class at 10 and is running late. She guilt-trips me into walking the rest of the way. I figured it was maybe another mile to my road.
10:08 AM - It occurs to me that the span between Innis and N. Hamilton is greater than I thought. The unshoveled sidewalks really don't help.
10:18 AM - I am home. Phew. I grab a drink and drop a cereal bar into my pocket. It's too icy still to ride my bike, so it looks like I have to walk to work now, I decide not to take my software and boot disks et cetera with me.
10:28 AM - Walking to Marist, I do know will take me about 25 minutes. I should be on time.
10:58 AM - Again, the unshoveled sidewalks hinder my progress, but I have made it. I clock in 2 minutes early.
5:20 PM - I got caught up in work and did not feel like leaving it until Monday. I stayed late to finish up my projects. This was a mistake because any potential rides had gone home by the time I was done.
5:50 PM - I am now home. I had to walk again. My legs hurt from so much walking. At least it warmed up a bit during the day. A few minutes later Dad called and says that he and Mom are bringing me my car. Finally, some good has come of the day.
7:20 PM - My parents deliver my car to me along with a bill, some canned food, and two new shirts. I liked getting the food and clothing, but paying so much money to have my fuel injectors replaced was a disappointment.
7:40 PM - I drive to work at The Loft. It's only two blocks away, so walking would not have been so bad, but as sore as I was feeling now, driving was a blessing.
Saturday March 8:
Rob was here hanging out for most of the afternoon. We made a trip to the mall where I picked up FLCL DVD #2. Also, I found Bomberman Party Edition for PS1 and a Multitap (for $10 used. It ruled). I came back in time for the party here at my house. It was initially to be a Marist Ski Team Party, but then it was turned into a "Ski Team + lots more people" party. Rosanne picked up a 1/4 keg of Busch, and I got cups on my way home. Krod and Matt from B6 were the first guests to arrive. The party went well and Glenn lost to Krod in Beirut, a stigma for which he is still chastised even now. Later in the night Seamus showed up and began schooling everyone in the drinking game. Carlo and Luke showed up even later into the night with his crazy friend Will. This kid was hysterical as he tried to pick up chicks (of which there were many; far more than there are at a typical 5 Orchard party) by saying "Do you wan to play uno with me?" I don't think a single girl played with him, at which he said, "Aww, you paaty poopaa, come on." This gets my award for funny random event of the night.
I was really tired at about 2:30 and went to bed. I hear that later in the night, Seamus had to beat Glenn in Beirut just to win back the keys of a sober driver so that she could go home.
Sunday March 9:
I woke up to find Makeoutmusic stickers all over my house. There was no doubt in my mind that Steve and his band went to work on this project after I went to sleep. Luckily, Steve is poor and had cheap stickers made, so they peeled off easily. I just chillaxed all day. It rocked.
Monday March 10:
There's no heat in my house. This is like, the 15th time since Thanksgiving. It really annoys me.