Late afternoon thoughs...
Its amazing how fast fall is coming. I drove up to Vermont saturday and was shocked to see that about 30% of the trees on my Dads land have started to turn. I cant wait for Sept. to get here with all that color and crispness that is best enjoyed no where else other than Vermont. Of course you have to be a resident to know where to go to see all the best stuff off the beaten path and away from the Massholes and CT idiots that always seem to make their way up north every fall. I cant wait!
Other than VT, I found myself in Providence Friday night for a little going away party at Chris's place for Ijpe. He is leaving (has now left) for 5 weeks to Georgia for some military training camp. Best of luck to him but I am so scared that this is training to get him ready to send him over to Iraq, which is apparently is the rumor. He'll know for sure when he gets back in October.
Saturday morning I left early for a nice relaxed drive up to Vermont. I have discovered from all my driving lately that if I set my cruise at 75 on the highway, not only do I have so much better gas mileage, but its also a much more relaxed drive and I enjoy my car all the more. So anyways, I drove up to Vermont. My dad wanted to take a look at the control arms of my car to see what he is getting himself into and to get some idea of the tools that we are going to need next weekend. We both discovered that not only is this control arm/tie rod replacement job going to be a MAJOR bitch to do, there is WAY more to it then expected. I can probably expect to have the front end of the car apart for the better part of the weekend with grease and grime up to my elbows. I am so fucking excited! Seriously. I'll get to know my car so much better and I am going to try to take pictures for the whole job and do a full write up and tech article for the online Audi journals that I am a part of. Every driver of a B5 A4 is going to have to replace all 8 of their control arms by the time their car reaches 75,000 miles (most likely around 60K) and the shock to most drivers of those cars is that its not covered under warranty and even if they somehow convince AoA to cover either half or all of the replacement, the Audi parts that are used are just going to fail again within 60K. So if I can help a fellow AZ'er out by writing something up on how to install the better parts, i'm all for it. I am just excited to have my car back in the shape that its supposed to be. Now for some wheels. Oh wait... I am saving for other things right now. DAMN!
So that was most of Saturday mid-day and then from Dads, I went to hang out with Jamie for a bit. We ran a few "errands" together, got really high and watched a BEAUTIFUL post rain early fall sunset in the middle of a cornfield near her house and took a bunch of pictures. I can't wait to see how they came out. I headed back to Boston at around 8:30 or so. I really dislike returning to this city. Its time to move on.
Sunday I drove up to Maine. After a quick stop in L.L. Bean, Tim said that he had never seen the capitol of Maine so we drove the extra 70 miles from Freeport to Augusta. The town is not all that nice, but the state house is actually really pretty. The drive back was very slow and obnoxious, but it was nice to be back in Maine for a day and it made me nostalgic for my days of living up there. I miss it.
Bryan is now in Taiwan. Meetings and training all this week for him and then he starts teaching next week. Sigh... I wont get started. Plans are starting to get tossed around for Chinese New Year, but nothing serious yet. Seth is now in Thailand. He stays there for the next 3 weeks (the lucky bastard) and then moves on out of Asia for the first time in a year. His next destination? Russia I think and then through Europe and touching down at Logan on 11/22.
I am realizing that I have about 2 weeks left before a really busy semester starts. I have registered for Lab Bio and Calc. 2 at Northeastern. I don't have any option but to ace both of those classes this semester and while doing that I am also working 40 hours and I have to send out all my college apps and essays. Wow. I guess I am going to have to kiss my social life goodbye in a few weeks. Thats ok though, I need a break from everything. Perhaps me disappearing for a bit will put the spark back into those friendships that need it the most!
Nothing too major this week. Just work and trying to get some overtime. I am getting myself back on my workout routine and pushing myself harder this time since I have let myself slack for the past few weeks, I am going to up the weight a bit and see what happens. A birthday party thursday night will round out the week and then its onto the weekend of tools! Anyone wanna watch? :-)
Other than VT, I found myself in Providence Friday night for a little going away party at Chris's place for Ijpe. He is leaving (has now left) for 5 weeks to Georgia for some military training camp. Best of luck to him but I am so scared that this is training to get him ready to send him over to Iraq, which is apparently is the rumor. He'll know for sure when he gets back in October.
Saturday morning I left early for a nice relaxed drive up to Vermont. I have discovered from all my driving lately that if I set my cruise at 75 on the highway, not only do I have so much better gas mileage, but its also a much more relaxed drive and I enjoy my car all the more. So anyways, I drove up to Vermont. My dad wanted to take a look at the control arms of my car to see what he is getting himself into and to get some idea of the tools that we are going to need next weekend. We both discovered that not only is this control arm/tie rod replacement job going to be a MAJOR bitch to do, there is WAY more to it then expected. I can probably expect to have the front end of the car apart for the better part of the weekend with grease and grime up to my elbows. I am so fucking excited! Seriously. I'll get to know my car so much better and I am going to try to take pictures for the whole job and do a full write up and tech article for the online Audi journals that I am a part of. Every driver of a B5 A4 is going to have to replace all 8 of their control arms by the time their car reaches 75,000 miles (most likely around 60K) and the shock to most drivers of those cars is that its not covered under warranty and even if they somehow convince AoA to cover either half or all of the replacement, the Audi parts that are used are just going to fail again within 60K. So if I can help a fellow AZ'er out by writing something up on how to install the better parts, i'm all for it. I am just excited to have my car back in the shape that its supposed to be. Now for some wheels. Oh wait... I am saving for other things right now. DAMN!
So that was most of Saturday mid-day and then from Dads, I went to hang out with Jamie for a bit. We ran a few "errands" together, got really high and watched a BEAUTIFUL post rain early fall sunset in the middle of a cornfield near her house and took a bunch of pictures. I can't wait to see how they came out. I headed back to Boston at around 8:30 or so. I really dislike returning to this city. Its time to move on.
Sunday I drove up to Maine. After a quick stop in L.L. Bean, Tim said that he had never seen the capitol of Maine so we drove the extra 70 miles from Freeport to Augusta. The town is not all that nice, but the state house is actually really pretty. The drive back was very slow and obnoxious, but it was nice to be back in Maine for a day and it made me nostalgic for my days of living up there. I miss it.
Bryan is now in Taiwan. Meetings and training all this week for him and then he starts teaching next week. Sigh... I wont get started. Plans are starting to get tossed around for Chinese New Year, but nothing serious yet. Seth is now in Thailand. He stays there for the next 3 weeks (the lucky bastard) and then moves on out of Asia for the first time in a year. His next destination? Russia I think and then through Europe and touching down at Logan on 11/22.
I am realizing that I have about 2 weeks left before a really busy semester starts. I have registered for Lab Bio and Calc. 2 at Northeastern. I don't have any option but to ace both of those classes this semester and while doing that I am also working 40 hours and I have to send out all my college apps and essays. Wow. I guess I am going to have to kiss my social life goodbye in a few weeks. Thats ok though, I need a break from everything. Perhaps me disappearing for a bit will put the spark back into those friendships that need it the most!
Nothing too major this week. Just work and trying to get some overtime. I am getting myself back on my workout routine and pushing myself harder this time since I have let myself slack for the past few weeks, I am going to up the weight a bit and see what happens. A birthday party thursday night will round out the week and then its onto the weekend of tools! Anyone wanna watch? :-)