Holiday travels
I made a NYE resolution to write more. Well it's the 19th and I've failed miserably so I have some catching up to do...
Flashback to Christmas. I had a lovely time with the family and it was time to return home. Mostly because there was a snowstorm on the horizon and I had to get home first. So I depart the homestead and get gas. No problem there. I stop at a local McDonald's to get some on-the-road goodies. I return to the car and turn the key. Nothing. Well the engine tries to turn over but there's basically no juice. Shit!
Thinking the problem is just the battery I call AAA for a jump and they say it'll be a little over an hour. So I'm stuck at this Mikey D's waiting for the tow truck. I was surprised at how slowly I can nurse an orange juice. I had enough after an hour and canceled the call and instead (as I should have done the first time) called my brother-in-law to jump me. No problem and 20 minutes later he arrives. He jumps my car and all is well. He says, "Why didn't you get your dad?" I said, "Cause I'd never hear the end from my mother about if I was hungry why didn't I just have something at the house."
I continue on my journey for another ten minutes - until the radio dies when I switch on the left arrow light. Crap - the battery must just be gone! I manage to limp the car into Sears at the Berkshire Mall. I park it inside the service area and a mechanic asks if I could move it up a little. I say, "Only if you help me push!" I tell them I need a new battery and they give me a price. EEk, I don't think I've got that much in my checking account. I'll have to do some creative moving-about with my money so I can pay for this. Well of course Verizon sucks donkey balls in the Berkshires and I can't get a decent connection for my Blackberry to fiddle with my finances so I bit the bullet. I called dear ol' dad for help. Grudgingly he meets me at the mall.
Where we discover the problem isn't the battery. Well not completely. The alternator is bad. But it's a brand new one I had replaced back in April! So thank you Sullivan Tire & Auto for putting a bad alternator in my car, you crooks. I confess to my dad, I can't afford this *and* how will it be ready in time for me to get home?
My dad has the ready solution. He paid for the battery so I could get my car back to the homestead. Then we'll trade cars so I can get home and he'll take care of the alternator. OK, I can live with that. Oh, but one more thing, he says. His car has horrible tires and they don't have traction in the rain. Or the snow. Like the snow I'll soon be driving towards.
Oh goody.
So I head out in Dad's car. It didn't handle too badly. It's a Ford Cobalt and it's one main detriment is the inability to really see out of the rear window. Made backing up a little tricky. I babied the beast as the snow got heavier and heavier. Still, it mostly kept going in a straight line.
I had two scary moments: one potentially worse than the other. I started my journey on the Mass Pike (I-90). As I approached Springfield I could see the traffic getting heavier and slower. I predicted that soon it would come to a standstill and I did not want to get stuck in that. So I departed the Pike in Palmer and proceeded down Route 20. Good thing too. For in the Sturbridge area, I glanced up where the Pike was and sure enough, it was stopped. Good call there, Rob.
Past Worcester, I changed to Route 9 and continued merrily. Just after the interchange, a car comes up on my left going *way* too fast for the conditions. Apparently the driver realizes this too and puts on the brakes causing her car's rear end to drift. She desperately tries to get her car under control *right next to me* while I'm coaxing mine to increase distance between us. Finally her car finds some actual pavement which unfortunately causes her to careen into the median so hard I could hear the plastic CRACK through a closed window. Her car starts to return to my lane but by this time I'm past her and getting further away from this incident. The cars behind her are going to love this.
The other scary incident, though much less scary, was when I applied the brakes on Needham Road in Newton. I must have put the brakes on a little hard for my car slid sideways towards the traffic light intersection. But there was no one else around and I let the car go. The worst? I looked a little foolish, but that was it.
There were no other incidents for the rest of the journey home.
On NYE, I went to a party in West Springfield and when the party ended, instead of heading home to Newton, I continued due west to Dalton where me and my dad swapped cars again. I paid for most of the repair and was able to take my car home.
Flashback to Christmas. I had a lovely time with the family and it was time to return home. Mostly because there was a snowstorm on the horizon and I had to get home first. So I depart the homestead and get gas. No problem there. I stop at a local McDonald's to get some on-the-road goodies. I return to the car and turn the key. Nothing. Well the engine tries to turn over but there's basically no juice. Shit!
Thinking the problem is just the battery I call AAA for a jump and they say it'll be a little over an hour. So I'm stuck at this Mikey D's waiting for the tow truck. I was surprised at how slowly I can nurse an orange juice. I had enough after an hour and canceled the call and instead (as I should have done the first time) called my brother-in-law to jump me. No problem and 20 minutes later he arrives. He jumps my car and all is well. He says, "Why didn't you get your dad?" I said, "Cause I'd never hear the end from my mother about if I was hungry why didn't I just have something at the house."
I continue on my journey for another ten minutes - until the radio dies when I switch on the left arrow light. Crap - the battery must just be gone! I manage to limp the car into Sears at the Berkshire Mall. I park it inside the service area and a mechanic asks if I could move it up a little. I say, "Only if you help me push!" I tell them I need a new battery and they give me a price. EEk, I don't think I've got that much in my checking account. I'll have to do some creative moving-about with my money so I can pay for this. Well of course Verizon sucks donkey balls in the Berkshires and I can't get a decent connection for my Blackberry to fiddle with my finances so I bit the bullet. I called dear ol' dad for help. Grudgingly he meets me at the mall.
Where we discover the problem isn't the battery. Well not completely. The alternator is bad. But it's a brand new one I had replaced back in April! So thank you Sullivan Tire & Auto for putting a bad alternator in my car, you crooks. I confess to my dad, I can't afford this *and* how will it be ready in time for me to get home?
My dad has the ready solution. He paid for the battery so I could get my car back to the homestead. Then we'll trade cars so I can get home and he'll take care of the alternator. OK, I can live with that. Oh, but one more thing, he says. His car has horrible tires and they don't have traction in the rain. Or the snow. Like the snow I'll soon be driving towards.
Oh goody.
So I head out in Dad's car. It didn't handle too badly. It's a Ford Cobalt and it's one main detriment is the inability to really see out of the rear window. Made backing up a little tricky. I babied the beast as the snow got heavier and heavier. Still, it mostly kept going in a straight line.
I had two scary moments: one potentially worse than the other. I started my journey on the Mass Pike (I-90). As I approached Springfield I could see the traffic getting heavier and slower. I predicted that soon it would come to a standstill and I did not want to get stuck in that. So I departed the Pike in Palmer and proceeded down Route 20. Good thing too. For in the Sturbridge area, I glanced up where the Pike was and sure enough, it was stopped. Good call there, Rob.
Past Worcester, I changed to Route 9 and continued merrily. Just after the interchange, a car comes up on my left going *way* too fast for the conditions. Apparently the driver realizes this too and puts on the brakes causing her car's rear end to drift. She desperately tries to get her car under control *right next to me* while I'm coaxing mine to increase distance between us. Finally her car finds some actual pavement which unfortunately causes her to careen into the median so hard I could hear the plastic CRACK through a closed window. Her car starts to return to my lane but by this time I'm past her and getting further away from this incident. The cars behind her are going to love this.
The other scary incident, though much less scary, was when I applied the brakes on Needham Road in Newton. I must have put the brakes on a little hard for my car slid sideways towards the traffic light intersection. But there was no one else around and I let the car go. The worst? I looked a little foolish, but that was it.
There were no other incidents for the rest of the journey home.
On NYE, I went to a party in West Springfield and when the party ended, instead of heading home to Newton, I continued due west to Dalton where me and my dad swapped cars again. I paid for most of the repair and was able to take my car home.