Road Trip, Car Exchange
So I set my alarm for 6:30, it goes off "I can sleep another half hour." Well, I didn't hit the snooze, I turned it off. D'oh. at 7:45 I wake up check the time. "Shit."
Get dressed, Get eggs, go. I get to Sultan's DIY car wash & vacuum to find the title isn't is the glove box. WTF?! I drive back to Gold Bar, and Mike helps me tear the beastie apart. "Still looking." I text to my brother. "Fuck it" It is now 9:00.
I drive back to Sultan and pull up at the vacuum place, clean the stuff out of the car, part of the RV's AC is still in the back, it's just a 2' strip of plastic. The guy who owns the DIY vacuum and car wash shows up to bitch me out about trying to put it in the trash, and I shouldn't put stuff in their trash (WHY are there garbage cans there?) then leaves.
I wish the dude had shown up AFTER I'd vacuumed, GRR. the thing was about half the power one should expect from a vacuum, and it ate 50 cents.
I stop at the gas station to put air in my tires. The Air thing doesn't work, and eats $1.50. I talk to the attendant "We can;t do anything, we don't own it."
"You can put an 'out of order sign in it. The next person will probably be bitchier than me."
I get to Monroe to use the Air thing at circle K and top up the tank. Turns out the tires didn't really need air, but points for checking, right?
ONWARD! 11:00 and I'm FINALLY on the road, All the bad shit that is going to happen today has happened, RIGHT? We're not going to have any more trouble today, ARE WE.
I'm on 405 going through Bellevue, traffic is doing the stop-and-go accordion thing, and I'm trying not to pack shit, hand constantly on the clutch, attempting to gauge my speed so I don't have to shift or slow down, not being very successful. I notice, looking at me from the hole where the stereo never was, is a mouse. For a second I thought I was hallucinating. I look back, it has a notch in its ear and its little whiskers are twitching, shiny black eyes looking right at me. I downshift again to slow with traffic, look back at my passenger and say "HI."
The Mouse retreats back under the dash. "Don't chew on the wires...Slug bug!" I talk to it a little during the two hour drive. It poked it's head out another time, and I'd see it passing the stereo hole every few minutes. Out of the problems I could run into, this is one of the cuter ones.
I arrive in Oly frazzled and road weary, the lack of sleep starting to catch up with me. A client had called while I was on the road, and I needed to call him back, and I still needed to get the last of my stuff out of the Golf. "You'd better get on outta here." I tell the mouse.
I'm frantically gathering tidbits and cramming them into my jacket pockets, I pick up the phone to call my client back when chief texts me and Joel shows up at my door with a camera. "I haveta get pictures for Mom." He says. "Come on." Joel waits for no one. I abandon my stuff and go stand next to the new car, Joel snaps a couple photos. "You and Rich have to go switch the titles." His boss is standing there somewhat distracted.
"Can I have ten minutes, I gotta call my client back and clean out the car."
"Sure!" Rich trots back into the office.
WHEW. I pick up the phone again and Chief calls. GAH! "It's gonna be ahwile, we haveta do title stuff." He's disappointed.
I FINALLY call my client, get stuff taken care of, get the car cleaned out, and put my coat and stuff into the new car. Nice, unassuming, gray, tiny wheels. Reminds me of Jerry's Kia a little. "I've got a CD for you!" Says Joel. I own about six CDs, and I now have a CD player, so this is good. It's a series of mashups, amusing, and would probably be a lot funnier if I recognized half of the music on there, but certainly an improvement over the radio.
"Does the title place take credit cards?"
"Yeah." Says Joel. Rich & I go get the title taken care of-they don't take credit cards, so Joel's boss pays for it. *facepalm* We talk about business owner stuff, advertising, etc.
We get back to the office, Mom wants to talk to me, it's brief, then I drive the car for the first time to meet Chief & Nikki-I coulda walked.
"Are you OK?! You just got a CAR! You should be excited!"
I tell him what my day has been like so far and apologize for being so spaced out.
I wolf down a cheeseburger and the three of us catch up. Nikki heads out and Chief directs me to the car wash. We stop, and he wisely goes over all the features. I joke that I'll have to call him if it rains, he's exploring the car, he sets the radio to his favorite station, hah. Then generously pays for a car wash.
We hang out for a bit, around 3:30 I start the trek north again. Mike texts me asking for Milk.
NEW CAR! I think. My brain responds with the static buzz of sleep deprivation and things moving a little too fast for me to keep up with them. I slam a shot of 5-hour energy and head North. Bleh. Not doing that again. The Monster Hitmans are better, but neither does anything for attention span.
Traffic was horrible. I found this somewhat amusing: Penance for having a reliable vehicle. It took me about 20 miles to stop clawing for the gear shift or trying to put my left foot through the floor every time I changed speed (the Golf was a manual, this one isn't). I recalled the online plea from a British citizen who was renting a car here and asked how to drive an automatic. "You'll be embarrassed you asked. You gotta have it in park when you start it, and your foot has to be on the brake to shift it out of park. Your left foot is a salami. It does nothing."
Mike & I took the car into town Saturday and got floor mats, groceries and goat food (he's lamenting the fact we can't put a bale of straw in the back anymore), and today went fishing: No luck, but no one else caught anything either. To add insult to injury I went to the hatchery which is just upstream of where I was fishing to see if fish actually existed. It was teeming with Chinook the size of my leg.
I have a new lease on life, and freedom to go wherever I want [in driving distance]! But I still feel like I've borrowed it. It either hasn't sunk in yet or it just doesn't feel like mine. In the morning she takes me to Gig Harbor. 180 miles round trip. I'm thinking we should be well acquainted by then.
Get dressed, Get eggs, go. I get to Sultan's DIY car wash & vacuum to find the title isn't is the glove box. WTF?! I drive back to Gold Bar, and Mike helps me tear the beastie apart. "Still looking." I text to my brother. "Fuck it" It is now 9:00.
I drive back to Sultan and pull up at the vacuum place, clean the stuff out of the car, part of the RV's AC is still in the back, it's just a 2' strip of plastic. The guy who owns the DIY vacuum and car wash shows up to bitch me out about trying to put it in the trash, and I shouldn't put stuff in their trash (WHY are there garbage cans there?) then leaves.
I wish the dude had shown up AFTER I'd vacuumed, GRR. the thing was about half the power one should expect from a vacuum, and it ate 50 cents.
I stop at the gas station to put air in my tires. The Air thing doesn't work, and eats $1.50. I talk to the attendant "We can;t do anything, we don't own it."
"You can put an 'out of order sign in it. The next person will probably be bitchier than me."
I get to Monroe to use the Air thing at circle K and top up the tank. Turns out the tires didn't really need air, but points for checking, right?
ONWARD! 11:00 and I'm FINALLY on the road, All the bad shit that is going to happen today has happened, RIGHT? We're not going to have any more trouble today, ARE WE.
I'm on 405 going through Bellevue, traffic is doing the stop-and-go accordion thing, and I'm trying not to pack shit, hand constantly on the clutch, attempting to gauge my speed so I don't have to shift or slow down, not being very successful. I notice, looking at me from the hole where the stereo never was, is a mouse. For a second I thought I was hallucinating. I look back, it has a notch in its ear and its little whiskers are twitching, shiny black eyes looking right at me. I downshift again to slow with traffic, look back at my passenger and say "HI."
The Mouse retreats back under the dash. "Don't chew on the wires...Slug bug!" I talk to it a little during the two hour drive. It poked it's head out another time, and I'd see it passing the stereo hole every few minutes. Out of the problems I could run into, this is one of the cuter ones.
I arrive in Oly frazzled and road weary, the lack of sleep starting to catch up with me. A client had called while I was on the road, and I needed to call him back, and I still needed to get the last of my stuff out of the Golf. "You'd better get on outta here." I tell the mouse.
I'm frantically gathering tidbits and cramming them into my jacket pockets, I pick up the phone to call my client back when chief texts me and Joel shows up at my door with a camera. "I haveta get pictures for Mom." He says. "Come on." Joel waits for no one. I abandon my stuff and go stand next to the new car, Joel snaps a couple photos. "You and Rich have to go switch the titles." His boss is standing there somewhat distracted.
"Can I have ten minutes, I gotta call my client back and clean out the car."
"Sure!" Rich trots back into the office.
WHEW. I pick up the phone again and Chief calls. GAH! "It's gonna be ahwile, we haveta do title stuff." He's disappointed.
I FINALLY call my client, get stuff taken care of, get the car cleaned out, and put my coat and stuff into the new car. Nice, unassuming, gray, tiny wheels. Reminds me of Jerry's Kia a little. "I've got a CD for you!" Says Joel. I own about six CDs, and I now have a CD player, so this is good. It's a series of mashups, amusing, and would probably be a lot funnier if I recognized half of the music on there, but certainly an improvement over the radio.
"Does the title place take credit cards?"
"Yeah." Says Joel. Rich & I go get the title taken care of-they don't take credit cards, so Joel's boss pays for it. *facepalm* We talk about business owner stuff, advertising, etc.
We get back to the office, Mom wants to talk to me, it's brief, then I drive the car for the first time to meet Chief & Nikki-I coulda walked.
"Are you OK?! You just got a CAR! You should be excited!"
I tell him what my day has been like so far and apologize for being so spaced out.
I wolf down a cheeseburger and the three of us catch up. Nikki heads out and Chief directs me to the car wash. We stop, and he wisely goes over all the features. I joke that I'll have to call him if it rains, he's exploring the car, he sets the radio to his favorite station, hah. Then generously pays for a car wash.
We hang out for a bit, around 3:30 I start the trek north again. Mike texts me asking for Milk.
NEW CAR! I think. My brain responds with the static buzz of sleep deprivation and things moving a little too fast for me to keep up with them. I slam a shot of 5-hour energy and head North. Bleh. Not doing that again. The Monster Hitmans are better, but neither does anything for attention span.
Traffic was horrible. I found this somewhat amusing: Penance for having a reliable vehicle. It took me about 20 miles to stop clawing for the gear shift or trying to put my left foot through the floor every time I changed speed (the Golf was a manual, this one isn't). I recalled the online plea from a British citizen who was renting a car here and asked how to drive an automatic. "You'll be embarrassed you asked. You gotta have it in park when you start it, and your foot has to be on the brake to shift it out of park. Your left foot is a salami. It does nothing."
Mike & I took the car into town Saturday and got floor mats, groceries and goat food (he's lamenting the fact we can't put a bale of straw in the back anymore), and today went fishing: No luck, but no one else caught anything either. To add insult to injury I went to the hatchery which is just upstream of where I was fishing to see if fish actually existed. It was teeming with Chinook the size of my leg.
I have a new lease on life, and freedom to go wherever I want [in driving distance]! But I still feel like I've borrowed it. It either hasn't sunk in yet or it just doesn't feel like mine. In the morning she takes me to Gig Harbor. 180 miles round trip. I'm thinking we should be well acquainted by then.