car

My car is almost the same color as the Microsoft "blue screen of death," only slightly darker. When it was new, and I was trying to decide if I cared enough about it to give it a meaningful name, this seemed appropriate. I eventually decided that I didn't care enough. I learned that this car's primary superpower was that I could lend it to an annoying person, who would then drive to the other end of the state and not come back for the better part of a week...useful, when I lived in a situation with in-laws, but not really good for naming. It also had a frustrating recursion going for a while, where I was usually moving it to take it to the dealership for repairs or maintenance, or to get it inspected for registration or insurance or something like that. I do drive to work or shopping occasionally, when I'm more concerned about short-term delays and discomfort than about long-term hand pain and safety. But I don't own a car for any sensible reasons. I own a car because I'm a Detroiter, and the idea of trying to impersonate an independent respectable adult without a car makes me queasy.

So, there I was, minding my own business. (Actually, I was somewhere else, having a very lively time of it, thank you very much. *grin* Or I was traveling. Or maybe I was at work. Do you think I bother looking at my car every day?) But the car was parked in the lot behind my apartment building, getting its rear end whacked. I called the dealer to inquire about a new bumper, and was informed that they needed to see how severe the damage was, and then they'd be happy to order a new part for me if they didn't have it in stock. Fortunately, I now have an appropriate car dealership between home and work. It's even easy to leave the car there and take the bus to work, when they need to keep the car for a while. The official authorized repair expert told me that my car did not have a separate bumper (it's blue, but it sure looked like a bumper to me.) This means the whole rear quarter panel will need to be replaced, as well as the damaged tail-light, for a cost of well over $1000, so he recommends contacting my insurance company.

I was griping about this at work, when one of my colleagues said, "You have a Focus? That doesn't sound right." We went outside and had a look. I accepted a kind and generous offer to take the bumper off and pound out the major dent, which seems to have helped quite a lot. We were going to brace the inside of the bumper with a strip of something rigid, like plywood, to help the sun anneal out the rest of the secondary denting, but there aren't any good attachment points. The tail-light has a cracked housing, but it turns on and off properly, so I don't know how much repair it really needs. Maybe I should just caulk it to keep out the rain? The guy at the dealer told me the whole thing would need to be replaced, or the car would fail the state inspection. I know MA state inspections can be unreasonable (I know someone whose car failed for "excessive surface rust"), but I'm not inclined to take this guy's word for my car being blue, at the moment.

For the record, I have a extremely cool and helpful colleague, who is assiduously shrugging off my thanks and offers of reciprocal lunch.

if only Bicycle Repair Man were here!

Ok, now I have my bicycle in my apartment. Having been in garages for longer than I care to think about, the tires have gone flat. So flat that the wheel rims might slice through the inner tubes and cut the (more expensive) big knobby tires every time the bike rolls. So I had to carry it up here, and I'd really rather not carry it further than absolutely necessary to get it repaired. *grump* And the service station closest to here does not have a working air pump.

Late this afternoon, my office was filled with the sound of bicycle repairs, and bare-legged young men showing off their pumps. (I'm not making this up.) When I mentioned the two flat tires in my kitchen, another colleague lent me a pump and a patch kit that he happened to have in his backpack. This was very kind of him. I really do work with unbelievably fabulous people. Unfortunately, I discovered that I'm not capable of doing the job with the hands I currently possess. It might have been marginally possible, it was only a matter of inflation with the little hand pump. But tires have to be removed to get at the inner tubes, which need to be patched, and then the whole thing has to be put back together and inflated. I suspect that doing the job properly demands inflating the tube to make sure the patch is ok, then deflating it and putting the assembly together, then re-inflating. It's all just out of my league. I have the ideal tools for the job now, but I should give them back tomorrow so my colleague will have them for the weekend in case he gets a flat when riding to New Nowhere.

Does anyone have the tools and want to help in exchange for baby bucks? (I have no baby, but 2 baby bucks.) Other barter is readily negotiable.

Edited to add note on "Current Music:" I had been listening to the radio, but it was getting increasingly irritating. I usually like the folk music station, but they weren't playing music, they were broadcasting an interview with someone who kept saying "fiddle-licious." Cutesy-poo constructions based on "-licious" make me want to break things. In this case, a sledgehammer to the fiddle seemed apt, but was impractical.