This is a true story. I had to wait for my computer cart to be delivered before I could run a couple of errands. The delivery came around noon and I wrapped up what I was doing here and headed out. I am driving the Toyota, still not fixed and engine light still twinkling merrily on the dash. First stop Bank of America in downtown Vancouver. As I turn onto Main Street my car starts making a horrible racket which feels like it’s coming from the tires: ‘you’ve got to be kidding me,’ I think to myself as I pull into an all reserved dinky parking lot to see what’s going on. Can this be true that now I get to have a flat tire? Tires look fine so I get back in the car and as I sit down my cell rings and it’s Toyota: they’re offering to split the fix with me. I say we’re willing to pay for the labor but we don’t think we should pay for the parts and she says she can’t make that deal so I have to go back to Toyota HQ. Meanwhile, I tell her about this new noise and she says maybe something is stuck in the tire and as I pull out the racket continues so I park illegally, check the tires again and sure enough there is an industrial sized razor thing stuck in the rear, driver’s side tire. I yank it out and prepare to go to Les Schwab. When I get back in the car: I KID YOU NOT. The engine light was out. And it hasn’t come back on since.
I went to Les Schwab and he said the tire was fine. So then I was stuck going to the BofA on Hwy 99 which is the purgatory BofA. There was a man standing in the middle of the driveway and I politely waved thinking he would get out of the way, but no. He wanted to stand there blocking the way and being a pain in the ass. (He was probably a few beers short of a 6-pack but he looked halfway normal, although a little sweaty). I had to drive over the curb to get into the bank parking lot. And when I say bank parking lot, I’m being generous because it’s this postage stamp sized plot with one entrance and about 10 parking spaces 1 inch smaller than any actual car. Inside was even more fun.There were about 10 people in line and all the people at the tellers were engaged in complex transactions like exchanging pesos for yen and depositing their tips in singles and change in some sort of complicated arrangement so that took forever. Then I had to get a few things at Freddie’s and I didn’t realize that I needed to turn in the first entrance because the second one was blocked by a left turn lane so I had to go through the intersection at 72nd and turn around but the parking lot I chose to turn around in had some guy in the driveway that was trying to cross Hwy 99 not make a right so it took another 10 minutes. So basically it took me about 1 hr and 1/2 to go the bank and buy 3 things at Freddies. Now it’s not even three o’clock and I feel like I need to lay down with a washcloth on my forehead. Luckily, my netflix arrived: 2 Angel disks with 8 episodes. So, I’m breaking out a refreshing adult beverage or two and putting my feet up.
In other news, I was going to bake a rhubarb strawberry pie but I found a recipe for rhubarb strawberry crisp aka rhubarb strawberry brown betty and brown betty is my middle name so screw the pie.
