Silver Linings

On the way home from work last night I decided to stop at Target. When I came back out to my car, it wouldn't start. It wasn't even trying. Turning the key had no effect - no sounds or lights or anything. I called Kevin to come give me a jump and went back inside to buy some jumper cables. So now I finally own jumper cables.

Kevin arrived and we attempted to jump my car. Once again nothing happened. So now we at least knew that the problem wasn't with my relatively new battery. Which is actually kind of a shame, since that battery is still under warranty. We called a tow truck and went to grab dinner while we waited. There was a decent taqueria in the same parking lot as the Target, which was nice.

The car was towed to the shop by our house, which was thankfully still open. While I was figuring out how I would get my car back so I could get to physical therapy on Wednesday, I realized that it sure was lucky I stopped at the Target. If this had happened Wednesday morning, I would have been more or less stranded - able to get to work but not physical therapy. This way I don't have to miss or cancel an appointment.

I also realized that my car is just about due for it's annual safety inspection. Since it's now in the shop anyway, I get to kill two birds with one stone. I likely would have forgotten about this otherwise, with Christmas coming and all. The next time I get a car I need to schedule this inspection for some month other than December. But now I won't get a ticket, so that's good too.

This morning we woke up to learn that nearly every car in our lot had been broken into. It doesn't look like anything was stolen - just teenagers pulling pranks. They dumped all of Kevin's gatorades into the snow. They cut the cord on our neighbor's phone charger but left her crock pot alone. Since my car is in the shop, I managed to dodge that bullet completely, which is something.

Now if only this wasn't costing me the portion of my Christmas bonus I had allocated to new boots. But that's a pretty minor thing to complain about in the long run. All in all this seems to be working out.

Power Outage

On Friday night a massive thunderstorm came through DC. The weather report had indicated a possibility of thunderstorms, but what we got went beyond that. Winds in excess of 70 miles per hour. Near continuous lightning (most of it heat lightning, but it was still a pretty cool show). And then the power flickered and went out.

When I woke up the next morning we still didn't have power. This meant, among other things, that I couldn't make myself tea and I couldn't take a hot shower. The morning took a lot longer than usual. Kevin destroyed me in two games of Settlers of Catan before he decided to head out to Charlestown and get out of the heat.

I psyched myself for a cold shower then went to the gym, which at least had air conditioning. I was also able to charge my phone and get a hot shower. Feeling much better about life, I decided to go see Magic Mike. A couple of hours in a dark, cold movie theater would be the perfect way to escape the mid-afternoon heat.

There was a 2:25 showing. Since it was about 12:30 at this point, I figured I'd have time to get something to eat before the movie started. It took me a bit longer than normal to get to the movie theater, but it wasn't too bad. Most of the traffic I encountered was due to stop lights having been turned into four-way stops thanks to power outages that seemed to have struck at random.

I made it to the mall around 1:00 and quickly discovered that I was not the only person who had this idea. I picked a garage and began looking for a parking space. An hour later I still hadn't found one. It seemed that every time someone got in their car and left, it was the car right in front of me who managed to get the spot. By 2:00, the garage was more crowded than when I began and I decided to give up.

It took me until 2:30 to get out of the garage.

I think Hell, if it exists, may involve spending eternity searching for a parking space that doesn't exist. Without any music, which I at least still had. There was a lot of car dancing while I tried to stay calm in the endless gridlock.

When I got home our power was back on. We were really lucky; there are still a ton of people in the area without power (including Kevin's mom, who stayed with us last night).

I think I learned my lesson, though. Next time there's a power outage, just stay home. Or at the very least, don't go anywhere with a parking garage.

Worse Than Talking to a Brick Wall

I ordered some stuff from Amazon, but accidentally had it sent to my old address instead of my current one. I tried calling USPS to figure out where my package is and how to get it.

Here's how that phone call went

Thank you for calling USPS. For information about hours and locations, please say "locations". To track a package, please say -
Oh my God
I'm sorry, I didn't catch that
Hmm?
I'm sorry, I didn't catch that. Please repeat your selection
What? No
Did you say-?
NO
*pause*
For information about hours and locations, please say "locations". To track a package, please say "track package"
Track package
To track a package, please say your label or tracking number
<FYI, this number is 20 digits long> xxxxx
I'm sorry I can't find any information on that package. To track a package, please say your label or tracking number
This time, I typed it in
I'm sorry I can't find any information on that package. To track a package, please say your label or tracking number
Let me speak to a person
To track a package -
I want to speak to a person
To track -
No, let me talk to a person. A human.
To end this call please hang up
I don't want to. I want to talk to a person. Please. Person. Human
To end this call, please hang up
Menu?
To end this call, please hang up
*click*

There are few things I hate more than these machines that you actually have to talk to.

Moral of the story: double check your address before using Amazon's handy one-click feature. Also, computers don't care if you yell at them.

Natural Disasters

While on vacation last week I completely missed the earthquake that hit DC. I came back to work to find a whole lot of emails about it. Apparently my building was evacuated and everyone got to go home early. Except the earthquake affected public transportation so a lot of people ended up with 4-5 hour commutes home.

We have a bit of damage that needs to be evaluated in our home. Hopefully there's nothing too serious. There are a bunch of cracks in the walls, but it could just be paint and dry wall damage. Fingers crossed.

Hurricane Irene interfered somewhat with our drive home from Lake Placid. We came down I-87 initially, but ending up driving west to Harrisburg, PA to avoid the storm for as long as possible. That's quite a bit out of the way, considering that the initial plan had been to come down the Jersey Turnpike. Oh well, we did make it home.

We actually didn't encounter the storm until the very last hour of our drive across Maryland. It never got worse than a heavy rainstorm (we live pretty far inland). The Safeway told a different story, though. I went to pick up some food, since we'd been out of town for a week. Despite the fact that it wasn't supposed to really get that bad where we lived (heavy rain over night and early Sunday morning) you'd have thought the world was ending. There was no water in the store. I got the last carton of eggs and the last loaf of bread. The only milk left was whole milk.

As predicted the storm wasn't that bad. We briefly lost power overnight, but wouldn't have known if we hadn't needed to reset the clocks. By the time I woke up and looked outside on Sunday the sun was shining.

Frankly, I'm disappointed. I'm a little sad I missed the earthquake, especially since I lived in LA for four years and never felt one there either. I definitely would have felt this one. Though I am glad I didn't have to deal with the awful commute that followed the earthquake. Instead I was playing losing Settlers of Catan again. The hurricane wasn't even the heaviest rainstorm I've seen. Even my brother, who is stationed on the North Carolina coast, summed it up with "I've seen worse blizzards"

I know other areas were hit harder. And we still need to assess the earthquake damage, which could very well be extensive and costly. But I expected more from the end-of-the-world predictions I was hearing.

Problem Solved

The bathtub in our apartment has become the bane of my existence.  No matter what I do, I can never seem to get it clean.  There's a layer of dirt that has basically become part of the tub.  I have spent countless hours fighting with the grit and grime that have molded to it.  I've tried scrubbing bubbles, 409, and bleach.  I even bought some special mildew busting stuff.  I've used sponges, cloths, and steel wool.  I had some success with a Magic Eraser, but after I scrubbed straight through one I had only managed to clean about a square inch of the tub.  And now that nice, white square inch mocks me.

Boyfriend has no idea, of course.  He doesn't even seem to be aware that showers need to be cleaned, or that ours is frighteningly dirty.

He did manage to solve my problem, though.

On Saturday morning, Boyfriend woke me up as he was on his way out.  The tub had cracked and we could no longer use it without flooding the apartment below us.  Despite the early hour and the prospect of not being able to take a shower that day, my heart soared. We were getting a new tub!

The clean and sparkling tub was installed today.  I can once again clean the bathroom without becoming completely demoralized.

I think I'm going to miss having a landlord when the day comes that I have to deal with this sort of thing by myself.  On the other hand, the new house has three showers.  So if one of them does break, I won't have to go an entire weekend without a shower because the one I have isn't usable.

Grrrr

I was supposed to get the Middleman comic book today.  I watched the show back when it originally aired.  When the series finale was released in comic book form, I was initially really excited.  But then the local comic book store didn't have it, and I kind of forgot about it.

Life was busy.  I had work and was trying to make a new life for myself in Boulder.  So getting my hands on the comic book kind of fell by the wayside.  I remembered it once and went on Amazon.com, but the small supply had jacked the price up to $70, which I wans't willing to pay.

This weekend, I got tax refund #1 (which I should have gotten a year ago) and went on Amazon.comto buy the complete series of Battlestar Galactica.  I had recently been watching my Middleman DVDs while I was cleaning and I suddenly remembered the comic book.  I checked and the price was a far more reasonable $7.95, so I jumped on it.

For whatever reason, Amazon.com decided to ship my comic book separately from my BSG DVDs.  And not even just in a separate package, but through a different carrier.

So I got the confirmation that my package had been delivered today and rushed home to find out what happens to Wendy, Tyler, Lacy and the rest.  While the DVDs had arrived at my front door, the comic book was delivered to the office.

The office that closes at 5.

Which is useless when you get home at 6:30.

I guess I'll just have to find something else to do with my evening.  Life is so hard.