I Have My Car

Well, a mere $3700 dollars and 24 days later, I have my car.

Car Held Hostage

My regular reader, on the arrogant assumption there is such a person, will go to my post of August 22 and see that I was told my car would be done in two weeks. Today is 21 days since that day--and I was told my car would be done today, but it's not and now they say Tuesday, for sure (and he said, I'm lucky it'll be ready then).

The old guy who runs the shop where my car is being fixed is a real charmer. I went in to see if my car was ready, about 3:45 PM Saturday, and I've never felt quite so unwelcome, especially considering I'm dropping $4000 in their lap. He was rude, obnoxious and insulting as he told me that they would call me (they've not called me ever in the past) when it was ready. He seemed unaware that having someone's car 7 days longer than first promised could present anyone with a problem or difficulty. He did offer to sell me another car.

Ben-Labor Day

Visited Ben and his family for Labor Day. Had a great time. We went to Red Robin for burgers and stuff. Then we came home to play a role-playing game based on Star Wars characters. I was a noble-civil servant (type casting, I guess) and with Sam (who was a spy) and Ammon (who was a warrior) we rescued the lost young girl from the evil clutches of a mad scientist and his level-10 Gangster Overlord Hutt. I had no idea what I was doing, but had fun doing it! Then we all had ice cream and grandpa headed home.

Ballgame August 31

The Mariners, without Ichiro, without Beltre, without Branyan, without Griffey, a pretty pathetic lineup. Everyone in the Angels lineup was outhitting anyone in the Mariner batting order. Not surprising, then, that the score was 10-0, with the M's managing 3 hits. The high water mark was inning #1, when they loaded the bases on 2 walks and a single, but then didn't score. The grandkids, however, were oblivious and seemed to have a great time!

Garlic!

It wasn't Gilroy, but it was pretty good. Sarah and I took in the Chehalis Garlic Festival on Sunday. Lots of food, featuring garlic of course, and lots of crafts, some garlicky and some not. A lot of people, but not a huge crowd (an advantage of Chehalis, I think). We had garlic fries, garlic pasta and, best of all, a garlic beef sandwich. That sandwich, wet and messy, filled with beef redolent of garlic and herbs, was one of the best I've ever had. It seriously rivaled the Italian Beef sandwiches of Chicago, which is high praise. It was a simple thing, a piece of French bread, thick slabs of beef and a rich, tangy and garlicky au jus running all over it. Simple, but excellent. Worth another trip to Chehalis for next year's festival.

Sarah tried to find the person in the garlic suit to get her picture taken with him/her, but after we first came in (you can see the person in the background of the top picture) we never saw garlic guy again.

.... Car

Well, my car overheated on Saturday and when I had it towed into the shop, I found out I had a blown head gasket. Essentially, the engine is trash. I asked the mechanic how much to repair that, and he said he didn't know, no one had ever done it. So, its a new engine, $4,000 and 2 weeks without a car. Oh, and if anyone is keeping track, August has not been a great month, to be nice about it.

Apartment Repairs

The balconies on the upper apartments of my building have been a little shakey for a while, and now the owner is doing some repairs. Unfortunately, even though I live on the ground floor and have no balcony, my apartment is impacted because the floor joists in the second floor can only be reached via my ceiling. So, my front bedroom is torn up. I had to empty 3/4 of the room, which has filled my living room, really the only available space, with stuff. I hate it!!!

Added on Thursday, 8/13--the repairs were supposed to be done Friday, tomorrow, but today one of the workmen told me that they won't finish until at least Monday. I thought they were behind because the ceiling in my room hasn't been finished yet. There's still bare beams visible, only some of the drywall is up. They need to put up more drywall, and then they need to tape and then paint and texture. Monday may be optimistic. I'm going to call the landlord tomorrow and negotiate some further reduction in my rent for August--I would suggest rent free for the month, but that's optimistic too I think.

Added on Thursday 8/20 (!!!)--finally finished today. Almost a week late and more excuses than you can imagine.