What plans do I have for the weekend?
Very few. I had wanted to paint the garage,
but we’re looking at torrential downpours with intermittent rain showers. Liz
has come down with a kind of funny cold. Its primary symptom is sniffles… but
its not JUST sniffles. The floodgates have opened up and she’s wiping her nose
nonstop. At first she thought it was allergies but none of the allergy
medicines are doing any good.
So she won’t feel like doing anything
special this weekend.
Again, I wanted to go biking, but with all
that rain, I don’t think I’ll be able to do it. I’ve been very good about
exercising this week. I think Sunday’s bike-ride inspired me to keep going.
The “Y” opens at 7:30am — maybe I can get there early again. That worked out
well last time.
My car is in the shop. I was told initially
that a sensor on it was bad and that it would cost $150 to fix it. I was upset
about that and pointed out that my warranty should cover it. “Andrea” checked
and confirmed that my warranty didn’t cover the sensor. I asked her if she
could bring the price down anyway and she confessed she didn’t have much leeway
and couldn’t do very much for me.
I arrived there shortly after 4pm and
“Andrea” greeted me with “Good news and bad news”
oh Christ, whenever someone says that
there’s never any good news!
The bad news was that when they went to
replace the sensor they found out that the housing around it was cracked and
needed to be replaced. The good news is that the housing is covered by my
warranty and now the whole thing would be covered. She also handed me a
printout that was a purchase order to be used at Enterprise Rent-a-car down the
street. Apparently my warranty also covers the cost of renting a car. Finally
Andrea said that Enterprise was on their way over and that she though my car
would be ready on Saturday.
I wound up renting a go-kart. No, no… its a proper go-kart. Its a Chevy
Aveo and its the biggest piece of
crap I’ve driven in a very long time. All the parts functioned, but they
functioned like a miniature car. It whines and howls at 70mph and won’t get
over 80mph. Around here, that makes it a death trap! I can’t wait to get back
to my Sebring.
I played chess some last night. Chessmaster
10
has lots of stored opponents who play not just at different levels of
proficiency but with different tactics. Depending on proficiency chess
players are given a rank on a 2000-point scale. I beat everyone under
1000. It wasn’t as great a success as it might sound. I’ve always felt
I played more around a 1200 anyway and to beat a bunch of children…
well, its not very sporting, is it? Actually, I’m kind of hung up
on playing someone named “Duke”. He’s a teenager who is rated at
921, I think.
While I did that Liz took Ben to the eye
doctor and they both got a good once-over. Ben is getting new lenses for his
current frames and Liz gets a new prescription for her contacts. Every time I
see Ben squint because he can’t see something I feel so bad for him. It doesn’t
seem to bother him much and he’s really looking forward to the day he can get
clip-on sunglasses. I think he believes they’re cool. He also likes
sweater-vests. So does Gabriel. And they both think they’re cool. Maybe they
are — I have to admit that they look pretty great in them.
What am I going to do to get the kids out of
the house this weekend?!?!