BklnQ » vehicle

Bucks County Once More

MarQ1 — Mon, 29 May 2006 21:05:41 +0000

J & I left work early Friday and drove out to Doylestown PA for the opening of an exhibit, Irving Berlin’s Hollywood at the Michener Museum. Our friend David curated it and J designed it and for some unknown reason I have a credit in the program (as J’s driver?). We arrived later than we wanted—no hor d’ouvres remained—and the place was packed. It was a nice show. [I'm not a good reviewer.]

The Holland Tunnel

For a while it looked like we might not make it. The traffic approaching the Holland Tunnel was backed up almost to Chambers St. and filled with angry, pushy, aggressive drivers. Me, I was just annoyed¹. It took over an hour to get into the tunnel. About thirty minutes into the crawl toward Canal St., a white pickup truck tried to cut in front of the blue pickup truck in front of us. The drivers argued. They spit into each other’s cabs. They threw things into each other’s cabs. A passenger in the white truck crawled halfway out the drivers window and began beating on the blue truck with what might have been a sharp object. The driver of the white truck eventually got out and took pictures of the other license plate with his cell phone and called someone. Who? I’m sure it wasn’t 911. I kept thinking, If they shoot each other, we’ll never get through the tunnel. Both trucks, btw, had Jersey plates.

Yarn

Since J and David wanted to see the exhibit again, without the throngs, Saturday morning and we were in Doylestown, I went instead to Forever Yarn again. The owner remembered me from the weekend Stephanie spoke at the bookstore and thanked me for the mention. I bought yarn, of course.

I took some chances here: these are a little more frou frou than my usual purchases. Clockwise, from the top, 1) Blue Heron Rayon/Metallic in Celadon (green again), just because I liked it; 2) Tilli Thomas—I’m embarrassed to type this—Disco Lights in Parchment, because I think it would make a nice, light scarf for a gift; 3) Wool in the Woods Cameo (rayon) in Rosebud, for a scarf for a friend who is sensitive to wool and likes purple; and 4) Debbie Bliss cashmerino astrakhan, because it was slightly cheaper than I get it locally and I want to try it.

Photos

On the way back to NYC Saturday afternoon, we stopped at Gallery 31 North to see a show of photos, Persistence, by our friend Susan had with another artist. Her images are clean and thoughful. The one shown on the gallery site was one of my favorites. I can’t say I particularly liked the other artist’s work.

More Sock

While in Bucks County, I turned the heel of the second railway stitch sock. When we return to our apartment, I frogged it back. Fatal flaw. I have reknit it and am passed the gusset.

¹ If J drove, I could have been knitting.

Cars Under Snow

MarQ1 — Mon, 13 Feb 2006 03:24:32 +0000

Mine’s the one on the left.
Just as well. The city just plowed all of the snow from the bus stop into spot in front of our driveway. Good thing I don’t drive to work.
This was from about 1pm this afternoon. It was still snowing two hours later.
The trudge to work should be fun tomorrow. Do I take extra pants, or walk with garbage bags covering my legs?

Little Mysteries

MarQ1 — Mon, 19 Dec 2005 22:49:00 +0000

Someone found my blog searching Google for “rodent engine jetta”. Why would someone look for that? Is this a common Jetta problem? Does someone want to replace the Turbo Drive with a Squirrel Drive?

Sans Rodentia

MarQ1 — Wed, 07 Dec 2005 23:04:00 +0000

So I picked up the Jetta today. The fact that it no longer had a rodent nest and that I still had the gas that was in the tank and that the rear brakes now feel a bit more reliable didn’t quite make up for the cost and the pound or so of construction dirt liberally dusted all over the car. I love having the car washed when it’s freezing out.

In fairness, when I complained they offered a free car wash, but I know where that carwash is: on the West Side Highway along the Lincoln Tunnel approach. It was rush hour and I don’t have stupid written on my forehead just yet.
And tomorrow’s dental appt, which I entered in my PDA in the dentist’s office on the day I made the appt, has mysteriously been rescheduled to 4:30 from 5:15. Odd that. Either the 4:30 cancelled or I should have something to knit for the extra 45 minutes I’ll be waiting.

Rodentia

MarQ1 — Tue, 06 Dec 2005 21:07:00 +0000

I took the Jetta in for service yesterday because the check engine light came on last July. I got a v-mail from the service center about midday. I called back and Dennis(?) told me that they’d found out what the problem was: a rat had made a nest on top of the gas tank and had chewed through the vent lines that recycle the vapors in the tank. So gross. It was probably a squirrel rather than a rat (I hope), but still oh so gross. $700 worth of gross. They had to remove the gas tank and replace the hoses.

I assume that the tank will be empty when I get the car back.

I should probably go out and start the car occasionally. I spent more time on my bike this summer than in the car.
Speaking of Rodentia, the heavy snow predicted was a wash, just enough to highlight the squirrel tracks in our parking lot.
It’s not my week. First there’s the rodents. Next, apparently when the alarm went off this morning I got up, shut it off and went back to bed without ever actually gaining consciousness. I have no memory of it. That would not have been a big deal if I hadn’t had an 8:30 meeting in Manhattan. Which was actually changed to a 8:00 meeting, but the meeting host never bothered to change the electronic invite, so instead of being three minutes late I was thirty-three minutes late. Live by the PDA, die by the PDA.

Let’s see what horrors Wednesday, Thursday & Friday can bring. Snow on Friday maybe?