1/23/08

Well, I obviously got involved with other stuff yesterday and didn’t come back. I had intended to, but it just didn’t happen. My new air car arrived yesterday and I got it all hooked up. I did find out how to make the thing ignore 3G signals and only use the regular, 2G cellular network. It never did crash or shut down unexpectedly, but it is so slow that Internot Exploiter gave up on the requested site a few times prompting me to for a reload, or refresh, or whatever. I really hate computers. Moving on, I picked up the wheels for Darth Versa last night. Here’s the poop, I asked the credit onion if they ever gave out unsecured, signature loans. She said they did so I asked what my signature was worth. She typed for a bit and said, “Well, it looks like all we can get you is about $10,000.00.” I told her that was way more than I needed to pay off my credit card debt. I had her run the numbers for the amount I needed, rounded up to the next thousand. She did and said since I have a plan on file I didn’t even need to come in and sign. So, I guess my word alone is worth about ten grand. Yikes, that is scary. Oh, and I don’t mean to be bragging. I'm just shocked is all. Anyhoo, I went ahead and had her run up the paperwork and deposit the money into my account. No, I'm not going to tell y'all how much the loan was so just relax. I stopped in on the way home to trade out a money order which had expired and withdraw the money to buy the wheels. From the credit onion I went to the ticket fixer lawyer’s office to drop off said money order. I decided to go I-20 home so I drove past Marty and Stacey’s house. I didn’t expect to see him but there was Marty out in the yard. I honked and he came and sat in the passenger seat while we chatted for a bit. Eventually I left and went on home. John was going to call me when Bailey, the guy with the wheels, was on his way to Cresson so I could head that way myself. I got to the house and decided to lug the twenty, 42-gallon contractor garbage bags from the garage cleanout to the curb. Yeah, I said twenty, 42-gallon contractor bags. Mom came out and got the regular household trash and recycle ready so I took that to the curb as well. John finally called so I hopped in Fifi, after moving the few items I needed to take to the shop from Darth Versa, and headed towards Cresson. I made pretty good time, but not quite good enough. Just as I approached the railroad crossing, the lights started flashing and the bell started ringing. I watched the train go past and could see the gas station where I was to meet Bailey flashing intermittently. The train gradually began to slow and finally stopped. It sat for a moment and, you guessed it, began to back up. It sped up rapidly in reverse, impressively so actually, and was soon out of the way again. I met with Bailey and bought the wheels. Just as we were shaking hands on the deal, “ding, ding, ding! Buh-waaaaaaaaaaaah!” the train was back. Bailey didn’t have to wait for it because he was going to head down a road which didn’t cross these tracks so he left. I tried to take a back road which I knew did cross the tracks, three more times in fact, but thought I might beat the thing. I didn’t. I sat and watched it go by. When it was past I took off and decided I'd just putt along near the end so that when we got to the next crossing I wouldn’t have to get re-passed by all the cars I'd just passed. I couldn’t drive that slowly. An Eclipse passed me and I laughed because I “knew” he was going to get to the crossing and be stuck. Well, the next crossing was much further along than I remembered. When I got to the engines of the train, ok they are really called locomotives and I know better, I could see that the road continued on for quite a while so I dropped a gear or two and hauled ass! I was flying along at about ninety when I began to recognize the approaching crossing. I looked back and the train’s lights were pretty far behind me. I crossed the tracks and continued. I almost caught up to the Eclipse by the time we got to the 1187 intersection. I crossed the train’s path three more times and was at the shop. I unloaded the wheels behind the Seven and set the spare Versa grille on top of them. Just as I was getting back into the truck, I heard the train’s horn as it approached the Old Granbury Road crossing right in front of the gate. I took off, fully expecting to be caught by the thing at the north crossing after the low water thingy. I passed the locomotives with plenty of time to cross the tracks. I looked back towards the train’s lights and they were a good quarter mile away. I crossed and went on home. I am so stoked about getting my springs so I can put the wheels on. I know if I'd picked them up in Darth Versa I would have been tempted to try them on last night. It was butt-assed butt-butt cold out though and John would have killed me. Well, I need to go look at a wireless mouse in the Viewing Gallery in about fifteen minutes so I think I'm going to call this rant complete. I'll keep y'all in the loop as to the parts as they arrive for the car. Have a day.