3/17/08

“Oh no! There goes Tokyo! Go, go, Godzilla!” What’s with the Blue Oyster Cult lyrics? Well, I spent the weekend making a Godzilla-sized carbon footprint for myself. I'll start at the beginning, duh. Friday, you may have noticed, I had no entry in here. I started one but then abandoned it when it began to get a bit antagonistic towards someone. I'm not saying who, or is it whom? Anyhoo, I erased it and that's all there is to that. Friday evening we were having the Old School Japanese Car meet at Freebird’s so I left work to go get Shi-Chi. John texted, or e-mailed or something, to tell me that he was running late and that he’d see me at the event. I asked if he was bringing Admiral Akbar and was told no. That made my plan easier as I wouldn’t need to have two cars there. If he was bringing Admiral Akbar, I'd have wanted Darth Versa there as well. I would have also wanted Matilda there but fortunately the point was moo. Ok, so I'm now running early for the car show and decided to head to the house to change clothes before going to pick up Shi-Chi. My brother from Austin was in town with his family and was meeting Mom at the Chili’s on University at 1700 h. I didn’t think I was going to be able to make that but I pulled up to the house right as mom was leaving. She suggested I follow in Darth Versa and go to the show from there. I agreed and did that after changing into some shorts and a tee-shirt. At Chili’s we all ate and chatted and stuff. They had to go to a wedding rehearsal that evening and so needed to leave the “restaurant” at 1800 h, which was good for me as I still needed to go to the shop for Shi-Chi. We all left around 1800 h and I sped to the shop. I parked Darth Versa and rolled Shi-Chi out. I should have taken a little time and gave it a “spit bath” but I didn’t. I headed off to the show. Oh, I saw Marty Smith as I was coming in and invited him to bring his 510 to the show as well. Being the first time I'd driven Shi-Chi since last fall when it was running so poorly, I took off rather tentatively. The shifter is still wonky and there is ever so slight evidence of a stumble as revs build, but I think it was an electrical issue. I'll continue to monitor the situation. About halfway to the event, which was only about three or four miles, five tops, away from the shop, I noticed that the inspection sticker was expired. “Oh crap,” I thought, “I'll bet there isn't a current insurance card in here either.” I didn’t check as it was too late to do anything about it anyway. I rolled on. The car ran pretty well as a cruiser but I wasn’t really pushing it. I rolled into the parking lot and took a spot somewhat away from the restaurant. I wanted to be able to see people coming and going. I shut down and sat in the car to wait. I called John to check his status. He was waiting for John Ullom. I called Pat to remind him of the event. I called Enrique to remind him of the event. Pat said he’d try but I think Enrique is avoiding me. I'm not going to go into it. Before too long, the MR-2 dude from the Houston event showed up and parked next to me. We chatted for a bit and Marty Smith arrived. He was in his truck though. Oh well, I tried. John arrived and we all hung out for a bit. Around 2000 h, the Madde Tyte Dryfter crowd began to pour in and the event was on. We went in and ate. Well, everyone else ate; I was still full from Chili’s. We wandered back out to the cars and hung out for a while. Around 2200 h, John and John were about to leave. I asked if they’d be willing to follow me back to the shop to open the door so I could just drive in. They hesitated so I said, “Never mind,” and sent them on home. I talked to the MTD guys a bit longer and finally left when they took off to go play somewhere else. I rolled up to the gate at the shop but my code didn’t work. I tried to call Pat to get his code but he didn’t answer. I called Marty Smith to see if he was home to let me in but he wasn’t. I finally gave up and drove Shi-Chi home. I called mom and asked if she’d move her car out of the garage for the night since I didn’t have the tonneau cover with me. She did and I parked it inside overnight. Upon examination of the Birkini top, I noticed that the straps were all loose. Saturday morning I pulled them tight and sewed the loose ends to keep them set. All but one are tight enough now. I took off to return Shi-Chi to the shop. I took the long way there, of course. When I finally arrived at the shop, the code worked again. It was then that I remembered that the gates lock down at 2200 h and that was why I couldn’t get in Friday night. Duh. I parked Shi-Chi and messed around with stuff for a little while before hopping in Darth Versa and going home. Sunday morning I decided I wanted to drive Mr. Wiggly. I took Darth Versa to the store to buy a brake light and then went back home to install it. I took Mr. Wiggly to the gas station and filled up. I then proceeded to burn through an entire tank of gas just cruising around. I dig that van. I felt like I was flipping off Al Gore, Ed Begley Jr., and all the rest of those tree-hugging, hippie-freak, environmental whack-jobs all day. I loved it. I went to the shop for a bit and had a look around but didn’t feel like doing anything. Finally I went home and wasted the evening watching TV. Oh, I think I left my laptop on the whole time too, just to waste some electricity, and I'm sure I had a sink running a little stream of water for the cat for a while. Yeah, that’s right, fuck the environment! Let the next generation worry about it. Lazy assed little babies and children, grow up already! No wait, stay little babies and children so you won’t get in my way on the road. Oops, gotta go do some actual work for a bit. Have a day.