4/5/2011

Well, John called as I was driving home last night to say that he’s found the problem with his park lights. So it looks like we won't be doing diagnostic work on his car Saturday after all. Of course we still have a few days before then for something else to go wrong. [ Gee thanks... - SM ] Oh well, what are you going to do? I was thinking the other day, “Are we Hipsters because we’re into old Japanese cars or are we into old Japanese cars because we are Hipsters?” But then I thought, “As a Hipster, I don't really give a shit either way.” So there. OK, I have a story about last night but I'm not sure I really care enough to tell it. Meh, here goes. So I'm sitting there watching TV last night when I see an orange flash outside and hear a loud BANG! I get up to investigate and see a white Ford van parked out front down by the barricade. As I'm watching the van, I see something light up in the cab. I grab my Taurus PT92 9mm and the phone and call the Beenbroke Police. I ‘splain the situation and the dispatcher asks if it sounded like a transformer exploding. I say it could have been that and that my neighbor’s house does look exceptionally dark. He says he’ll have someone check it out. I watch the van off and on for about half an hour then sit back down to watch “Good Eats” on the Food Network. At the first commercial break, I go to check on the van again. It is gone. I tell mom the story so she won't freak out if the police call back. She comes downstairs to check things out. With the van gone I feel confident enough to take a ride around the block to see what’s what. Up the block, about two streets away, they are totally dark. Another street up I find three power company trucks “working” on the situation. I head back to the house. I tell mom and she goes on up to bed. I stay up just in case the cops show up. While I'm waiting, I hear another loud POP outside and my light flickers. I walk the perimeter and notice the street light is out. As I'm looking around, it comes back on and I see a Beenbroke cop drive by. It looked like he was stopping so I took off out the door to meet him. He was gone. As I was headed back in, the phone was ringing. I thought it might be the cops but no, it was our helpless little Greek neighbor. She never really assimilated well and has been pretty much a hermit since her husband died a few... hell, more like ten years ago. Yikes. Anyhoo, I assure her there (probably) aren't any killers in her house or yard and that the problem is up the street and that the crews are working on it and she can relax. Of course I then had to hear all her problems for the next few minutes. See, that’s what Juan gets for being a “People Person.” After we hang up, I ‘splain to mom that call and she goes back to bed again. I wait some more. About another half hour later, there is another POP and flicker. Then another a half hour after that. I finally give up and go to bed. So, my theory is this: a transformer up the street blew up at about 2200 h last night. Coincidentally, some dudes in a white van parked by our barricade to smoke a doobie or something. As the crews were fixing the transformer they popped the service interruption breaker thingy three times before I stopped paying attention. No telling how many more times it popped over the course of the evening. I set an auxiliary alarm just in case our power went off and was still late this morning! But that was just because I couldn't drag my ass out of bed due to (tee hee, I said doo doo) being up until a million o’clock. So on that note, I'm calling this a rant.