Thursday, April 06, 2006
I heart brothers-in-law
So, you own a car worth about $7,000. You've been told it needs a new transmission, at a cost of $4,000. What do you do? If you have a brilliant, beautiful wife, she makes a call to her sister, who has a husband, who has an extra car!
After work yesterday I took a taxi to the dealership, picked up my car (after paying $88 so they could confirm what I told them when I took it in: transmission problem, duh!) and drove it home (It still drives fine, I should say. It just makes this noise that is a precursor to something awsul happening to it.)
When Laura got home, we went up to Maryland to visit her sister and her husband. Went out to a nice dinner with them and her father, then checked out the car. His other car had been sitting in his driveway since November, and the battery was so dead it wouldn't even start with jumper cables. One trip to Wal-Mart and one $44 battery later, and I was cruising down the highway in a Hyundai Tiburon. He's letting me drive the car until we sell the other house and get the dough to get another car (and trade in the VW, or leve it in a bad part of town with the keys in it?).
Yeah, a lot of complicated factors need to come together n the next few months, but I'll be able to drive during all of it, so it's okay. I love her family. They really came together to help me out.
Eighty percent of my office is at our conference on the other side of the country, so it is QUIET here this week. I opted out, since I have work to do here, and the idea of two cross-country coach-class flights in three days sounds like hell to me.
I'm enjoying the silence. Actually, I'm enjoying a new CD my wife found for me: Africa Remix-- Ah Freak Iya, Contemporary Music of the Continent. It is awesome!
Listen to track 2: Coupe Bibamba by Awilo Longomba. This song was a monster hit in 1998, all over Africa. So I heard this song several times a day for months when I was over there. Finally tracking down a copy on CD? Priceless.
Listen to track 16: Paradiso by Konono No 1. Oh WOW. This song is an amazing discovery. The band is from Congo, and they play homemade traditional instruments that are amplified until the are distorted like Hendrix. It's like African punk. I'm picking up their CD Congotronics (great title!) soon.
I'm taking tomorrow off, and taking a long weekend. Because if the entire office is out, I want to be also.
After work yesterday I took a taxi to the dealership, picked up my car (after paying $88 so they could confirm what I told them when I took it in: transmission problem, duh!) and drove it home (It still drives fine, I should say. It just makes this noise that is a precursor to something awsul happening to it.)
When Laura got home, we went up to Maryland to visit her sister and her husband. Went out to a nice dinner with them and her father, then checked out the car. His other car had been sitting in his driveway since November, and the battery was so dead it wouldn't even start with jumper cables. One trip to Wal-Mart and one $44 battery later, and I was cruising down the highway in a Hyundai Tiburon. He's letting me drive the car until we sell the other house and get the dough to get another car (and trade in the VW, or leve it in a bad part of town with the keys in it?).
Yeah, a lot of complicated factors need to come together n the next few months, but I'll be able to drive during all of it, so it's okay. I love her family. They really came together to help me out.
Eighty percent of my office is at our conference on the other side of the country, so it is QUIET here this week. I opted out, since I have work to do here, and the idea of two cross-country coach-class flights in three days sounds like hell to me.
I'm enjoying the silence. Actually, I'm enjoying a new CD my wife found for me: Africa Remix-- Ah Freak Iya, Contemporary Music of the Continent. It is awesome!
Listen to track 2: Coupe Bibamba by Awilo Longomba. This song was a monster hit in 1998, all over Africa. So I heard this song several times a day for months when I was over there. Finally tracking down a copy on CD? Priceless.
Listen to track 16: Paradiso by Konono No 1. Oh WOW. This song is an amazing discovery. The band is from Congo, and they play homemade traditional instruments that are amplified until the are distorted like Hendrix. It's like African punk. I'm picking up their CD Congotronics (great title!) soon.
I'm taking tomorrow off, and taking a long weekend. Because if the entire office is out, I want to be also.
# posted by smacky @ 8:10 AM 
