4-day recap

the good

took a half day on friday to drive into the city and meet up with my dad, who is really awesome company.
an eating and drinking tour of boston ensued, including my favorite iced mochas at cafe aroma on newbury (formerly torrefazione), rare steak and blue cheese sammiches with hoegaarden at the parish, superman movie at lowes on the common, and a leisurely persian dinner experience at lala rokh on beacon hill.

saturday found us on a harbor cruise with literally 50 or so of our relatives that i had never met nor heard of before; all offspring of my grandpa's older sisters. the resemblances, physical and intellectual, were uncanny. i left feeling like i had made all sorts of new friends in the area, and realized i had a much bigger family than i thought. seeing my dad reconnect with people he hadn't seen in 50 years was something special; it made me vow to keep in better touch with my current friends, which i am so bad at sometimes.

sunday was an awesome lobster roll lunch affair down in RI, where kz's parents got to meet my dad. it was so relaxed and pleasant, i think everyone really hit it off and i realized i had been stressing about it up until the grand official meeting of the clans. it was lots of fun!


the bad

first off, extreme heat and boston parking garage fees.

secondly, my car refusing to start in the bowels of the harbor hotel garage, right before the cruise. i promptly ignored it and decided it wasn't going anywhere while i had a relaxing tour of the harbor. i got it jumped when we came back and decided i would either make it home or i wouldn't, and then there's always triple A.

then my low fuel light went on. and natch you can't stop for gas when you can't start again.

i did make it to NH, and changed the battery in the walmart parking lot. a job well done; back to normal with little fanfare, i thought.

the ugly

the car didn't start again yesterday afternoon. ironically, in the sam's club parking lot right across the street from the walmart. the new battery was covered in this greasy stuff, which i can confirm for you today, based on the soreness of all my fingerpads, was indeed battery acid. i called kz, who picked up a re-manned alternator on the way down from work. i had nothing to do but sit in the shade and drink the water and eat the granola bars i had just purchased in bulk. things seemed just crummy but ok until i twisted my knee again.

then i did what anyone should do when about to heatstroke, in terrible pain, and in fear of never having a driveable car. i cried, and hid my shame behind sunglasses, and then called my mom.

kz came with the part and the next 6 hours passed rather quickly despite the stifling heat, swarms of mosquitoes, and curious onlookers. one nice lady in a minivan stopped and brought us papertowels like molly pitcher to a wounded soldier; it didn't make a dent in my coolant, grease, and sand-encrusted skin, but was awfully sweet.

sean also came by with a spare battery and witnessed a few moments of particularly heated cursing and grunting as we struggled to align the pivot bolt. god, that sucked.

but car made it home under its own power with a new alternator and another new battery. the day ended with subway sandwiches for dinner at midnight, and you bet i called out of work today.
if it doesn't start today when i need to go meet up with some trunkmonkeys and do pre-rally prep, i think i will take it out back and shoot it.