Internet was down

Sun Oct. 22 2006

Writing this while the main Internet connection is down. I’ll post it as soon as I have a new or old link back. I didn’t even know it was a Holiday.

The first week of work left me a bit thin. I didn’t quite hit the 20 site mark I’d hoped for. Only got 15, which was more than I needed to but not as many as I’d promised. Of course they did send me on a 5-hour “fool’s errand” that killed a chunk of time I should have been surveying. I think I wasn’t ready mentally or physically for the new contract to begin. I should be up to speed this week though. Once in the groove, I need to carve writing time into the whole week, even if it’s just an hour a day. Don’t know when that’ll be, I’ll just have to wait and see. I’m hoping to take Sundays off, which shouldn't be a problem seeing as how there is a security issue at the sites and I would rather be turned in to an employee who’s manager knows I’m there rather than to the cops. That could be a pain in the ass. Today I paid bills, read comics, and talked to the parents, which is how Sundays should be. Sometime next week I’m going to have to get new break pads as the squeaking has begun which means there’s metal making love near my wheels. There’s also a funny noise from the steering column, or at least it sound that way. Hopefully it’ll be solved with the break pads as well.


Mon Oct 23, 2006

“RHI has cut a deal with Sci Fi Channel to produce up to 10 monster films over the next two years, title which Sci Fi will have license to for a period of seven years. According to Variety, RHI will maintain all home video, new media and VOD rights of the films. The upcoming titles include Blood Monkey, Eye of the Beast, Maneater and Grizzly Rage. While termed as being "low-budget monster films", each title is expected to be produced with a budget exceeding the usual $2.2 million because of the additional rights RHI will maintain.”

And, here is the reason DEADWOOD died. I don’t think it was a fair trade.

“HBO has ordered 11 episodes of the pilot project “John from Cincinnati” from producer David Milch. The series is about a young wealthy guy, John, who goes to California to surf and stays with the Yost family, a multi-generational and strongly dysfunctional family of ex-surfer champs.”

Well, it turns out that today is the day I get to take my car in and have the break pads replaced seeing as how by the time I got to the first location this morning the high pitched metal touching metal sound was pretty much a constant and was now occurring when I drove, not just when I used the brakes. Thinking I’d go somewhere after the first location, I turned the corner to find its parking garage closed. So after much mental debate in a McDonald’s parking lot I headed back to 13th and Pico to a brake shop that was recommended to me. Upon arriving thirty minutes later I found it was appointment only and that just wouldn’t cut it. So I went to the only Toyota dealership I knew of in the area. I got there about 9:00 AM and they said they’d get to it by lunchtime and call me back. So I left to take the bus home. Of course I forgot to grab my apartment key off the ring but luckily realized it after only walking five blocks. After I got the key I walked about 10 blocks before deciding that the bus was definitely the right idea. Now at home, 2 hours after dropping off my car I await the call and the inevitable hemorrhage inducing damage total all the while hoping that I didn’t warp my rotors.

1 hour later

Oh well, just got the call. While I didn’t warp the brakes, they will need to be machined a bit since there was some metal crunching. “That’ll be four hours from now and $405.00,” please. I asked if they’d throw in an oil change and they said, “An oil change will be $27.99.” I think I’ll go to EZLUBE for that, it’s cheaper there and comes with a car wash. Oddly enough the rear brakes are still at 50%. How does one break wear two times faster than another? I can only guess that the last time the pads were replaced, only the rear ones were replaced. I feel dirty, like someone touched me in my secret money place.

I’m now monetarily 8 sites behind with the breaks and the advance on the work. Sweet. Maybe something else can go wrong. That’d be dandy.

Hiding behind comic books until dirty Toyota Dealership Repair Shop guy calls me back to come pick-up my car.

4 Hours later

I got the car back. It was only $390.04. So, they must have finished about two minutes before they expected saving me $16.00 in labor. The bonus was that they washed my car, which around here is a $15 - $20 value. The point however, is that everything feels tighter which gave me considerable more driving confidence when I left the dealership and that is priceless. Remember kids, when metal makes love, it’s already too late.