{"id":1827,"date":"2008-04-05T14:02:48","date_gmt":"2008-04-05T20:02:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/?p=1827"},"modified":"2008-07-18T12:48:58","modified_gmt":"2008-07-18T17:48:58","slug":"i-drove-the-car-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/2008\/04\/05\/i-drove-the-car-today\/","title":{"rendered":"I drove the car today"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today is April 5.
\nThe last time I drove the car was March 6.<\/p>\n

Once again I was worried that the parking garage had towed the car as an abandoned vehicle. They hadn’t, although the attendant had written “3\/11\/08” and “3\/21\/08” in the dust on the trunk. I was also worried the car wouldn’t start. It did, although it blew a lot of nasty smoke for about a minute after it fired up.<\/p>\n

So I drove it to Midtown and did something I have not done in the 14-year history of owning the car… I paid to run it through a car wash. Usually I just wait for it to need maintenance and then let the Saturn dealership wash it. But since I get maintenance done every 3,000 miles, it may be a year or more before the car is due. So I had no choice.<\/p>\n

Actually the car will be in the shop well before that. It still needs its A\/C fixed. That can’t go on much longer.<\/p>\n

I feel like I’ve been making deals with the devil this week. I shopped at two places I consider the most evil companies on Earth. First of all, my electric shaver broke, and the easiest place I could think of to get a new shaver was Wal-Mart. God it killed me to spend money there, but I didn’t know where else to get one without driving all the way to East Memphis. Then my car ran out of washer fluid, and I had to go to… it pains me to even type this… AutoZone. Actually they treat their customers pretty well, but their corporate culture sucks. When I was job hunting and the recruiters asked me if there was any place I would not work, “AutoZone” was the first word out of my mouth. Two days from now, when it’s “Uniform Monday” and AutoZoners are all wearing their boring gray shirts and boring black pants and black belts and black socks and black shoes<\/a> $\"\"$ – black POLISHABLE shoes<\/a> $\"\"$ , mind you – I’ll be wearing a Hawaiian shirt, jeans, and sandals to work. At least I only spent $1.69 at AutoZone.<\/p>\n

Noticed there’s a new El Mezcal at 1492 Union… hmmm, I could drink margaritas there without driving, as I could ride the trolley to the end of the line and then walk the couple of blocks over there. I wish the trolley would take me to Cafe Ole.<\/p>\n

Also noticed Krystal has Wi-Fi. WTF? Who would take their laptop to Krystal? Anyone who can afford a laptop can afford a better place to surf the web than Krystal.<\/p>\n

The Midtown crawfish festival is a week from today. If the weather is nice I think I’ll ride my bike up there. From what I remember, the past two Midtown crawfish fests have had some pretty crappy weather (no rain, but barely 60 in the middle of April).<\/p>\n

Just got a text that the gang is at the Saucer. Guess I’ll head up there. Still undecided whether I’ll stay there for the game or go to Barton Flats.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"