What Cheer, Netop?

I estimate that little traffic tie-up about doubled the time driving back from Narragansett. Oh well.

I only indulged in one bit of New Jersey Merging Chicken. I won, which is not difficult if you know the trick, but it was an empty victory, because five minutes later the truck who lost zipped into the left lane and skipped ahead a fair ways.

Despite this, an enjoyable evening.

Did you hear about the idiot who locked his family in his car?

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After my last post, doctroid said:

I fixed a cannot-open-from-inside door for a friend of mine once after he'd been putting up with it for months. He has no children. I do. Are there child locks on the rear doors (usually a little lever on the door near the latch mechanism, accessible only when the door is open)? Did one somehow get set?

(I should mention that someone had mentioned child locks in this connection before, but I thought they were talking about the button on the driver's door which, when depressed, prevents anyone in the car from rolling down the window or unlocking the door.) So I went down to have a look, and indeed not far from the latch was a little unlabeled black button which could be twisted between two positions (which were about 45 degrees apart).

I rotated it to the other position, but the basic problem then was: how to figure out if it made a difference or not. So I got in the back seat of the car, figuring that if I had just locked myself in I would just let myself out of the other door. I was in fact able to open the door again, so that seemed good.

In a pointless attempt to make sure that this had in fact fixed the problem, I then switched the button back to its original position and got back in the car. As predicted, I could no longer get out of that door.

So I went over to the other rear door and discovered that it was blocked by a cabinet which my landlord had left on the other side of my car. Images of me attracting the attention of a passerby and getting them to let me out of my car went through my head. It wasn't pretty.

Finally I decided to try wedging myself out of the passenger-side back door, which was uncomfortable but worked. Then I switched the button back to the unlocked position and continued on my way.

Incidentally, this is what the sign for the hair supplies place next door has had for the last couple of days. (I think it's their entry for a new menu item at Trinity Brewhouse, although I'm not sure what it would contain, other than the obvious.)

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It took him all week to get them out.

Yesterday I went out to my car around midday and discovered that one of the tires was flat. Curses!

So I called AAA and they came and put on the tiny emergency tire that is in my trunk. Hurrah!

But they mentioned that one of the lug nuts was missing from that particular tire. Drat!

So I took the car to the tire warehouse today and explained the situation, and they gave me a new tire. Yay!

However, I noticed a little while ago that I'm still minus a lug nut. What the hell?

The end. Or is it?


Now I go to watch a Swedish movie.

Incidentally, the AAA guy asked me if I had driven over any potholes lately. It is to laugh!

I asked him if he had been getting a lot of calls like this recently. Apparently, this was to laugh also!

My car won't start, I am guessing because of all the snow on the engine. I called AAA and they said that I'd probably have to wait 3-4 hours for someone to get here. So maybe I won't be making it to Billy Goode's to play tonight.

Well, we'll see.