av8rmike

So, I got a new car on Saturday. It only took about 5-6 hours at the dealership, with all the wheeling and dealing and "I've got to go check with the manager." But in the end, I got a 2010 VW Jetta TDI, which are pretty highly in demand now. It seems VW's marketing plan of raising interest and demand while keeping supply low worked out pretty well for them.

Jamie took this picture yesterday afternoon. It was pretty late in the day, so you can't get a good sense of the color:

This day just keeps getting better and better.

In my hurry to get out of the car during the rain, I successfully managed to lock the keys inside.

I was going to say something about this cold this morning, but it was only about 15° here, which means it was probably -10° in Chicago and Wisconsin. Anyway, I went out to my car and found a parking ticket under the wiper blade. I thought I'd gotten home late enough that it wouldn't have been illegal. Then I read it over and notice that it's not even for my car. I think it was on the car parked behind mine yesterday evening. That means that its owner was so incensed at receiving a ticket after being parked all day in a clearly-marked truck loading zone that he just left it on my car instead. WTF, man?
So, should I contact the city about it or just throw it away?

...Actually, I just did a bit of Googling. Baltimore City can be a nasty place for unpaid parking tickets, to the tune of several hundred dollars in additional fines, plus booting. So maybe I'll just let this go.

Well, as if my adventures with birds weren't already strange enough... Last Thursday or Friday, when it was really warm, I went over to the big car wash place on Ritchie Highway near my office and paid $15 for the exterior wash, complete with Mexican guy cleaning the wheels. No less than 48 hours later, some birds in a tree under which I'd parked decided to have their egg-hatching party. I came out the next morning to find shards of eggshells stuck to the hood and passenger side, and what looks like yellow snot stains. The bits of shell I found were spotted blue, so it's not like someone egged my truck overnight. That shit doesn't come off easily either, and now it's 40° every day. So I either have to leave it on until spring, find a different (i.e. better) car wash that's still open, or stand out in the cold and do it myself.

I left my music stand at last night's rehearsal, and although I won't really need it, I can't get it until Thursday or even Saturday.

So, yeah, that stupid pigeon rode in my truck the whole way to Columbia last night (about 25 miles from work), sat around while I ate dinner at the mall, bought a nice jacket, then went to rehearsal. It was waiting for me when I got out and rode the whole way home, too. It was still there this morning, and all a ride over some speed bumps did was move it around a bit. If anyone is counting, that's probably 30+ hours and over 100 miles total. Sadly, I think it's probably injured in some way, so I'll probably scoop it out this afternoon. A trip through the car wash is warranted anyway, since there's no doubt about the bird's digestive system.

This morning I walked around the corner to the side street where my car was parked. I saw something under the windshield wiper and thought it was a ticket, but it turned out to be a folded piece of paper. On it was written, in green ink:
2 11
Though, I can't tell if there's supposed to be a space in between the '2' and the first '1', or if the whole thing is widely spaced. A few weeks ago, I found the same thing scrawled into the dirt on the driver's side, just behind the door. I know my car was parked on the same street, maybe or maybe not the exact same place. Is someone trying to send me a message? A warning? Will I become the victim of an armed robbery soon?

In other news, yesterday just kept getting better and better. "Lost" was really good, and then Dayna came over bearing gifts! I'd been talking about getting a French press coffeepot, and she had bought me the Bodum Chambord 8-cup model. Besides not having any properly ground coffee, I also don't know how much water to put in per serving or if it's too big for my needs (I thought I only wanted the 3-cup model). Bodum's websites are no help.