Dumb Things I’ve Done

Bump In The Night

For whatever reason I like to back the cars up onto the carport/portico. And this is a stupid idea. Truth be told, my brain cannot comprehend going backwards; this means I do a lot of steering corrections trying to keep it between the posts. Side note, two of the 3 posts are inline; the third, not so much. That fateful night, I misjudged it badly; hence, below are photos of a post and a GTI.


I’m going to get it fixed; the wrap is too new not to, but they are working over a month out. So I have an appointment to get it fixed on February 12th. They’ll rewrap the entire rear bumper because it sustained the most scrapes and scratches; there will be one inch or two of a patch at the top because otherwise they would have to rewrap most of the body.

That Was Unexpected

When I brought the GTI home back on October 11th, I realized it didn’t come with an owner’s manual. The first thing I did was find a PDF of the manual online, and then I headed over to eBay to buy a physical copy of the manual.

Today while running errands I went to put something in the glove box, and it wouldn’t close. There was a kind of shelf at the top of the inside of the box; I took a closer look, and there was something on the shelf. I reached and got ahold of something thick that was bound in leather.

You guessed it, the original owner’s manual…

Typical male behavior: if it isn’t visible front and center, it doesn’t exist.

Bugging Out Early

The original plan for this trip had me flying out of ABQ and getting home on the evening of December 9th. Since I opted to drive instead of fly during the shutdown, I thought I would start back on Monday the 8th. I’ve broken it up into four 300-mile days so I’d get back on Thursday because I have a doctor’s appointment on Friday the 12th.

So today I started making reservations at the three stops. The first night is going to be in Montecello, UT, so I plugged it into Google Maps to look for hotels. It is a smallish town, so there are no big chain places, but I found one that has a good rating, so I booked it. Trouble is I put the wrong date in, so instead of putting Monday’s date in, I put in tomorrow’s. I only noticed the error as I was starting to look at places on stop number two. It was too late to cancel because that first reservation was not refundable.

Ooops.

Neue Scheibenwischerblätter

Yesterday I bought some new windshield wipers for the GTI. I checked for the sizes needed, and while we were at Walmart to pick up the Cerakote Headlight Renewal Kit for Sally’s 2002 RAV4, I grabbed the ones I needed for the VW. What I should have done first was see what kind of connection to the arms it was, but I didn’t, and when we got back and went to put the new ones on, the connection from blade to arm was something I’d never seen before.

This morning we took another trip to Walmart to return the wrong ones and stopped on the way back home at the local VW place to snag the right ones. While I was there, I also had them sell me a rear window wiper blade as well. The total for the three OEM blades at the dealer was just right around three times the cost of the $35 that they cost at Wally World.

RATFI

– C is for Dummy –

Yesterday morning I woke up all body-achy and still tired. So, I grabbed the one remaining test kit I still had from my last bout with COVID. Sure enough, it came back with a bright red line next to the C. I took a big ol’ nap and just chilled for the afternoon. After a quick dinner I popped a cannabis gummy, and when it kicked in, I went to bed.

This morning when I woke up I felt fine. So, on my usual Friday morning grocery shopping trip, I picked up a couple of home test kits. I took one, and while I waited the 15 minutes for the results, I read the instructions. The procedure is same old, same old. But when I looked at the result reading images, I discovered that C does not mean you have COVID; that is the control line so you know the test is viable. If I had COVID, it would have also had a red line after S. Why S?

I don’t still have yesterday’s test instructions, so I can’t say for sure, but yesterday’s results were correct as well: a single red line alongside the C, and nothing next to anything else, meant no COVID.

Read All The F**king Instructions

Several Senior Key Moments All In A Row

Not my proudest moments. When I left the house to head off to the DMV for my scheduled appointment, I locked the door behind me. Only when I got to the car did I realize the keys weren’t in my pocket. Crap. I was so worried about having all my paperwork in hand that I forgot to grab them off the hook by the door. Not a big deal, I have a Hide-A-Key outside just for such an event. I retrieved the key and slid it into the lock; it would not turn. Huh? I must have put the wrong key in my Hide-A-Key thing. It could have been the old Klamath Falls key, or a relative’s house key, or, hell, maybe even an old key from Aiken days.

Being a belt and suspenders kind of guy, my neighbor across the street has a copy as a contingency plan. I texted her, “Are you home?” No reply. Now, I’m starting to think I’m going to miss my appointment. Thirty seconds later I hear a beep and watch her car go by; she was on her way home from the store. I walk over and get her backup key. I open my door, grab the keys for Bucky, lock up, and return the backup key to her. I still had plenty of time to make it to the DMV on time.

After doing all the paperwork to get Bucky street legal, I drove the short distance to PDX Wraps to drop him off for the side stripe and dark windshield banner. After we ironed out the size and placement details, it was time to order up an Uber for the ride home. As I left the shop to go outside and wait for my ride, I realized I still had the car keys in my pocket, so I went back in and said, “Oh, you might need these.”

The 45-minute Uber ride was going to end up taking about an hour and 45 minutes because of some sort of traffic snafu. In the 2 years I’ve lived here and in all the times I’ve dealt with I-5 and I-84, it has never been that backed up. About halfway home creeping along, I realized that those car keys also held the house key. DOH!

So, I texted my neighbor again, admitting that I’m brain-dead and I’ll be needing that key again. This time the no response was a lot longer; I didn’t hear from her even after I was dropped off in front of my locked house. I walked over, and her car was there, but she didn’t answer the knock. Okay, now what? I called a locksmith. He said, “I’m finishing up a job, and then I’m 45 minutes away. Hang tight.”

About 20 minutes later I got a text; my neighbor was back, so I went over and got my spare key again. After unlocking the house door, I returned them across the street again because obviously I’m going to need her to keep them. I called the locksmith back, hoping he wasn’t already on the way because then I’d be out a couple hundred bucks. At last something went my way; he hadn’t finished up that job yet, so I dodged a monetary bullet.

I got in the other Miata and headed to Lowe’s to get the correct key to stash in my Hide-A-Key. Belt and suspenders.

Lubbock, TX – Day 23: Faulty Memory & Bombers Away

ND3 and a B-17


 
Today’s Roadside America picture is of the Flying Fortress of the Plains A metal cut-out sculpture of the B-17 bomber on the site of the WWII Hobbs Army Air Field. I had been here before, back in 2023, too bad I didn’t remember where here was.

Today’s destination was Lubbock, TX, which is a little over 300 miles from Santa Fe. It was a short driving day with only about 5 hours in the saddle. I had picked out a lunch spot in Fort Sumner and a Roadside America stop in Muleshoe, TX, to see the world’s largest mule shoe.

This route took me right through Clovis, NM, where I thought the above B-17 was located. I remembered that it was not far from the airport and was visible from the road. After taking a circuitous route all around the airport, I never found it. Plus, nothing seemed familiar.

In 2023 Donna and I took a road trip over to Laurel, MS, to visit the Hometown town of Laurel, MS. Our route was through Hobbs, NM, on the way there and Clovis, NM, on the way home. All three towns were in the running for us to possibly relocate to.

Turns out the B-17 sculpture was in Hobbs. With the planned short day of driving, I decided, what the heck, and would head south. But first, lunch. I fired up Google and searched for a place. The first one up was Mom’s Cafe with a 4.7-star rating. I headed that way, and as I started up the bridge that went over the railroad tracks, I had a hit of déjà vu. I already knew where I was going, Donna and I had breakfast at Mom’s Cafe back in 2023.

Instead of just the 100 miles I had left to go to Lubbock from the start in Santa Fe, I turned it into 240 miles with the Hobbs detour.