1946 chevy fleetmaster
another strange week starting. i’ll blame it on the santa ana winds...
quick post, since i’m pretty tired from this day’s issues.
second night of few hours of sleep, got up and off to start work after five am, as i had a doctor’s appointment later in the morning. better half also warning he may still need to take his mom in to doctor later as well.
worked a couple of hours, then off to my appointment. nothing special, just annual physical. but that also requires fasting for the blood tests, so i’m also pretty hungry, but not quite hangry. no surprises, just getting older and fatter, of which only the latter i can do anything about.
needed to pee in the given cup, and i really needed to pee by that point. of course, as they send me around the corner to the designated collection point, some random patient is locking the door to the designated bathroom, and seems to be settling in for some thoughtful time for reflection. they should have used the public restroom down the hall.
instead, i wait impatiently just outside the door, so i could glare at them when they eventually made their exit. took a while, and was dreading what i might be walking into. ended up being an ancient asian lady with a cane. she just smiled as she slowly moved towards the lab waiting area. so i had to stifle my hangry outburst, cuz she was just old and needed to go.
anyway, done did that, and also felt like a keg getting tapped for vials of blood. not a fainter, love horror movies, but don’t want to see the needle stuck into my own arm. “that hurts, you bitch.” thanks for the flourescent pink bandage; i would have preferred the blue.
quick breakfast/lunch, and back to the office. wasn’t really busy, and no one noticed anyway.
mom calls around four. she’d just arrived home. something wasn’t right with her car. felt wrong at freeway offramp. neighbor checked it out...discovered a bolt in her tire. she wasn’t sure what to do, as dad always takes care of these things.
told her to call triple a, that’s what you pay them to help you with, when you’re a damsel in distress.
cancel the drive to meet up with my kid for a chat, and head over to the house. she’d tried calling for help, but the number didn’t ring through or something.
i call from the house phone, forgetting to dial a one first, and get someone named rachel, not sure if it was a business or personal number. she must get these calls all day and night. hang up dial again. truck will be there in ten minutes.
driver gets there, says it can probably be patched, and pulls the spare from the back of the car. like new, never used, completely flat. he fills it with air, and is ready to change tires, only to realize there’s a wheel lock to remove. tear the car apart looking for the key thingy. stupid lugnut. look in the garage., nope.
dad couldn’t find it a few months ago, and had just had them cut and replaced. driver’s boss is telling him to hurry up, this is taking too long. tried calling dad at hospital on his cell phone, no answer. tried the front desk to nursing station to room phone, no answer. nurses station said he was just sitting on side of his bed, but didn’t bother to go hand him the phone. no doubt he didn’t have his hearing aid in, and heard nothing at all.
even tried calling my ex, as he probably helped him at the time and might have an educated guess on the location. no, and sorry to bother you.
i’m sure we’ll find out tomorrow, the key is just sitting in a drawer somewhere, useless in case of emergency.
mom is stressing out, her heart is doing flip flops or some other syncopated rhythm. so i just tell her to stay home and i hop in the truck and go with the driver to a tire store that stays open later than the two i have already called.
long story short, they were just able to patch it, as it was sort of close to the edge, but treads are low on both front tires, so we’ll have to go back soon and fix that. thanks dad, yet another reason to get the car serviced and rotate the tires once in a while. but he’s old, and can’t do it himself anymore, and it costs money, he’d say. ya, but mom drives it, and it needs to be safe.
and better half said his throat is kinda scratchy and he’s starting to cough...
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getting late, and not hungry, just angry now. going to contemplate this fleetmaster from the veterano’s show. pretty, isn’t it? wishing the green machine behind it, while equally lovely, wasn’t there messing up the shot, with the sparsely leaved trees nicely framing it up. always something i can pick apart in my pictures if i really want to.
really felt good to get out again. been too long, and they definitely did not have these kind of cars in italy.