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contours provocations
journal - 2002-0719 - fri 2200 "How Was the Play?" Almost two weeks since I last posted, but I've been running on auto pilot for most of that period. Let's see - what has happened? On July 2 when I parked my car for lunch and removed the key, the car began chirping at me and would not stop. After lunch, it did the same thing. I got back to work, but decided I'd better pay the Saturn dealer a visit. Which I did. The technician said it was most likely a malfunctioning sensor that was failing to read that the key had been removed. In effect, it was trying to warn me that I was exiting the car with the key still in the ignition. I worked late and when I went out to my car, it was dead as dead can be. I couldn't figure out what else to do, so I called my mother. She and a friend appeared about a half hour later. We drove to momsey's house, and I took her car. After I got home, I called a fellow Saturn owner and explained my problem. He said, I'd most likely run down the battery. Duuuuhhhhh! After some thought I realized I'd accidently turned on the parking lights on the way to lunch. So the chirping was to warn me that I was exiting with the lights on. Since the parking lights had been on all afternoon, no wonder the battery was dead. So I called another friend, then drove mom's car to his place, then he drove his car to my dead car. We gave the battery a boost, and it started immediately. I then drove my car back to my house, as he followed in his car. Once I got home, he then took me back to his house. Where I next drove mom's car back to my house. (Are you keeping up? There will be a test.) On July 4, I drove my car to mom's house, picked her up, and off to lunch we went. I then drove back to my house, and she picked up her car and drove home. You'll have to read the previous entry to see what happened the night of July 4. It has been unusually quiet since then. I've come to the conclusion that I'll have to be in better financial straits before I can really consider buying another house. I'm sure I could never get a loan with the debt I owe. At the same time, there are any number of things that need to be done to this house before it would sell. Of couse, I can't afford to have them done. Also because of my money problems. But at least I have a slightly better sense of what I need to do. One day last week, mother called me at work, and said when she had started her car she had gotten a horrible noise followed by a terrible smell from the AC vents. I said I had no idea. She mentioned she would take it to Goodyear the next day. The following day, she called and said that the Goodyear people had told her a rat had crawled under the hood the day before and had obviously been killed when she started the car. The Goodyear shop sent her to another shop that could remove parts to extract the rat (or pieces of said deceased rodent.) She got the car back the next day, but she said the smell was still noticeable. So for the last week, she has been trying sprays and lotions and notions to remove the dead rat smell. I didn't talk to her this evening, so I'm hoping she may have been sucessful. Also last week, on the way to lunch, I noticed some blinking lights on the console. After lunch, I again headed for the Saturn dealer. Within an hour, they said it was a low fluid level. Which they replenished. So I now know what those icons mean. And it only cost $25. Thursday, also of last week, I realized I had an upper respiratory bug. Off to the clinic I went. The clinic was noisy and stuffy. I wound up sitting between a large woman and her loud child on one side and an elderly lady in white shorts on the other side. At some point the mother tried to hush the child and grabbed her. The elderly lady immediately got up and told the mother she was going to report her to the child welfare office. And I thought, "Jesus Christ! If these three get into a fight, I'll shot all of them!" Across from me was a man whose cell phone must have gone off at least ten times. I've decided I really hate fucking cell phones. I want one of the devices that's available in other countries that creates a zone of interference that prevents cell phones from operating. I've read they're used in business meetings in Japan. And are standard equipment in the Israeli parliment. Wednesday of this week, I had a credit card company call me at work to tell me I was over my limit. "Yes, ma'am! I know I'm over my limit. But I've had car problems. And I had to buy antibiotics. And the cats were hungry. And I got my yard cut for the first time in three years. And I had to take my aged mother to lunch." Yesterday, I got home and was in desperate need of a Coke with ice. As I twised a tray of ice cubes, the tray snapped and sliced my wrist. I now have two large scars on my right wrist that makes me look like some despondent poet who tried to do himself in. Monday when I got to work, the AC was so cold that all the windows were fogged. Although there has been some improvement during the week, it can still be chilly. So when I visit the deli at lunch, I'm content to sit outside in the heat. Today, within a few minutes, a kid came up to me wanting to know if I would buy some candy for his church. I've become very suspicious of anyone who approaches me, so I hesitate to contribute. About fifteen minutes later, a man walks up to my table and places a card next to my iced tea. The card said "I'm deaf and trying to make a decent living. You can help me by buying one of these cards." What!? First off, I don't like folks, whatever their problem is, to ask me for money on the streets. Second, I most certainly don't care for someone to approach me as I'm eating. Third, this did not strike me as "trying to make a decent living"; much closer to pandering in my mind. Now that I think of it, my mother mentioned encountering such a man as she was getting out of her car one day. She said it scared her. Which I can understand. What's odd is that she lives in another town. So there must be a group of these guys. Now I'm wondering if they're really deaf. Ok! Ok! "Well, Mrs. Lincoln, other than that, how was the play?" PAX!
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