existential fashion disaster

I helped Doug pick up a new van, yesterday. It was a lot of work, since it had a wheelchair lift in it, that we didn’t need and therefore, had to remove. I haven’t driven it yet, but I’m sure it’ll make the memories come flooding back. The most recent van memories are of the big passenger vans that I drove for the Y. Some of them were just big 15 passenger vans with a school bus sign slapped on top, and others were a little more bus-like, with rubber floors and an aisle. Whether it was bring kids to after-school day care from school or to a field trip for camp, they were always fun to drive.

My fondest van memories are attached to the van that I owned: the big red van that we moved The Overtones around in. I paid the same price for that van that Doug paid for his, yesterday: $2,000. It had a huge rack welded to the top of it; the owner swore that it would hold anything I could get up there. On the back of the rack, there were some super bright flood-lights that were fun for freaking out tailgaters. It was the perfect size for the band. There were two big bench seats in the back and room for a third, but no hook-ups… this translated into plenty of room for amps, guitars and drums. We usually took one seat out, so we wouldn’t have to stack the equipment too high.

I kept on driving it after that band fizzled. I remember loaning out my services as van and driver to a friends band a couple times. The craziest van memories include the time I was carpooling home from the tech job in Marlborough, when a crazed cop pulled us over and decided to search the entire van for drugs. I think he found some rolling papers in Sands’ bag. We just hung out by the police cruiser with the other officer, whom we lovingly referred to as “back-up,” and stared in wonder as he tore through every inch of the beast. I think he broke the handle on my sliding door, too. A few months after I downgraded to a station wagon, I borrowed the van from my Dad, to help move my friend Becky back to Charlton, from NYC. I knew Dad was a little hard on vehicles, but the van had stayed pretty strong when I owned it, so I trusted it to handle this move. We made it all the way down to the city, got it loaded and then got all the way back up to Massachusetts, off the highway, to within 5 miles of Becky’s house, and the right front universal joint let go. The wheel slammed into the back of the wheel well and we stopped dead. It happened while taking a corner at 4 or 5 miles per hour or less… had it happened on the 150 miles of highway between NYC and Charlton, we’d have likely flipped and/or rolled and died. We had several hours to contemplate our luck as we sat around and watched tow truck drivers scratch their heads. The first tow truck driver showed up with a regular truck, took one look at the situation and realized that it wasn’t going to be simple at all. The next guy showed up with a flatbed, and we still had to use a couple hydraulic jacks in place of the useless wheel. I think we moved all of Becky’s stuff to a couple other vehicles, in between tow truck drivers.

Dad had taught me how to listen and feel for unusual noises and vibrations that might be signs of trouble… and yet, in the few months that he had driven the van around, since inheriting it from me, he had managed to ingore any signs that there was trouble. And he had plenty of experience with vans… we owned no less than 4 or 5 while he was operating his Pressed4Time franchise (corporate dry cleaning pickup and delivery service). I don’t remember getting the first van, but when he grew his route too large to handle himself, he hired a couple of guys and we went van shopping. I remember buying this enormous conversion van. It had a wooden bench in the back with the kind of cushion you’d find on patio furniture and some sort of bed-contraption in the middle, I think. I thought it was so cool. I was fairly sad when it got the standard white paint job and the clothes racks and support beams were installed in place of the bed-thing. If I had a day off (or faked sick to take a day off), I’d ride around in the back of one of the vans, rolling around with the clothes, all day, popping into some of the offices with Dad and helping carry clean clothes in and bags of dirty clothes out. I definitely preferred hanging out in the back of the vans than going into the super-hot dry cleaners at the end of the run.

Yesterday was a long day, but so much of it stirred up fond memories. I guess it’s the nature of vans, being so versatile, that you always have some custom attachments that you may or may not need… and you do a bit of converting and customizing, yourself.

• made it through a Friday the 13th without once thinking about it.
• watched my first blu-ray movie.
• used soap that sounds too much like food.
• replaced the battery in my car. Three years isn’t too bad for a battery, right?
• prepped the new staff and ourselves for the next season of work.
• developed a healthy addiction to our new video game systems.
• signed up for a blog that sort of tracks that addiction.
• enjoyed Olive Garden a couple times. There’s something strange about a place that brings you salty breadsticks in a plastic basket, wrapped in a paper towel… but has their own house wine. The food is good, though, so we’ll continue to go back.
• tried to update my wishlist, and failed. If you’re feeling generous, Apple gift cards are still the best bet, for my inevitable macbook purchase.

It started at the beginning of the month, when I parked my car in a way that was eerily familiar. Then a couple weeks later, the christmas trees arrived, and another familiar scene unfolded. I got my phone out again and tried to snap a similar picture. Then a scene/memory [/event?] from Thanksgiving of 2005 reappeared. That may have been the last time I saw gas below $2. I’m kind of amazed that it’s down below $2 again. I was tempted to find a similar sign and try to recapture that picture on my phone… but the tree one wasn’t as good as last year’s tree pics, so I decided against it. I think I just need to have my camera with me all the time, in November. Now I know, for next year. Unless, of course, whatever phone I replace mine with has a really good camera… doesn’t seem likely.

I think this would be a good time to mention that I’ll be at Mom’s house the weekend after Christmas. Sarah and I will only there for a few days, but we might have a little bit of free time if anybody wants to get together.

Been trying to keep myself occupied while Sarah is off at her photo/web design/newsletter gig. I’ve done a lot of Mac shopping… not for the eventual replacement laptop(s) for our old limping ones, but to replace the G4 that’s been my trusty backup since sometime in 2001. It’s always been quirky, being a mac, but now it’s just plain unstable and Sarah and her mom and I all use it a fair amount. Sarah will probably end up doing most of her work it, since her laptop can’t really handle much. It’s crashing about once or twice daily. I don’t know what’s causing it, and it’s never actually crashed while I was using it, but I shouldn’t expect wonders from a machine with so many weird hardware upgrades. I’m not in a place where I can invest in a new Intel mac to replace it, so I’ve been browsing craigslist and ebay for decent G5s. It’ll be sad to retire the G4. Maybe it can be made stable and live on in some semi-retired state. It is kinda loud, though, might not be worth it. Maybe I can find a home for it.

In other news, Thursday, the Mazda is getting an oil change and the master window switch replaced, again. The first time it was because the Auto button wasn’t working. Then the replacement made the right rear window non-operational. It’s been a long process, and a learning experience, since I’m now on my extended warranty and have to pay money for repairs. I also have to pay a whole bunch of money to have my windshield replaced. I woke up, Sunday morning, to find a starburst and cracks branching off in multiple directions right at the top center of the glass. Illinois doesn’t have that nice separate glass policy that Massachusetts did… so I have to pay my full comprehensive deductible. I’d say that maybe I could get some cook pictures of the work in progress, but we’ve lined up sealcoating for the driveway for the same day, and that smell gives me an almost instant headache that lasts for a whole day.

Tomorrow, I think I get rained on during our first day trip of the season.

I really meant to blog more from back east. I’ve had a draft sitting here since before Sarah and her mom joined me out there, but I don’t think I logged back in after they got there, and we came back right before I started work, so things have been fairly busy. Today is a real day off, though. There’s some sort of testing this week that throws off all the school schedules, so here I am, with some free time. Yesterday was a day off, too, but most of the day was occupied by the Mazda dealership and the crazy extended warranty people. I just finished preparing some pork for tomorrow’s dinner. It’s marinating, now… while I was cutting the meat, Sarah noticed that the marinade had separated. It reminds me of Jell-O 1-2-3. They don’t make that anymore, which is too bad. I remember liking it. Enjoy the picture. I’ve posted a few other pictures from the trip at Flickr in a set called Back East 2008.  I think we need to come up with more creative names for these trips. It was a good trip though, action-packed and fun-filled. Without further ado, here are some of my thoughts and reactions and recaps of it:

I did a lot of wandering around in between my grandfather’s funeral and the day Sarah and her Mom arrived. I didn’t make a checklist this time, I sort of winged it. I missed Putnam and Providence and Western Mass, as well as Sara and Drew, but I’ll try and make it up to them over the holidays or something. The most impressive changes were in Woonsocket. I drove around most of town on one of my first free days, while doing some errands.

Improvements since I lived in Woonsocket:

Starbucks: closed
Tim Hortons: opened a second location, with a drive-thru
Main St: more than half of the storefronts were occupied and open

Also, the Game Stop had a Wii Fit in stock.

I caught up with some people and did a little sightseeing around Worcester & Millbury and Webster & Dudley. I ate at Jimmy’s pizza, played Werewolves of London on the jukebox. I did some shopping for New England treats at a Market Basket (where I found the Coffee Milk on the same shelf as all the other milks). I helped Mom start to remake her living room and move beds around.

The girls arrived on Saturday night, right in the middle of what was left of the storm Hanna. They survived their long drive, though, and I was very proud of them. Sarah’s posted a pretty good recap of the first couple days at her livejournal. We saw some family, toured through Plymouth, hit King Richard’s Faire and then went to NYC and played tourist some more; visited the Statue of Liberty and ground zero and a good deli.

Tuesday, we had a little more rain, so we kept it local and did some indoor-type activities. We started with breakfast at Carl’s Diner in Oxford. The serving size has not gone down. We sat at the counter, for the maximum effect. I don’t believe we ate another real meal for the whole day. We did hit Friendly’s for some ice cream, that evening. I believe that was also the day we took in some Candlepin bowling at Mohegan in Webster. It’s still kind of a dive, but its charm is intact.

Wednesday, we met Mom in Worcester, after dropping my car off at the Mazda dealership for an oil change (and to look into the weirdness it went through on the drive out there). We headed to Lexington to visit the historic Battle Green, visited the cemetery where my Dad and my Grandfather are and then met up with Mom’s friend Joyce at Bruegger’s Bagels for lunch. I hadn’t had a Herbie Turkey in a long time, and it was very tasty. Then we drove downtown and walked around Quincy Market and Faneuil Hall, had some cream puffs and then went to my cousin Mark’s place, in Braintree, for dinner. Mark made us pick records to play, and then made us play his XBox 360 and his Playstation 3. He cooked his awesome mac & cheese and some amazing burgers for us.

Thursday, we took in Purgatory Chasm. We walked down the chasm and back up on the East side of it. It was very nice, good weather for it. We also went up to Dresser Hill and got some food and shakes. I don’t think the Dairy stuff is as good as it once was, but it’s still the only place I eat fried clams. That night, we went to the outskirts of Worcester and saw Mark’s group, The Accident that Led Me to the World, play in a barn attached to a huge farmhouse that about 20 people lived in. They call it a Collective (read: commune) and the show was a potluck. Lots of friendly modern hippie-types, nice big wood-burning stove in the kitchen, bunch of pretty good music. It was something I’d never expect from Worcester.

Friday, we decided to hit the Big E on opening day, as a stopping point on our way back home. It was fun to go down the avenue of states and expose Patti to all the local culture and flavors. We wandered through some of the vendors and a good chunk of the crafting section. We ate a little and walked a lot. Looking back, it wasn’t a good choice for a stop on the morning of a big drive. We were still pretty exhausted for the first few hours of the trip home, and we ran into torrential downpours and Tornado warnings, but we survived. I think I slept through most of Saturday.

So … the vacation was postponed when Sarah’s Uncle passed away early this week. His memorial service isn’t until this coming Friday. Everyone’s been somber this week, but Mom had the next two weeks off work, so we all tried to be flexible and move the trip back a little bit. Then I got a call yesterday… my grandfather passed away. They’ve got a wake/funeral set up for Tuesday/Wednesday… so, I’ll be heading back just about as early as originally planned. As it stands, now, I’ll be flying back on Tuesday. Sarah and her Mom will drive out Saturday. We’ll have our vacation, and all drive back together at the end of the following week. We played with the idea of me driving and them flying, but decided that this way was more cost-effective; I’d probably be more comfortable long-haul driving than flying, but it costs the same amount of gas to transport two people as one, and my ticket doesn’t cost that much more, even though it’s last minute. I am sorta bummed that I can’t use United Miles on one-way trips, but I’ve got an itinerary on hold and ready to buy.

Gotta get through all this memorial stuff, and then we can vacation, as planned. That’s my mindset.

So, for those of you who are back east, I will be around for almost two weeks, a little busy until Thursday, and then joined by Sarah and her Mom on the weekend and for the rest of the following week. I will resume taking requests to hang out and/or suggestions for activities, now.

We have yet to fully convince Sarah’s younger brother Frank, or get confirmation that we’ve convinced him, but Sarah and her mom and I are heading back east in a couple weeks. Technically, I haven’t received my work schedule for this season yet, so I may cut into the first day or two of work, but I haven’t seen Mom in a long time, so it’s worth it.

The plan is to drive out there on Tuesday the 2nd and stay until Monday the 8th (or maybe Tuesday the 9th, if we need an extra day). We’ve penciled in a King Richard’s Faire outing with my sister and her kids for Sunday, and we want to see some Boston and NYC, but otherwise, plans are fairly open. I think we should do a little candlepin bowling, eat breakfast at the counter at Carl’s Diner, if it’s still open and see any of y’all who live out there and miss me. Put in your requests for activities/hang-out time now.

Last weekend, we went to Wisconsin, partly to fulfill our yearly tradition of seeing a play an American Players Theater and partly as a weekend getaway in honor of Sarah’s birthday. We spent the whole weekend in the Mt Horeb and Spring Green area. On Friday, we stopped in at our favorite little chocolate shop and then got dinner at the adorable Italian place we ate at last year, before heading up to the theater to catch Widower’s Houses.

Saturday, we spent the whole day in Mt Horeb, starting with breakfast at a great little place called Schubert’s. Then we took in the activities and sights of National Mustard Day. We didn’t actually participate in the activities or eat any mustard or mustard-themed food (Culver’s Mustard Custard?). But we did wander and take pictures and shop all the cute stores, including the gift-shop half of the Mustard Museum. Then we popped back into Schubert’s for milkshakes and rosettes. We also did some quick visits to the gift-shops of Little Norway and Cave of the Mounds. We bought some geodes. I’m not sure if we cracked them open yet. Then, after a little chillin’ at the motel, we got some yummy dinner at a place with a HUGE menu.

Sunday, we used the third part of our tickets to the House on the Rock tour. We did the other two parts last year. This was definitely the darkest part of the tour, but it was very cool… it started at the huge carousel and included the doll carousels, lots and lots of dollhouses and the amazing organ room. On the way home, we picked up some cheese and meat and ate at a Panera Bread rip-off called Atlanta Bread.

Pictures Here

It was nice to do a little road trip. I’ve been doing public transportation to work most of the summer and I’ve missed driving. I had kind of forgotten about the phenomenon that, back in high school, in the music groups that went on many trips, we called “bus head.” The theory was that sometime after two hours being enclosed in the same vehicle, something in your brain shut off. We found that it didn’t matter if it was a school bus or a nice comfy chartered bus or a van or even a car. Once you hit that point, you had “bus head.” We discussed it with our band director; It takes a long time to recover from “bus head.” We didn’t want to plan any trips with long rides and immediate performing, even if it meant leaving in the early morning. We needed at least two hours. We could unload equipment during those two hours, but we definitely couldn’t do any rehearsing or make any decisions or be expected to engage in any activities that involved a lot of thought.

Luckily, my drive to work usually stays just short of “bus head” inducing length, and the public transportation route involves changing from train to bus or “El” about halfway through. I actually drove a couple times this week. Wednesday, I got together with a couple guys, after camp, and played some music. I think it went pretty well, if it turns into something I will definitely let you all know. Thursday, we had our family night (that 60 inch TV was what my camp photos slideshow was being displayed on) and then some of the staff went to Whirlyball. I had no idea what Whirlyball was until I saw it. It’s kind of like like Jai Alai or Lacrosse, in bumper cars. It was fun.

One more week of camp left. This week includes a sleepover, possibly another trip to Eli’s cheesecake world, a visit to Independence grove and another cookout… so lots of excitement.

My iPod is getting old. It’s kind of sad. I guess it has outlasted any other portable audio device I’ve ever owned. I’ll always have fond memories of my Fisher portable CD player, with the 40 seconds of memory, so that I could take a CD out, if I was in the last 40 seconds of the track, and put the new CD in, with no gap in the music. And I’ll never forget my cute Philips portable MP3 mini CD player. It looked just like a miniature discman. Those 80mm discs were a little hard to find, and the name and size caused a lot of confusion with minidiscs, but it got me through many bus trips. I definitely had a few other trashy portable CD players and portable CD players that could read MP3s, but those two were my favorites. Had I known how much effort (making MP3 CDs) and time and money (buying CDs) I could have saved myself, I probably would’ve gotten the iPod a lot sooner. But it was two and a half years ago, and now it’s throwing up this weird “connect to your computer. use itunes to restore” error message every now and then. Resetting/restarting it seems to make it go away, I don’t actually have to connect it to a computer or restore it, that would be annoying. It might mean that the hard drive is dying. I dunno, maybe I should try a restore one of these days. It’s an essential part of my life, now that I’m on the trains and buses every day.

It got me thinking about my phone situation, again. It’s also not performing at it’s best, and occasionally turning off or restarting itself, randomly, and my contract is up sometime in the next six months. I still think switching from Verizon to AT&T, for the iPhone, is a big hassle… and I don’t know if the iPhone would fill my expectations as either a GPS device or as an iPod replacement. Sure, the idea of having all of those gadgets in one is appealing, but I really like the click-wheel, I think I’d miss it. I really like my phone’s real QWERTY keyboard, with real keys. And I even like my big honkin’ laptop GPS system, though, that is the system that most needs replacing with something smaller and easier to use. Still no word on carriers for the Nuvifone. I doubt that it’ll be the right replacement for the iPod, though, so unless it’s available on Verizon, it’s not gonna happen for me. The only way the switch to AT&T is going to happen is if the iPhone proves itself to be the all-encompassing device that I need it to be.

I upgraded the blog to Wordpress 2.6 today. I started the process at work, at the Y, which I was worried about, since the computer there is a little slow and I don’t have any of my backup versions of files there. It went fairly smooth, though… basically only left the custom, random header image thing to do here, and a little debugging. This will serve as my Livejournal crosspost test, since that is a new/old plugin… development on the one I had been using seems to have ceased. I guess this will also test all the other new and old features. There’s a new Flickr plugin, too. It’s been a good n’ geeky day.

We’re going to see Step Brothers tonight with our recently engaged friends Jess and Jason. It looks like a typical Will Ferrel flick, which is usually a good take, and we used our $5 coupons from the opening night of Hancock… so it’s totally worth the price of admission, pretty much, no matter what.

Next weekend is our Theater in the Woods/Troll/etc weekend. I’ve definitely been looking forward to it. That also means that I have a four-day work week for camp… which is awesome. Not that camp’s hard, but it is a little draining. Only three weeks left, now. It also means that I get to do some more driving. Taking the metra/cta into work all summer has been fun, but I miss driving, and this should help make up for it. I guess I have to be more careful, now that I’m on my extended warranty. I didn’t know it was going to cost me a $100 deductible every time I needed something fixed for the next 50,000 miles.

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