Holy crap have I got a load to get off my chest. Bear with me if it starts to get incoherent.
Last night I drove to DC with some friends to see Stars and Ivy at the Black Cat. Awesome show. But that's not the part of the story that's fun. I had to drive to Lexington to meet up with a friend of mine who works at Washington and Lee University, and when I arrived in town my power steering began to fail. I thought I was running out of gas, because the needle was hovering around 'E' and the same thing happened when my alternator died, so I figured the car was dying. I had the prospect of an empty tank of gas in my car, which was parked in Lexington, VA, while I was in DC, and the fact that I had to be at work at 6am this morning on my mind during the whole show. It didn't deter my enjoying it immensely. I'd only heard a few songs by Stars beforehand, but they put on a hell of a show, and while Ivy was rather lackluster (even though the bass player is from Fountains of Wayne) the opening act was a band called Astaire, who were just incredible. I bought their EP. So anyway, we leave the show around 12:30 and head back to Roanoke. We drove from Lexington to DC in my friend's car, so I slept all the way back until we stopped for a gas can. When we made it to Lexington I put the gallon in my tank, but the power steering was still shot. So I drove all the way back to Roanoke on I-81 with bad power steering. I made it back to my apartment around 5:20, which gave me time to brush my teeth and get back in my car to go to work. The thing handles like a fucking tank. And even though I was driving cautiously all day, I still managed to get a speeding ticket on my way home from work. It was on Franklin Road, and it wouldn't have been so bad if I had just switched over my plates from West Virginia to Virginia before now. I didn't lie to the officer and told him it had been a lot more than 30 days, so he didn't site me for tag violations, and he reduced the penalty from 51 in a 35 to 44 in a 35. It sucks, but I'm just surprised no one has caught the tags before now. I was trying to see how long I could go before I had to change them. So now I not only have to get the power steering fixed, but I also have to get it inspected for Virginia and switch my license over.
This leads me to my next rant. It's not about me getting a ticket, because I totally deserved it. It's about how there were probably three hundred other people driving on Franklin Road today who deserved to get a ticket more than I did. The drivers in this town SUCK! I've had to flip off two people in the last two weeks, and that's something I rarely do. The second time was the most frightening. Again, it was on Franklin, near the 581 overpass in front of Tanglewood Mall, and I was going 40 in a 35. Speeding, but not really bad. The right lane was full of people trying to get on the interstate, and I was moving steadily through the left lane when this black Camarro looks like it spins out of the left lane. I thankfully had enough time to skid to a halt before I hit him, but it pissed me off something fierce. The dude just wanted to get out of his lane and into the left, and so he jumped right in front of me without looking. I wait until he gets into a left turn lane further down the road, honk my horn as I pull next to him, and make sure he sees me flipping him off. He had this expression on his face like, 'Yeah, I deserved that,' but I really don't care. Yeah, he deserved it, but had I not been able to stop I probably would have killed him or seriously injured him. People in this freaking town don't know how to drive.
Ahhhh! And on top of it all my power steering is shot. That's the only thing I'm really irritated with right now. I can take getting a speeding ticket and getting home at 5:20 this morning and having to get my license and tags switched over, but the fucking power steering is pissing me off. I guess it's a growing experience. Or maybe just a pain in the ass.
Last night I drove to DC with some friends to see Stars and Ivy at the Black Cat. Awesome show. But that's not the part of the story that's fun. I had to drive to Lexington to meet up with a friend of mine who works at Washington and Lee University, and when I arrived in town my power steering began to fail. I thought I was running out of gas, because the needle was hovering around 'E' and the same thing happened when my alternator died, so I figured the car was dying. I had the prospect of an empty tank of gas in my car, which was parked in Lexington, VA, while I was in DC, and the fact that I had to be at work at 6am this morning on my mind during the whole show. It didn't deter my enjoying it immensely. I'd only heard a few songs by Stars beforehand, but they put on a hell of a show, and while Ivy was rather lackluster (even though the bass player is from Fountains of Wayne) the opening act was a band called Astaire, who were just incredible. I bought their EP. So anyway, we leave the show around 12:30 and head back to Roanoke. We drove from Lexington to DC in my friend's car, so I slept all the way back until we stopped for a gas can. When we made it to Lexington I put the gallon in my tank, but the power steering was still shot. So I drove all the way back to Roanoke on I-81 with bad power steering. I made it back to my apartment around 5:20, which gave me time to brush my teeth and get back in my car to go to work. The thing handles like a fucking tank. And even though I was driving cautiously all day, I still managed to get a speeding ticket on my way home from work. It was on Franklin Road, and it wouldn't have been so bad if I had just switched over my plates from West Virginia to Virginia before now. I didn't lie to the officer and told him it had been a lot more than 30 days, so he didn't site me for tag violations, and he reduced the penalty from 51 in a 35 to 44 in a 35. It sucks, but I'm just surprised no one has caught the tags before now. I was trying to see how long I could go before I had to change them. So now I not only have to get the power steering fixed, but I also have to get it inspected for Virginia and switch my license over.
This leads me to my next rant. It's not about me getting a ticket, because I totally deserved it. It's about how there were probably three hundred other people driving on Franklin Road today who deserved to get a ticket more than I did. The drivers in this town SUCK! I've had to flip off two people in the last two weeks, and that's something I rarely do. The second time was the most frightening. Again, it was on Franklin, near the 581 overpass in front of Tanglewood Mall, and I was going 40 in a 35. Speeding, but not really bad. The right lane was full of people trying to get on the interstate, and I was moving steadily through the left lane when this black Camarro looks like it spins out of the left lane. I thankfully had enough time to skid to a halt before I hit him, but it pissed me off something fierce. The dude just wanted to get out of his lane and into the left, and so he jumped right in front of me without looking. I wait until he gets into a left turn lane further down the road, honk my horn as I pull next to him, and make sure he sees me flipping him off. He had this expression on his face like, 'Yeah, I deserved that,' but I really don't care. Yeah, he deserved it, but had I not been able to stop I probably would have killed him or seriously injured him. People in this freaking town don't know how to drive.
Ahhhh! And on top of it all my power steering is shot. That's the only thing I'm really irritated with right now. I can take getting a speeding ticket and getting home at 5:20 this morning and having to get my license and tags switched over, but the fucking power steering is pissing me off. I guess it's a growing experience. Or maybe just a pain in the ass.