Honda
After spending seven hours basking in the strip-mall glory that is Aurora Avenue, I didn’t have the energy to write about yesterday, but here it is now, because I know you’re all FACINATED. Please, hold the applause until the end. Andreas and I rode the bus to pick up the car where it lay at 51st and 5th Avenue yesterday morning around 10am. It started and we set about the grim task of getting as close as we could to START MART, where the alternator was warrantied. It was less than six miles away. The car made it to Aurora and 130th–more than 80 blocks north from where we’d begun, but still 15 blocks south of where we needed to be. Luckily, we were able to roll into a K-Mart parking lot when the car died. We spent an hour wandering around Albertson’s and Kmart killing time and hoping the car would start and limp the 15 blocks up the street. An hour later, the car did not start. Didn’t even turn over. We debated calling a tow truck (expensive!) or a friend (no one was home), and finally it dawned on me that maybe I could just reinstate my AAA membership–then we could get towed for the small cost of my $50 membership fee AND we’d have AAA again (always a good idea when you’re driving a car that’s 15 years old and on its second engine).

This was the best part of the day: I call AAA, and in less than 10 minutes they reinstate my membership and call a tow truck. They say it could take an hour for the truck to arrive, but less than 10 minutes later, the truck arrives, the nice man takes less than 5 minutes to load our car, and then it’s a quick 5 minute drive up Aurora to START MART. Wahoo! It was only 1:30 and spirits were high. Maybe this crap wouldn’t take all day! We can make it through the rough times! Andreas and I patted eachother on the back and applauded ourselves.

The harried guy at START MART said it would be an hour and a half, so Andreas and I walked across the six lanes of Aurors hell and ate lunch at Las Margaritas (it was BUENO, AMIGOS! I especially loved the PINATAS!). An hour went by. Then we went and read magazines at Walgreen’s. Another hour went by. When we glanced across the street, our car had not moved, nor was there anyone working on it. We went back to START MART and sat and stared at the guy who was supposed to be fixing our car, but who was also the guy in charge of answering phones and working the counter. It seems as though everyone’s alternator went out yesterday, cuz that guy was really REALLY busy. Finally, at 4:30, he takes us out to test the alternator.

“Yup, looks like it’s definitely fucked up,” he commented, three hours after we’d arrived and told him that it was fucked up. “Not sure if I’m going to be able to get to it today.” Gotta love that. Then it was just a matter of bussing 120 blocks down Aurora and transferring onto a bus to get home. I was home around 5:30, a lovely seven hours of car hell after I’d left. Now we’re getting ready to catch a bus up to the Udistrict, where we will borrow Tim’s car to drive back up Aurora and fetch the Honda, which hopefully will make it back to Olympia so Andreas can take it to the REAL mechanic, our friends at B&B Auto.