Tuesday 30 December 2008

Hello Again!

Hey there! I know I haven't posted in a while, sorry :( Christmas was good this year. Even though I had a couple moments of freaking out, I want all those who were there to understand that they had nothing to do with it, I'm just really freaking out in my personal life lately. I need a road trip in such a bad way, a proper vacation, and something that involves a single woman and privacy, before I can start to relax even a little bit these days. All three at once would be very nice, and quite dangerous, so I'll take one thing at a time if I can...

I get cable for the first time in a year tomorrow, and I'm super excited about that!!! I'll take some slack for leaving work early, because Comcast is still just a messed up in there scheduling as they have always been. I scheduled it for 4-6 pm. Then I called them to try and change it to between 1-3, and I was told I couldn't. Today I received an automated phone call from them, and the computer told me that the technician was scheduled to arrive between 10 am and 1 pm...?! But hey, whatever, tomorrow is NYE, and I expect that we will be very quiet at Tricomm. Maybe busy at Dominos, but most assuredly not at job 1.

Oh, it's been a while, but GO VDUB!!!! I got the new magazine today (DasAuto), and they had a story about this year's inaugural TDI Cup. Every car in it was a new Clean Diesel TDI, and in a total of 8 races, 150 total laps, and only 2 tanks of diesel per car (stock size tanks at that), they emitted a total of 0, let me repeat that...0 Net Carbon Emissions. I'd like to see NASCAR try to come close to that number. Oh, wait, American cars, even the new ones, barely break the 20 mpg range, even when they aren't driven at 125 mph, never mind... Oh, and get this, the 2009 Jetta TDI gets better mileage creates less pollutants than the new Prius. Eat that for lunch Toyota! And the new Jetta TDI clean diesel costs, oh, about $40,000 less to boot. Put that in your collective pipes and smoke it all you pruis owners! Yes, you read all of that correctly, but feel free to reread this paragraph as many times as you'd like. GO VDUB, Volkswagen rocks my, and everyone else's world!!! Oh, and even though all of our own major car companies have to get billion dollar hand out from the government, VW is building a production plant in Chattanooga, TN. It will be making a brand spanking new VW for the North American market, as well as all the other vehicles that VW gives us. Oh yeah, it'll be creating a several thousand new jobs too. I have never been more proud to be a VW Enthusiast! GO VDUB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I had meant to post earlier tonight, but for the last couple nights I've been talking with my old friend, Chantelle, so was a little distracted, and now I've forgotten about all the rest of the things I wanted to post about. Stop complaining, I worked 12 hours today, and I'm tired! So I'm going to bed in a little bit. i will try to keep up with my blog a bit more frequently in the new year coming, but I make no promises! Hee hee, goodnight y'all, and sweet dreams to all.

P.S.: Go V-Dub!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tuesday 16 December 2008

Oh What a Night, Afternoon, second job...

It's Tuesday. It was a decent enough day at job one. Some things happened, or rather didn't happen, but for once it wasn't my fault even a little bit!!! Then came the last hour, when the snow started coming down in earnest. By the time I got home from that job, which took me 45 minutes (usually takes 20), there was already about an inch and a half on the ground, and people had already forgotten how to drive in the winter wonderland that is the Greater Chicagoland Metropolis. By the time I got inside, changed and went back out to my car to go to my second job, I had to completely re brush my car. Then I got to Dominos. It wasn't nearly as busy as I had expected to be. My first delivery however took 40 minutes to get to, and it usually only takes about 3 minutes, 5 if I get caught by the stop light. So that was super fun! But hey, at least the people I did deliver to seemed sympathetic for us drivers, and they all tipped me $5, so thank you! And, as you may all have guessed, I made it home in one piece, and so did my car! I get the next two nights off, so that's cool. On the other hand, it's not supposed to snow again until Friday, when i do work again, go figure, hee hee. Tomorrow I get to fill in for my driver, Jorge, at my full time job. I really must say, I don't miss driving a Ford E150 in this crap, but at least I get to be out of the office for a while, and if I take my sweet ass time getting back I have a good excuse! On that note, I'm going to enjoy watching the Blackhawks game that is actually on WGN tonight!!! I can't remember the last time I saw a Blackhawks game on the boob tube, but I'm excited about it!

Lisa I hope you're doing better, and if you're not, then get better damnit!!! What does everyone want for x-mass? I don't have too much money to spread around, but if we're only doing one gift per person, then some clues might be nice, wink wink... I only have the new Doctor Who season 4...

Peace out, and drive safe y'all!

Sunday 14 December 2008

Lazy Sunday

Another Lazy Sunday. The laundry room was wide open when I decided to do my laundry. How I long for the day when I have an in unit washer dryer again. It cost me $10 to wash four loads! Oh well. Other than that, I slept until noon, but I was up until after 3 am, so can you blame me? Nothing important, just insomnia. Anyway, I went and returned a movie, stopped at Walmart to get a bulk pack of TP, and that's about it. The excitement never ends here! Oh, WAIT! I waterproofed my jacket again!!! Talk about exciting! A new girl is working at Dominos as a driver. She's Russian, and kinda difficult to understand, but she seems cool. That's about all I have to report. I know sooo many people are just dying to read a new post from me! Now you have one! Peace out y'all, and a very merry Lazy Sunday too!

Tuesday 9 December 2008

Holy Crap (Oh Crap! Part II)

Holy guacamole snowman! What a night slinging pizzas. I made it out alive, with no damage to me or my car, or anybody else's either. Which is way more than i can say about soooo many of the other drivers out there tonight.Not hat I expect anybody who doesn't know me to read this blog, but my sympathies to those homes that will be getting a phone call of the most devastating nature tonight.

I got to my first job today only about 45 minutes late. And of course, as soon as I sit down, Matt unloads everything that went wrong this morning, and it was amazingly all my fault. But he was nice to me the whole rest of the day, so that was good. It was pretty quiet at my first job, as it usually is this time of year. SO I got to spend a lot of time staring out at the constant rain falling down to the planet, and daydreaming of how nightmarish work would be tonight. And I wasn't wrong. You see, at about 10:30 this morning the rain turned to sleet, and then a while later turned back to rain. Then, at around 3 pm, the temp dropped below freezing, so all the rain to a solid sheet of ice, and then it snowed for the next several hours. As anybody whose driven in the kind of winters we get around here knows, snow is bad for driving, but snow on top of ice is the worst!!! The first delivery I took tonight, happened to be in one of those private rich neighborhoods, that are all pretty, and hilly. Well I couldn't get up the hill. Nor could the BMW Z4 in front of me, or the pickup truck behind me, or the Mazda behind him, and so on and so on. Me and the bimmer both started sliding backwards down the hill, and we both ended up having to angle ourselves into packed snow banks backwards just so we could stop, as are brakes were acting like they weren't there at all. That was exciting. I called the customer and told her I couldn't get to her house. She was nice enough to come to me though, and even gave me a $7 tip, so thankyou Lady! Anyway, I counted 19 cars that couldn't make it up the stupid bloody hill, and couldn't reverse off of it either, before a salt truck FINALLY SHOWED UP!!! The rest of the night was just as bad, but luckily that was the only hill I couldn't get up. You see, when it snows first, and then rains, driving is fine, but when it's a smooth sheet of ice underneath the slippery frozen and beautiful water it's a whole other ball game. But as I said before, me and my car made it out in one piece, so yay! The drive to work in the morning tomorrow oughtta be super fun, as the only reason it's stopped snowing is because it dropped below 20 degrees, so now all the melted snow will slowing slip it's way back into the street, and then become a nice blanket of ice just in time for the morning rush, whoo hoo!!!!!!!!!!

I think I'm gonna stop thinking that far ahead for the time being, and watch a movie or something before crawling into my nice cozy, yet no longer comfy, but lumpy and springy bed to get some shut eye, and hopefully make it to work on time in the morning! Peace out y'all, and safe travels to you! Love ya!

Oh Crap!

It's Tuesday, and I was just woken up by my phone ringing. It was one of my drivers telling me he was going to be a little late. Well I am late too! So I called my other driver, and he is running late as well! I guess it's just one of those days so far!

Sunday 7 December 2008

Sunday ? Sunday

Hey y'all! I know it's been a few days since I've blogged. I really haven't had much of anything important to say. It's cold outside, and there's snow and ice, and once again so many people have forgotten how to drive in it since last winter. The people I do feel bad for are all of the transplants coming out of the volatile flooding in the south in the last couple of years. Most of those people had never been to the midwest before, or if they had it was just for vacation. Now that they've escaped the mass flooding, they were welcomed by midwestern values. However, this year we experienced severe flooding of our own, and now for the first time for the majority of the recently moved, they are dealing with the loveliness that is winter in the midwest. Sorry folks, but hey, you came from an ocean or gulf zone to the land of the Great Lakes. Instead of hurricanes, we have tornadoes and the flooding remains the same. Oh, and the water comes out of the sky in a few different forms up here.

Back to those of us who were born and raised in this climate. What the hell is wrong with you people!? Four wheel drive means nothing on ice people!!! Anyway...I attempted to get my x-mas shopping done a few weeks earlier this year. For once I had money before getting my holiday bonus at work, and go figure, everything I had in mind for people was gone! I have made a decision to not get anything train, flame or music related for my various family members. Now however, I'm thrown for a loop! What to do, what to do? I did find a present for my neighbor, Erin, but she's not home now, so I can't give it to her yet, boo. And I did get marley one of those "dremel" nail groomers, however he hasn't come out of the cabinet yet, so too bad for him!

Side note: Cross Country Skiing is another "sport" that should not be broadcast on television, right up there with golf.

On a whim I got a computer camera at Walgreens. I haven't hooked it up yet. I'm not even sure why I got it, because I think only one of my friends has one. But it's made by GE, and it was only $20, so I figured I couldn't go wrong. They also had my favorite juice on sale for $3 each! Yay!!! I also had a $5 Walgreens coupon from the other day, when I restocked my first aid supplies, and got a whole new kit to keep in my car (it even came with a glow stick!).

Last night after work I watched M. Night not gonna try spelling his last name, The Happening. What a f'd up movie. I am surprised I didn't have even one nightmare. I've seen most of his movies, but that was the darkest, gruesomest by far. Today I rented Kung Fu Panda, just for a change of pace. Oh crap, I forgot to check the time when i started my laundry, I should probably go check on it now! Then I think I'm going to get into lazy Sunday mode, watch a movie or two and enjoy the rest of my day off. I hope you are all doing well! Love to all! Peace out homeys!

Tuesday 2 December 2008

WOW!

Holy molee what a difference some new strut mounts do for my car! So I took my car in to a VW dealership that I've dealt with a couple times before, and really didn't like. Got there at 7:30, which was quite the change of pace, as usually I would have been at work already. They took it in right away, so that was cool. About an hour later the guy came over and told me that the knocking yesterday was most likely ice built up where my strut mounts should be, and that the mounts were 70% gone. So it was a good thing that it was really crappy cold and snowy Sunday night, otherwise I may not have been aware of the problem until the mounts failed altogether and my struts shot right through into the engine bay! I always thought that my car was bouncy through pot holes because it has sport suspension (stiffened suspension). Boy was I wrong! What a fantastically smooth ride over train tracks and through pot holes and so on! On top of getting new mounts, and a repaired tire, total out of pocket cost was $0.00!!! See, I bought my car certified, so even though the partial warranty had long expired, the certification is still good, so overall what would have been $6-700 in parts and labor was free for me today!!! YAY! Double YAY! Hot diggidy damn yay!

Work was just busy enough at the office to make the hours fly by. Plus, I didn't get there until 10:30, so that may have had something to do with it too... Job two, however, was slow as molasses in winter. Two drivers, three deliveries in four hours. Monica wants me to make up some of the hours I lost last night, and that's okay with me, at least I don't have to close tomorrow, just work the dinner rush. Plus, everybody is getting new coupons in the mail tomorrow, so that should help at least a little bit.

The only shows worth watching tonight are over, and I can't watch them until they are online. But the X-Files movie was released on DVD today, as well as Wanted, both of which I am itching to see! So my shows might have to wait until the weekend. One more thing I miss about not having cable, no dvr, boo. Why should getting cable have to do with your credit? Even if you have good credit, they still take your stuff if you don't pay the bill, so what's the difference? Oh well.

On that note, I'm going to see what is available to watch online, and bid this post ado. I hope you all had a good Tuesday, and I love those of you who read this and are related to me. To all the rest, I don't love you, but that doesn't mean I dislike you! And to those I do dislike, good riddance!

Monday 1 December 2008

Monday acting like Monday

Well I was hoping this would be a good day. I went to bed early last night, because I knew it was snowing, and wasn't gonna stop. It took me forever to fall asleep. I woke up at 3 am, as I often do. I really hate waking up then. It reminds me of my old friend John, when i was sleeping over at his house when we were about 5 years old, and his mom woke me up around 3 am, and told me that my Mom was coming to pick me up, and that John had died. Then, many years later, the first time I read Something Wicked This Way Comes, and the Dad tells his sons that 3 am is the worst time of day to be awake. Anyway, I digress. When I did fall asleep again, I had a dream/nightmare that my car had been stolen while I was at work. I found it, but it had already been mostly stripped, wheels, stereo etc were all missing. Then I woke up again. I went about my morning as per usual. Went out to clear off my car the best I could, and headed for work. About a 1/4 mile into the trip a crazy loud and hard knocking started coming through the floor, through the pedals and into the gear shifter. I pulled over into a parking lot and took a look, but I didn't see anything. I got back on the road, and a little while later it started again, so I pulled over again. Still nothing I could see, all the tires were inflated, and nothing was hanging down or leaking. SO I got back on the road, a little later the knocking stopped, and I made it to work. A few hours later, i went to get some lunch. I made it out of my parking lot, and then I started pulling hard to the left. I started thinking blown tie-rod right away. I pulled into a 7-11 parking lot, got out, and the front Drivers side tire was completely flat. Crap. I don't mind changing a tire, but in an uneven parking lot, in heavy winds with a wind chill of 12 and ice everywhere make sit a different story. I got my car jacked up, and all the lug nuts out no problem, but then I couldn't get the damn wheel off. So I had to call a tow truck. They had huge problems getting it off too. When it was finally freed, I checked, and the tie rod was still there, but the tire was flat without any damage. No screws or nails or puncture marks or anything. And no, the rim isn't damaged either, so I have no idea. I talked with the local VW dealership, and thank goodness I bought a VW Pre Loved car (aka, certified). I also have the wheel and tire protection plan, so nothing should be out of pocket at my end. I'm taking it in tomorrow at 7:30 am. SO I get tonight off of work, which sucks because it'll probably be busy (snow does have that effect), but hey, I'm sure as hell not driving any more than I need to until I know what that knocking was, and get my tire fixed! I also get to be late to work tomorrow too! I just hope it's something simple like a bent or stripped tie rod, and not something like my tranny, 'cause the less I have my car, the less money I have!

Well since I have the night off, I think I'm just gonna watch a couple movies and chill, and try not to freak out about my poor little hooptie mobile :( I hope you all had a better Monday than I have had so far! Peace love and harmony!