Saturday, September 27, 2008

A short road trip in the rain

My car is dying. Despite all the money I've put into it in the past few weeks, it's going to go belly-up. Trust me, there have been many tears about this. And a lot of nausea. There has also been near rage, too, as I believe I have been screwed over by the no-more mechanic. The car now needs the rack and pinion steering replaced. That's at least $900, and very simply, it ain't happenin'. So, for now, I'm putting power steering fluid in bit by bit, day by day, and it slowly (and sometimes not so slowly) leaks out. Not much to do about it but run this bastard into the ground. I've kinda given up at this point. The car problems increase my stress levels so high, I can't express myself properly. I'm trying to be as Zen as possible about it. Honest. Serenity now, serenity now... SERENITY NOW!!!

Eh, screw it. I suck at Zen.

I'm nursing a cold, and I really needed to spend today cleaning my apartment, as my brother, Air Jordan, is flying in next weekend, but I woke up to an apartment with no power. We had dramatic thunderstorms all night, but ironically the power didn't fail until a couple of hours after the rain moved through.

When the power still wasn't back at noon, I gave up. Knowing that my life will be seriously local for a long time to come, I decided to take a "final for now" super short road trip. It was also a bit of a test drive to see how much travel time my back can handle.I took my camera, got in the car, and drove about 50 miles north-ish to Westminster, Maryland. It's near the Maryland/Pennsylvania border, not far from Gettysburg. There were a handful of autumn festivals scheduled in town, plus (and please, remember, I'm a middle-aged fat woman) a rubber stamp show. Good day for snapping a few photos. I have taken so few in recent months.

I figured the skies in Westminster would be overcast and grey, like they were here in Bethesda. The Sasquatch told me that would offer really ideal conditions for outdoor photos - no bright, direct sunlight.

HA.

The skies stayed grey for a while, but then the heavens opened up. (Much like my power steering.) I ended up a drowned rat driving home in the misty dark, but I got a few cool photos (and a lot of lousy ones) of rural Maryland as autumn entered the scene...








































Hope you enjoyed a little rural America. It was nice to get away for a few hours. Power's back on here at home (obviously), although Comcast is running some insanely loud generator directly outside my bedroom window, so I imagine tonight will be spent curled up on the La-Z-Boy in the living room...

Enough for tonight. My spine is telling me it's Sofa Time. (It's a little like Hammer Time, without the parachute pants and the flat top 'do.)

Remind me, next time, and I'll tell you more about the "concerned citizen" (aka Mr. Total Tool) who decided tonight that I had no right to take a photo of a neon sign on Rockville Pike, then screamed at me, and attempted to take my camera away from me. Bad move, Mr. Tool.

And it was all because I took this photo:


(I think it's possible Mr. Tool has one of those hot metal rods up his ass, too.)

4 comments:

Chuck said...

You never know...terrorists might be scouting possible locations to find the best rotisserie chicken, to feed themselves before committing acts of terror and mayhem.

Sorry to hear about your car. Glad you had some fun on your mini-road trip, enjoyed the pics.

Anonymous said...

Mail pouch tobacco!! That's fantastic. And I love the neon sign. They are always fun photos. Screw Mr Tool for wanting to keep crisp&juicy all to himself!

Janet Kincaid said...

Sorry about your car, M. What a drag.

As for Mr. Tool, you should write a book about all the tools you've encountered in this town. It might be a wake-up call to all the idiots who thrive in this area while the rest of barely get out from under them with our sanity.

P.S. Excellent photos, all of them. I especially like the rainy ones. Well done!

Anonymous said...

I really liked the 4th photo down, the one with rain on the lens or seemingly so. And the striped gourds. I've heard of some in lower Mont. Co. (SSpring??) thinking that they had rights to keep others from photographing, gee, publically-displayed items, or buildings being built. Weird, really, and what would he think of all those cameras at intersections capturing pedestrians, also? I'm glad you had some moments of serenity, sort of. Sorry you bonked your head, too, OUCH.