Vancouver

So where do I begin? It's been a busy month at work. Two weeks ago I chalked up a sweet 80 hour week and finished it off by losing my wallet. Seems that being sleep deprived makes a person less likely to remember their previous actions. So for a week I mourned the loss of my wallet and of course cancelled all my credit cards. Apparently I made up with Karma and as I was waiting for Dori to drive us up to the ski hill I looked up and discovered my wallet. I had tucked it into the sun visor, because, well, I have no clue why.

Over the course of the last month my pickup has also been acting up. It decided to not start one morning. Turns out that the positive battery cable that I put on 2 years ago wasn't tight enough. Now after years of Vancouver moisture it was corroded and the battery was not getting charged.

Normally this is a trivial job, and I don't mind doing easy car work. I also like to do it "proper". Meaning if the parts aren't expensive then replace them with new. So I had every intention of replacing both the negative and positive cables with brand new cables and putting the battery through a good overnight charge. Instead, the battery cables are stripped do to corrosion and apparently a misuse of force that last time I changed the battery. So I replace the offending positive cable and get a 8 hour charge on the battery.

With a bit of success, I felt like I had overcome adversity and my pickup was back to a healthy state. Alas, three days ago Dori attempts to start the pickup and the battery is drained. Apparently something is keeping the battery from charging. The alternator? The heavily corroded negative cable I couldn't get off? A bad battery?

Not having time to take care of this problem during the week I waited until Sunday to fix it. After nursing a St. Patty's day hangover on Saturday my friend Duane convinced me that the "hair of the dog" was in order. So after a few beers and a Domino's pizza Sunday morning arrived. Having been a light night of drinking compared to Friday I bounded out of bed at 8am to fix the pickup. Duane and I headed of with tools and a hacksaw through the streets of Kits to find my pickup. Thinking that Dori had driven it last, I assumed she had found parking on a different block. Not having found the pickup after a walk around the two closest blocks, Duane and I jumped in his car to start looking. After doing a 2 block radial sweep I determined that I no longer had a pickup.

Dejected, I went home and released Duane from his mechanic duties. I decided that I was going to have to wait until Dori got back from her trip to find out where the pickup was. A few thoughts later and I decided the more likely case was that the pickup got towed. After a depressing call to the city impound lot I found the pickup.

St. Patty's day out: $150
Pizza with Duane: $22
Parking within 6 meters of a sidewalk: $40
New battery cable and battery: $157
Towing fee and 3 days of storage: $76

Memories of 2006 St. Patty's weekend: $445