Flat Tire Failure

I had planned to run some errands with Momoko's brother-in-law. But first I needed some lunch. So I headed out to get some Mexican food. I heard a weird sound as I drove the car out of Momoko's dad's driveway. I immediately turned around and pulled back into the driveway. There was a severe flat tire on the passenger rear side.

I came inside to look for some tire stores. Momoko's dad said we could go to his local Sam's Club store. He called them up and they were open. I used his air compressor to fill up the tire to 30psi. Then I followed him to Sam's. They were not busy. We had to go inside the store to officially request assistance. They immediately took the car in the bay as we waited outside. We had a good feeling when they put the tire back on the rim and checked the air pressure.

Inside, I asked the guy what he found. There had been a screw in the tire that they removed and patched. I did not need to get a new tire. There was no charge for the check and patch job. I guess it is built into the Sam's Club membership. Got lucky this time. I then picked up Momoko's brother-in-law. We got some PowerBall lottery tickets. Then I drove to Momoko's car wash. The brother-in-law did the cleaning of my car. I then got my Mexican food on the way home: burritos, chips, and queso.

Dinner Pandemonium

I am on vacation staying with Momoko's dad. I asked him what he wanted to do for dinner. He was flexible. Therefore I opted to get Chinese food. Momoko called me close to the time when I planned to pick up dinner. I tried to speak briefly with her. But she had a lot of stories to tell. After she started going into solo music from BTS members, I told her I had to go.

I called up the local Chinese food place. They said it would take a long time to cook our food. I headed out anyway, and filled the car with gas. There were a lot of cars at the Chinese food restaurant. I waited in line at a small window to pay for the food. Then I got a pager. The pager did eventually go off as I waited outside in the rain. Luckily the guy saw me come in. He gave me my food without me having to get back into line.

Back at Momoko's dad's house, we watched Fire Country while eating out Chinese food. I told Momoko we would need to postpone our college discussion with Little Kat by 1 hour. I called them up after dinner. We went through Little Kat's weekly schedule. We also reviewed a tree containing course prerequisites. Finally I quizzed him on chapter 1 of all courses that start this term. Momoko had her own dinner delivered, so she said she would call me back.

After waiting over an hour, I called Momoko asking what happened? She said she got distracted by a comedy show. The next day we scheduled when she would call me at night to talk.

Dinner and a Movie

Today I planned to go to dinner and movie with Momoko's niece. I had her pick me up in her Volvo. She drove us down to the theater. A parking lot attendant asked us why we were entering the parking lot. We said the movies. They let us in. The niece bought some popcorn, toppings, and a drink. We were the only two people in the theater with our movie.

We saw Smile. This was a horror film. It was the compromise me and the niece arrived at. After the movie, we picked up a huge bag of popcorn for Momoko's dad. Then we tried to drive to the niece's favorite restaurant. She swung around the block a couple time near the restaurant. She could not find any parking. I told her we should have just walked from the theater. We returned to the theater parking lot. However there was no parking left.

We found a paid parking lot. We tested the exit. They actually were not collecting any payment. So we got out and headed towards the restaurant. The niece wanted to rent Zip scooters to ride to the restaurant. I thought that was a bad idea since we did not know where we were going. I was right. We had to climb some stairs. We had to navigate narrow walkways above the canal. Zip biking would not have worked out well.

It turned out that the restaurant was closed. However it was a chain restaurant. So the niece drove us to another one of its locations. The place seemed deserted. I told her we came all this way. So we should go check what was up. They were indeed open with only one other customer. I ordered spicy shrimp and prosciutto. It was delicious. I also had a side Caesar salad. The niece drew on the paper tablecloth with crayons the waitress provided. The niece was tickled that she was able to pay her bill on her phone. I opted for credit card payment the old fashioned way.

Taking a Trip to Hadestown

Tonight I took Momoko's niece to see the Broadway musical Hadestown. We drove down to the theater in the middle of the day to scope the thing out. My GPS was acting weird. So we used the niece's phone to get us there. We searched for parking nearby. Everything was either paid or private parking. We tried out one of the pay per hour spots.

I had trouble navigating the parking payment kiosk. Had to enter my license plate number. I gave us a bit over an hour. We walked by a close museum. However we skipped it because they had a cover fee. The actual theater was closed during the day. We found the main entrance. Then we stopped by Jack in the Box on the way home to get lunch fast food to go.

I drove over to the niece's house and we headed down really early. Got there 2 hours before curtain open. Parked really close to the front doors of the theater. We walked to a nearby pizza place. The niece had to stop mid way to get the blood flowing in her legs. She also collected Pokemon using her app. We say at a table at the pizza joint. We both had Sprite to drink. Some random waitress topped us off with water. WTF?

Eventually we finished dinner and walked back to the theater. We went inside through metal detectors. Had to wait until 30 minutes before the show to enter the actual theater. We were in the upper orchestra section. It was elevated. I was surprised how far back we were from the stage. Was also surprised that there was a big live band playing along with the singers. And this show took us to Hadestown, where Orpheus had to travel to retrieve Eurydice.

In the musical. Hades has his wife Persephone for half the year. He has also talked Eurydice to join him down under. I was surprised that Hermes was our narrator. We knew this was a tragedy. However we still wanted to hear Orpheus with his musical skills charming everybody. After the show, we stayed in our seats until the crowd died down. So did a woman next to me who had taken off her red high heels. The drive home was surprisingly clear of most traffic jams.

A/C and Heat War

Kit Kit and Little Kat went to the Renaissance Festival today. It was the last weekend of the season. Tickets from earlier weeks had sold out early. Momoko went downstairs to wash our bedroom sheet. She thought she heard a noise like Little Kat's portable air conditioner on. She checked his closet and deemed it off. Good thing because we have had the central heating on for a while.

I then went downstairs later to do my own laundry. In the laundry room, I heat air flowing through the A/C exhaust duct. I went into Little Kat's closet. I moved his hanging clothes out of the way. He air conditioner was on. WTF? I told Momoko to call Little Kat. He was done with the Renaissance Festival. But he was eating dinner.

Later we had an emergency family meeting to find out what happened. Momoko turned the whole house central heat on. She texted Little Kat to have him turn off his A/C. He never did it. Last month the electric and gas utility bill was over $500. I cannot afford the A/C and heat to be on at the same time. We had to put in place some procedures to make sure this never happens again. If it down, perpetrators will start paying the electric bill.

Calculus Prerequisite

My next data science course at college requires Calculus as a prerequisite. I took Calculus way back in high school. The college said they needed proof of that. I actually took and aced the AP Calculus exam. I contacted the college board. They could not electronically transfer my exam results as it had been a long time since high school. So I requested they pull my results from archive and forward them to my school.

I called up my school once I got the exam results. The college said they received my exam results, and assured me that I had met that prerequisite. I clarified with them that I could now sign up for the class on my own online. They concurred. Since my company no longer provides advances for college classes, I waited until the day before the course started. And then, I found I could not enroll.

Today I called up the college. Told them I could not enroll in the class. They said it was because the class already started. I told them I tried before class start, and it still did not work. I also told the rep that my Calculus prerequisite was being met by my high school math course. They tried to enroll me and ran into the same error. Luckily, they were able to override this restriction. And now I am enrolled in class.

Kindling Shelf

The whole back part of my property is essentially woods. There are dead branches fall down on the ground all the time. Normally I collect them and bag them for the county to come collect them. However some time ago, I started keeping them to use as kindling.

It takes some time for the wood to dry. So I was putting the sticks in old broke down trash cans. I have 4 or 5 cans. But they are all full. The sticks and branches don't stop falling though. It was finally time to erect a sort of kindling shelf. I figured a piece of plywood on the bottom, raised above the ground to keep wood dry should suffice. Maybe put a tarp over top to keep the rain out.

I had previously built a similar structure on my property behind the back fence to hold grass clippings. It would allow the grass to dry out before bagging it and letting the county collect it. Now I use a multi-bag system. So I don't need to let the grass lay out prior to bagging.

I disassembled the old grass drying structure. Pulled the plywood from the lumber. Wiped off the spider webs and pulled out the nails. Then I put down the plywood where the old trash cans for kindling was located. I put the plywood on top and nailed it down. Then I tossed the loose branches on top. Finally I put a blue tarp on tap, held down by a large stone.

Taking a Trip to Hadestown

The Broadway musical "Hadestown" is taking its show on the road. I am on vacation end the end of this month. So I planned to go see this musical with Momoko's niece. Initially I thought we could get some box seats for a good price. However it took a while to confirm the niece's availability. During that time, the box seats more than doubled in price.

Okay. I guess we could get some tickets in the middle of the floor. The views seem okay from there. I went to the web site and tried to purchase the tickets. The only option of receiving the tickets was through mobile. LOL wut? They want you to download the tickets to you cell phone. No paper tickets seem available.

I did not want to miss out on this musical. Some people rave about, calling it the best thing to come out of Broadway in the last 5 years. The promoter of the show say, "Welcome to HADESTOWN, where a song can change your fate." Man. I am sold. I bit the bullet and purchased the tickets. I could not find anything called passport on my phone. I did find my wallet. And by hook or by crook, I added my digital tickets to my wallet.

Now I need to get over to my niece's, and do a dry run to find out where this theater is. Seems to be downtown. The details on parking seem a bit vague. There does seem to be some free parking available. And there is a lot of pair parking by third parties. On a positive note, if we do swing by, there is a city art museum right across the street.