Emergency Road Service

I'm giving the emergency road service on my insurance policy a work out. Last Wednesday, the timing chain (it looked more like a rubber belt) on the Miata broke. I was driving highway speed, when all of the sudden, the little car lost power and the "Check Engine" light started flashing madly. I was able to pull off the side of the road -- New York Avenue, almost to Route 50 -- though there wasn't much more than a break down lane to protect me from the passing cars.

I called Geico's 800 number to report the break down. Amazingly, it took less than an hour for the tow truck to arrive. He pulled up only minutes after Shawn did. We towed the car to Phillip's garage and left it for him with a note. He called me the next morning and told me that for $550, he could fix my car as good as new. Okay, I said, fix me up.

That should have been the end of the story, except on the way to work this morning, I started noticing an inordinate amount of white smoke blowing behind my car. When the heater stopped putting out warm air, I started worrying. When the temperature gauge spiked, I knew I had a problem. I pulled off the highway and into a parking lot, where I watched steam billow from under my hood.

Once again, I called Shawn, Geico, and Phillip to report my busted radiator hose. As the Geico claims rep was calling the tow truck, she told me, "You know, we only pay for one tow per repair." I laughed and assured her this was a completely different break down. It took a little longer for the truck to arrive this time, but to make a long story short, the little car is back at the garage for the day. When I pick it up after work, I hope this will be the last time I see Phillip until I'm due for my next oil change.

Dianne

Sitting...

The west-bound commuters' worst nightmare:

"An accident reported on inbound New York Avenue. Traffic on Route 50 is backed up to the Beltway."

Guess what I did this morning?

Total commuting time: 1 hour, 33 minutes.

Silver lining: I missed an early morning fire drill in my building.

On the whole, I can't complain.



Dianne

Searching

It seems since we moved in to our house, we've been on a quest. It doesn't matter that we threw out, gave away, recycled, or otherwise got rid of truckloads of stuff when we left Knoxville. It doesn't matter that our closets are full of things we don't have room for. It doesn't matter that we already have so much stuff.

We keep realizing that we don't have the RIGHT STUFF. So we look for towels to match the new bathroom. For curtains to cover the windows. For shelves to hold the thousands of books we didn't give away. For cabinets to display our treasures. And now, we're looking for a dresser and a narrow chest of drawers that match our bedroom furniture.

In the process of all this looking, we're finding our way around Annapolis, the Washington Beltway, and the greater Baltimore area. Though it's frustrating to come up empty after an entire day in the truck, we've been having fun looking.

And of course, once we find the perfect bedroom furniture, we'll move on to looking for the perfect boat...

It's always something!