ZOOM ZOOM

tuesday 11:35pm september third two thousand two

preface

I went home for labor day weekend. I was going to be heading back with vicki, anthony and eric, so I thought "hey, let's rent a car. it'll be more fun and cheaper than amtrak." so I found a good deal on a car that was actually at a place in brooklyn that was easy to get to from my apartment: car zoom. I picked up the car, which looked less-than-nice, but I figured "hey, it drives. who cares what it looks like."

one of the reasons to go home this particular weekend was to attend the "send it in barbecue" which mark organized. it was at thachers park, which is a great place to go if you're bored in rotterdam and the weather's nice. lots of big grassy picnic areas where you can grill and drink and make noise. all of which happen to be hobbies of ours.

so it was a good time. mark made ribs and sausages and burgers, and even ended up cooking for strangers who walked by. we walked the indian ladder trail, drank beers, laughed, and did some of our usual park shenanigans...

HERE ARE PHOTOS OF THE BARBECUE AT THACHERS.

the rest of the weekend was fun and relaxing, but once monday rolled around we had to make our way back down to the city. so vicki, anthony and I hopped into the car zoom car, and hit the road. traffic was starting to get a little heavy, but nothing too bad. more or less smooth sailing, until all the indicator lights started coming on, and an odd burning smell filled the car. during a quick call to my dad, we realized this was "bad" so we pulled over at the upcoming rest stop.

cutting to the chase: we were screwed. garages and auto parts stores are closed on labor day, and the idiots at car zoom weren't bothering to answer their "24-hour roadside assistance" phone. so we had to spend the night in a motel in new paltz, ny. coincidentally the same town where mark's sister goes to school, so we ended up meeting up with her for some drinks after eating ourselves silly on enormous steaks...

HERE ARE PHOTOS OF THE CAR ZOOM INCIDENT.

finally got in touch with the car zoom guy the next morning. seems "24-hour roadside assistance" means "we'll only answer during regular office hours." so the guy towed a new rental car up for us to use, and took the old one back to fix himself.

so anyway, now I'm back in brooklyn. the whole process was extremely annoying, and it's taking me a while to unwind from it all. but yeah, work should help with that tomorrow. weeeeee!