The bad luck spreads

I’ve had some bad luck on my bike the past couple of weeks, and it seems that it has spread to my car.

I drove to work Friday because I had to leave my bike at the shop to get my rear tire retensioned after I got a flat on my way home Thursday. I dropped Meg off at her work so we could be at least somewhat environmentally conscious and then found a parking spot on the street near my work. Meg started feeling kind of sick during the day, so she took a bus to my work to get my keys from me and drive herself home.

The next day, we decided to take my car to Bumbershoot. I pushed the button to unlock the doors and nothing happened. I figured the battery in my clicker died, so I unlocked the door manually (who does that anymore?) and tried to use the automatic lock on the driver’s side to unlock Meg’s door. Again, nothing happened. That’s when I noticed Meg had left the lights on and completely drained the battery. So we took Meg’s car to the Seattle Center to make sure we got to Bumbershoot in time to get tickets to see Beck that night.

We came home in the afternoon to get a few things done before we went back to see Band of Horses and Beck. I didn’t want to have to jump my car on Sunday, so Meg got out her jumper cables and worked her sparky magic to get my car started.

Everything seemed fine for the next few trips.

On Monday, Meg and I took my car to Southcenter Mall to get a discount on a snowboarding pass at Skibonkers. We made it there fine, but when I tried to start my car the instrument panel on the dash went haywire and nothing else happened. We called AAA and had them jump-start the car. Just a little side note on that: The AAA guy had the worst case of crack attack I’ve ever seen. Seriously, I could see cheeks, not just a little top crack. It was gross. Anyway, Mr. Cheeky checked my alternator and said it was fine, so I suspected the battery was kaput.

On our way to Schuck’s Auto, we were sitting at a red light when we heard tires squeal for about half a second before we were thrown forward as a car slammed into the back of mine. Fortunately, the only damage that I could see was the imprint of the guy’s Texas license plate on my bumper. The poor little guy in the other car looked so scared. I think he was probably a college student or something. I got his info and we went on our way.

We finally got to Schuck’s and had the girl there check the battery. As suspected, it was shot. So Meg worked her mad wrench skillz and got a new battery into my car lickety split. I was glad the battery was the only problem. The ride home was uneventful, but after all of that hassle I felt like I needed a long nap.

I was very happy with my drama-free bike ride today.