chevy bel air
here’s a car from my archives. mooneyes, a couple of years ago. rough looking car, contrasting the brick wall behind. i dunno. i just liked it tonight, as i scrolled through the growing set of unpublished pics.
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i got a not quite expected opportunity last thursday, to attend a conference the following monday—yesterday—in arizona. boss asked if i still wanted to go…uhh, ya. so i scrambled to price it out: registration, the flight (she wouldn’t let me drive), car rental, and hotel. got that approved, but didn’t book until friday morning. almost forgot to register after booking the other things.
there were/are a couple of car shows that i had been looking forward to going to, and the weather has been a perfect gloomy overcast shadowbox for the past week, and on into this week, and a lovely, chilly upper sixties temp-wise. my kind of weather.
saturday was spent doing laundry and packing clothes. alternating between being jazzed to be going, bummed to miss the shows, and the fact my better half couldn’t go, as he’s been working lots of overtime, including weekends, into the foreseeable future.
sunday morning, i slept in a bit. got up, had bfast and read what’s what on my ipad, and looked at pics from the old school bombs show i was missing. beautiful cars parked throughout what appeared to be an industrial complex parking lot, with cars in front of colorfully mural-painted brick walls. oh it would have been fun.
joked with my better half that i could drive up for an hour or so, then home, and straight to the airport. he laughed. he’s had to wait on me before, his fav story being when we were on our way our way to an anniversary road trip up the coast, and just wanted to run in and see what was at this one show in whittier for a minute. came back out an hour later for some water, and back in for another couple of hours. he bided his time cleaning the car windows, while guys drove by asking if he could do theirs next.
ya, i would have forgotten about the time, so stayed put.
then my flight was delayed by half an hour.
we decided to go to the airport at originally planned time anyway. he was working all morning, and was going to have to get back as soon as possible for more. he’s more comfortable driving his car. which was my old car, twice removed. i was the original owner, then sold it to my ex, who sold/gave it to my parents to use as a backup car. mom sold it to my better half after my dad died. didn’t need it just sitting in the driveway anymore. better half wanted it to drive his mother around before she died. i think she only rode in it a couple of times before that last ambulance ride.
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that was then. this is now.
we hadn’t made it more than three blocks, with some stress bickering, when his car did a little shimmy at a red light. a little farther and it did it again. ya, no. turn around, go home. parked the car, which felt like it barely made it. he thinks the transmission is going out. come on, it’s only twenty-seven years old. sheesh. perfect timing. should i have taken it as a sign?
i waited by the garage while he ran in to get the opener. came back, realizing my car keys are still in the house.
i drove us to the airport to save trouble making adjustments to fit his better self.
still plenty of time, pulled up to the curb two-and-a-half hours early. kiss kiss, goodbye. i turned and watched him adjust the seat, mirrors, etc. he was taking so long, i’m surprised the cops didn’t come to hassle him.
anyway, he left and only had to drive the loop one time more, as he missed the turn off for the freeway exit. fortunately, the airport was pretty quiet in the middle of a sunday morning, so not really a problem.
inside, i decided i would check a bag. didn’t need to, but i wasn’t paying, so why not? company card declined. wtf. nevermind, i’ll check it at the gate. no line for security check, so at least i was in the terminal within five minutes, two more hours to wait until boarding.
decided to walk to the far end, two terminals away, in search of a cookie, but the place i was looking for was no longer there. piss.
hiked back to my gate and sat by the window, watching planes take off.
my plane arrives, late as expected. we board late, as expected. pull back from the gate within a reasonable amount of time. then we just sit for a bit. thought we were inching along in line. you know how it feels like you’re moving, but when you look out the window, haven’t actually moved a wit.
i was in an aisle seat at the back. the girl by the window was some kind of native american, and was having a lovely conversation with the older hispanic man between us. sounded like they had started their chat in the terminal, and it eventually lasted the whole time we were on board. they talked about their families, abuelitas, cousins, work, life. she had moved to phoenix for work, and lived with a boyfriend, had just visited family.
he was a widower, who grew up in michoacan, mexico, but now mostly traveled doing some construction work. both seemed to do government-related work. he couldn’t get secret clearance, or even work on some things, as he wasn’t u.s. born.
i chimed in once in a while…my ex was from michoacan, but not the same town…i’ve traveled on amtrak across country, taken this route and that…etc. i’m so socially inept, i finally stopped cutting in. mostly i tried to read a book until i decided it wasn’t worth the read. author should have not bothered to write this sequel.
girl in the window seat said she thought she saw smoke or dust coming from another plane on the runway. the captain soon made an announcement that the plane in front of us had some kind of engine trouble on the runway, and had spewed metal parts all over. he would tell us when they have cleared it and we could take off; hold your horses.
people were becoming impatient the longer it was taking, as they had connecting flights that were very tight on the other end. an old guy sitting across the aisle from me about popped a vessle arguing with the flight attendant, because he had a subpoena waiting for him at the other end, and he absolutely could not miss the appointment.
after about an half an hour of sitting there, they decided to return to the gate to let those people disembark if they chose to, as well as anybody else in search of other options of travel. We were at the gate for a while. if it had gone on any longer, they would’ve had everybody deplane so they could go eat, as it was originally a short flight, and were not doing any kind a food or drink service.
when they pushed back from the gate again, we sat in line for another period of time. all in all, we took off two hours later than originally expected, and took another hour in the air to phoenix. they did manage to conjure up plastic cups of water to offer to us midflight. i was starving as i hadn’t expected to be this late. i was hoping there was still something open besides mickey d’s on a sunday night.
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at the car rental counter, there was no line, and the girl thought she was doing me a favor, giving me an upgrade. i thought she was giving me a free upgrade, as happens sometimes, but when i put my company card in the reader, it declined again. i thought there must be something wrong with it, so i used my own card and would expense it out later. my work only allows a smaller car and i already reserved and priced it out. when i went down to find my car in the garage, it was a damn lexus suv, bigger than i needed.
found a sandwich shop down the freeway, closing soon; good enough.
did i mention it was still ninety-six degrees at ten at night? ick. self-parked somewhat away from the lobby.
the sky was clear, the stars twinkled, and the full moon lit the way from the lot. otherwise, it’s pretty dark out there.
i finally arrived in my hotel room after ten-thirty p.m., i looked over the contract—the thing was priced at three times my original cost with the added insurance stuff i was supposed to decline. i called the credit card company to find out why the heck my card was declining. they told me the girl had originally tried to charge me over a thousand dollars for six days, but currently have a lesser balance, so she couldn’t charge my card for the car they gave me. no reason given for the decline at bag check.
i found it hard to go to sleep, as i was worrying how i was going to tell the boss i fucked up. it was after midnight last i looked.
in the morning i called the rental company to ask if i could return it for the original car that i asked for? the customer support person said I could try taking it back to the airport, but didn’t guarantee anything. the fine print said i was going to have to pay for twenty-four hours anyway, so i went after my day of classes were done. i figured that i would pay for my mistake for one day, then charge the other days at the lower rate on the company card.
it turned out not to be a problem, save for having to wait in line at the little office in the garage. air conditioning was poor at best, and the door kept popping open when people were too nearby, letting the oven temp evening air in.
a stewardess had flown in specifically to argue in person about a huge charge for a lost key she said didn’t happen. props to the manager for keeping his cool.
got my teeny car finally, and pedaled it back to the hotel.
would have been easier and faster if i had driven. could have gone to that car show. could have brought my camera gear and found something to shoot picks of here.
today was boring, by comparison. still hot af.