iCE Breaker’s Matrix

I swear, you’re going to think I’m making this stuff up. But it really happens. It’s finally my day to return to my new found home in Florida. I was able to visit with all my friends and catch up on life. Awesome stuff!! It was a great time! Loved every day of it. I even got to beat on my mom’s Honda Shadow. I never thought a little cruiser would be enjoyable to ride.

So one of my long lost friends I haven’t seen in about 7yrs hung out with me on my last day in town. He was also kind enough to give me a lift to the airport. Well, the sky opens up! It’s lightning and thundering.. Down pouring.. So I figure we’ll get to the airport early to beat any traffic due to the weather and the time I had to leave to catch my flight.

I get to the airport and the weather is calming down a bit, but just before we pull in to the drop-off spot, I get a call from the airline saying my flight is delayed 67 minutes and it’s going to cause me to miss my connecting flight and that they were in the process of finding me another flight.

So I get to the counter and the lady tells me they’re not flying out of Cleveland and the best she could do is get me a flight out first thing in the morning. Ok. FIRST OF ALL! THEY LOST MY LUGGAGE. (I was livid at this moment) So I told the counter lady about my problems with my lost luggage and how I’m returning home and they STILL haven’t found it. I’m feeling my blood pressure rise at this point as she’s telling me she can’t control the weather and asked me what I wanted her to do about it. I walked away throwing my bag (with newly purchased clothes) across the hall and tried to figure out what I’m going to do.
Nothing about this trip has been going right except for hanging out with my friends and family.

So I talk to my dad to discuss my options and I figure I’ll go back and talk to the lady and see what she offers. I get back in line and I’m waiting behind two people and the same lady points at me and motions to get over there. I’m like ‘Uh oh!’. But she apparently found a flight on another airline, but I had to get crack’n and run to the gate. She gives me a printout to hand to the other counter and check-in.

I proceed to run across the airport to the other counter and get checked-in. I handed the lady the printout and things went smoothly— Until I got to security. I’m sliding my things through the machine, got my shoes off, laptop out, etc, etc. and then I get yanked out of line for ‘further inspection’. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?! Ok, So I’m already pissed off from the reminder of my luggage.. on top of this bullshit ‘no more flights today’ and NOW THIS?!!? TSA can suck my left nut. So I’m probably looking shady as is– I’m kinda sweaty from running across the airport and now I’m sitting in a chair while they dig through my shit– and I’m IN A HURRY!! and I’m sure I looked like it. Grrrrr. It actually went faster than I expected. I honestly could be in some room right now being interrogated, but somehow I managed to bite my tongue.

I FINALLY get to the gate and the plane isn’t even boarding yet. I was a bit confused about having to run to the gate when I had about 30mins according to the gate info-board.

Anyhow, I’ve made it home in one piece. I carried all my new luggage on so it wouldn’t get lost again. Oh yeah one more thing. I’m already 5mins from where I’m currently living and remember I parked my truck at the new apartment. DOH! So tomorrow, I’m going to have to use the bike to my transportation.

So in the next episode of my bad-luck life… I was traveling to Cleveland to visit friends and family for 4th of July weekend. I figured I’d take a few extra days this time so it wasn’t such a task trying to visit all my friends and hang out. So I get to the airport 3hrs early since the bridge gets so crazy-jammed-up if you leave anywhere near 5pm on a weekday. This isn’t a problem since I’m at the airport, I’m past security and I’m relaxing while I’m waiting for my flight. That’s just less stress on me. Perfect? Right? So yea, I had 3hrs before my flight so I figure I’ll grab a few drinks at one of the bars. Nothing like flying with a good buzz!!!

So I get on my flight a little late, oops.. But hey, it’s easier than standing in line like lemmings and taking 45mins to get to your seat. I was able to just find my seat and plop down— in the LAST seat on the plane. Yeah, the perfect seat with the jet right in your ear and 3ft from the odorific toilets. Just use your imagination as to the joy I had sitting there. I tried to shed some humor on the location of our seats by shouting out “You know all the cool kids sit on the back of the bus!” Which got a few chuckles.

Being laid back I took my prime seating in stride by putting on my iPod and flipping through a sportbike magazine. This helped pass some time and take my mind off the asses I had in my face while the people were standing there waiting in line.

I had an hour and a half layover so I figure hey! Lets hit another bar and keep the buzz plane going!! I mention to the bartender when I have to go to keep from getting another drink when my plane is boarding. Didn’t work. I had to chug my last drink and run to the plane.

This time I get a wing seat next to some cute little girl who seemed to thing I was invading her space or something. I was sort of wandering if it was a shy thing or a creepy thing. I starting thinking I have this creepy thing about me, but millliseconds later I shrugged that off and it’s obviously because I’m such a stud it must be that I’m intimidating. So again I put on my iPod and go into my own little world– half asleep. Somewhere around the time they started passing out drinks and pretzels I decided I had to adjust my headphones because they were hurting my ears a little. Wouldn’t you know it? I reach up without opening my eyes and knocked the stewartests hand spilling a bit of soda on my lap. What are the chances of that?

I used that as the ice breaker (pun pun pun) to talk to the girl next to me. Which I can’t even remember what we talked about since I was still pretty buzzed. I think that’s the first time I had a conversation with the opposite sex on a plane. Apparently, it wasn’t anything important because like I said, I have no idea what we even discussed. Anyhow.. Since this is pretty pointless to my story here..

So I walk over to the baggage claim and I’m waiting for my bag to come around. The belt moves a few seconds and a few bags came out. The belt stopped for a few seconds and then moved again. I think a total of 15 bags came out with not one of them being mine. I watch the belt move again and there’s no more bags left. I’m staring in disbelief. Where’s my bag? So I talk to some lady walking by making a comment “Oh! There’s more bags coming out, right?” She replies “Nope, that’s it…” Ummmmm.. They lost my luggage. THEY LOST MY LUGGAGE. I then proceed to walk to the baggage department and ask what’s going on. I get the blow-off run around– Thank god my mother came in and did most of the talking because I was ready to rip heads off.

So, it’s July 7th. I’m going home tomorrow and I still have no luggage. You know– Every pair of my new shorts are gone. Every pair of my new jeans are gone. Every new t-shirt I bought. Gone.. ALL. GONE. So now I get to figure out what I’m going to do. I spent $100 on clothes for the week and that was 4th of july sales. Total Suck.

Well, Today I’m convinced my truck is trying to kill itself. Prior to the events that went on today, it decided it was going to choke itself out by attempting to swallow some part that fell off the air-intake butterfly gimmick.. That was the first time. But today!! TODAY!! Uggh! Let me first tell you that my heater-core exploded so I had to bypass that with a $2 plastic connector that connects two radiator hoses together so the water that’d normally pass through the heater-core can continue on it’s merry way.

Today I wake up for work, but working from home— Around noon, I decide to take lunch and go out to grab a bite to eat. I don’t get half way there and I smell antifreeze. I sort of didn’t think anything of it as I was in a group of trucks and maybe it was one of them. I look down to see my temp gauge is starting to go up. ok, so it’s really hot out. No. The temp continues to rise. So I pull over to see what’s going on under the hood. Upon a quick inspection the heater-core bypass thing broke. Just a little piece of it that went into the hose so it’s repairable on the road. Unfortunately, I don’t have any pliers to remove the clap. All I had was a screw-driver. Which seemed to work, but only after I managed to nearly rip my thumb off. The thumb survived, but it’s swollen and continued to bleed for a good hour or so. I guess part of the clamp went under my nail slightly separating it from my thumb. YES! IT HURTS! Anyhow. I got things back together and since I always carry a jug of water with me I filled up the radiator and I was on my way.

Though, I didn’t feel comfortable driving, I figure I should probably head back home so I can replace this part. So I get on the freeway, the temperature gauge is reading good. It went back down really fast. Then as I’m exiting, the thing starts going back up! OMG! What now. So I drive a bit until I’m really uncomfortable with the temperature of my truck and pull into a Hess station. I pop the hood, look again and wouldn’t you know it. THE OTHER SIDE of the bypass broke. I looked around and told Murphy to go F himself while I thought, My truck REALLY is trying to kill itself. Though this time, I couldn’t fix it. I had to get something to get the clamp off and remove the chunk of plastic in the hose.

I figure, Ok. Autozone is right down the street. I’m fairly familiar with the area I’m in. I have nothing but time now. The truck is over-heated and it won’t run, nor did I feel comfortable running it at that temperature, so I start to walk. I’m walking and walking and walking. ok. Autozone has to be here. Somewhere. Apparently, when you’re driving 50mph you don’t realize just how far away things are. So.. I walked 20 blocks. Yes. 20 blocks. 43rd all the way to 63rd to get to Autozone I picked up some pieces-parts, pliers, worm-clamps and towels. I hung out in the store for a bit to catch some of the A/C as it’s 90 degrees outside and I had to walk back another 20 blocks.

Upon returning to my truck, I turn on the accessories just to see how far the temp gauge goes up. It wasn’t that hot at all, so I was in good shape. Pop the hood again and start to repair things. Removing the clamp with pliers was cake. Digging the broken piece out of the hose with the screwdriver wasn’t much work either. The bypass snapped back into place. But I had dropped the clamp into the motor somewhere and wouldn’t you know.. It didn’t fall out onto the ground.. AHH! HAH!! I got you this time Murphy! I got you BITCH!. I bought worm clamps. NEENER NEERNERER!!! So I tightened the worm-clamps up on each side of the bypass and I was once again on the road.

NOT 2 BLOCKS and the temp gauge goes up over 260 again! (not to mention I’m stuck at every damn red light) Ok. At this point I’m actually praying this thing grenades! Blow the F up! DO IT! You want to so damn bad! DO IT!..

Ok, So I find a Shell station and pull in. After having to do a total major U-Turn around 6-7 cars because they were blocking the driveway and I couldn’t sit there waiting for their light to change. I pull in and start looking for their water hose. Nothing to be found. I see the Vac/Air thing and walk over to it. Wrapped up in the grass is something at might be water. But I can’t find the place you put in your quarters. So I try it.. HEY! FREE WATER!! You have to pay for air, but you can get free water?? (Florida will never stop confusing me).

So, Apparently the overflow jug doesn’t really get used when your radiator is totally out of water/coolant. I fed my truck 2 whole gallons of water. I knew it was bone dry when I carefully/slowly opened up the raditor cap (with my new towels!) and all it did was Fffst! No bubbles, no water flying out.. no nothing.

Ok, radiator full of water, cap back on, double checked the bypass and again, back on the ro— errr Until my truck stalls right there in the gas station. ok. Start it back up and get back on the road. 4 blocks later.. It stalls again. I possibly burned up a spark plug or something. The truck starts back up and again I’m headed home. It stalled one more time, but after that it was fine all the way home.

I should have stayed in bed today.. Did I mention I’m a bit sunburned from my 1hr walk? *sigh*

Minor bug with the installer. It was attempting to create buttons to items that don’t exist in XP. This should fix all that. Be sure to uninstall the previous version if you have it installed some how.