Yesterday sure got out of hand.

It was graduation day for graduate students. Thus, at 2 PM I was officially recognized as a Master of Arts. I look forward to opening my own shop and taking on apprentices and journeymen. At least, that's how I think these things go.

I decided not to attend the ceremony itself. It takes a long time, I'd have to buy another robe that I only get to use once, and the speaker wasn't someone I was all that interested in hearing.

I was it was time for me to get my graduation gift to myself, which was being assembled at my local bike store. I was sitting at home reading a book, waiting for the phone to ring.

Ring it did, but it wasn't the bike store. It was my girlfriend, telling me she was coming right over. She'd been working at a place less than five minutes away, and had hit her head really hard. She hadn't lost consciousness, but she was dizzy and felt "unwell". Excellent signs of a possible concussion!

After a telephone conversation with the company nurse, I drove her to a local urgent care clinic that was part of the company medical plan. We had to hurry a bit, as they closed at 4 PM on Fridays. We made it, and I got to sit in the waiting room and read the Economist while Hil was poked, prodded, and had her vital fluids inspected.

She was adjudged to be in no immediate danger, but in need of monitoring. There were a number of restrictions placed upon her, the most salient to the current tale being that she couldn't drive.

Meanwhile, her father had called and asked if I was available to do some heavy lifting at his place. So once we were released from the medical facility, I drove the two of us to Hil's parents' place, where we enthroned her in a very comfy chair, while Hil's father, a neighboring teenager, and myself installed a bed cover on Hil's father's rather large pickup truck.

Hil was resting comfortably, so I took the opportunity to finally collect my new bicycle. It looks quite nice, but I still haven't had the opportunity to ride it around anywhere. That's because after I picked it up, I went to Hil's house to monitor her. In the meantime, her parents had driven to my apartment, where they picked up her car and delivered it to her house.

Her mother had done the driving, and was unfamiliar with Hil's car, as well as being understandably upset about her daughter's medical condition. So when she parked Hil's car in the garage, she left the headlights on.

I noticed that shortly after arriving, and we investigated. Her car's starter was willing to make a sad little noise, but that was it. So we pulled my car into the garage next to it, and I dug some jumper cables out of my trunk, which was itself a pain, as my new bike was still on my trunk-mounted bike rack.

Some complex maneuvering was required to get the two batteries close enough to make the connection. I ended up having to pull my car so far forward, the nose was planted in a stack of bags of gardening soil. That was sufficient to get the cable to reach, and we connected everything up.

After a few minutes of charging, we got her car started. Hooray! I shut my car down, and was about to close my hood when I noticed that the radiator fan was blowing. It was only about 60° in the garage (with the garage door open for ventilation) so I wasn't sure why my car was needing to cool down. I powered the car back on to check the instruments, only to discover it was substantially overheated! It had failed to occur to me that placing the nose of my car in the stack of bags of soil had cut off the airflow into the grille. I shifted to neutral, released the parking brake, and pushed the car back about 18 inches, whereupon the temperature gauge dropped with gratifying rapidity. I am told that our efforts were not in vain, and her car started this morning without incident.

The good news is, Hil feels largely intact today, and is off at work right now. But what a way to start a weekend!

Posted by: Boviate at 10:14 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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