Month: November 2008

Down and Out, For Now

Sunday as Rachel, Taylor and I were heading to my grandma’s for some delicious vegetable soup, my truck died.  I was able to get it re-started to get it turned around and on the way back to our home.  It stopped about 50 feet shy of our driveway, and in the middle of our road.  We tried to push, but it wouldn’t budge.

An argument ensued, and I decided we leave it there for the moment and enjoy some soup to warm our souls.  We would return to move the truck soon enough.

When we returned, we couldn’t get the truck out of Park.  It just wouldn’t budge.  I don’t believe it’s my ignition switch again, cause we can crank the truck and the steering wheel isn’t locked up.

All in all, there are 2 problems affecting my truck that if taken to a shop will cost around $1,000 to fix.  My fuel pump has bit the dust, and some safety device which prevents the transmission from coming out of Park.

With the help of my neighbor Bill, I removed the drive shaft and we pulled my truck with Rachel’s Kia.

I can save myself about $600 by installing the fuel pump myself.  There are many “ifs” in this situation though.  I’ve never replaced one before, the weather is not conducive to working in the cold, did I mention it’s cold?

Rachel wants to just get rid of the truck, but it’s imperitive that we have a second mode of transportation.  Should I get a job somewhere not on the IU campus, I will need a way to get there.

With the trucks’ current condition, we would have to give it away.  Something I’m not willing to do.

I hope the truck isn’t still broken down by the time we need it, such as 6+ inches of snow.

Scanning The Past

In the 90’s I was a big country music fan.  My love of this particular genre of music brought me to a vicarious situation in 1998.

My girlfriend at the time and I went to see Garth Brooks at Freedom Hall in Louisville, KY.  We got the tickets extremely cheap ($36 each).  They were almost the best seats in the house, 3rd row center.  If it weren’t for the drunk girl in front of us who lost her bladder control and the crazy guy with his extremely large cowboy hat, I think it would have been an amazing concert.

But the story only begins here.  While leaving the concert that night, I had a seizure while trying to merge into another lane of traffic to leave the parking lot.  Most of what I remember after that is quite hazy to this day.  I do remember several specific things though.  I came to in an ambulance in the parking lot, after leaving an area hospital we arrived by cab back to my truck.  I then had my unlicensed girlfriend drive us back home.

She didn’t know how to get back home, so I set her on a path and napped while I could.  When we got onto Highway 37 I told her to, “stay on this highway.”  Needless to say I woke up and saw Bedford Junior High School and she had a puzzled look on her face, not knowing where she was.

If you can imagine, this is the memory from just one night.  Imagine the memories I have held within the 500+ 35mm negatives I just finished scanning for my mother.  I recently asked her for the negatives and pictures from that night in question, as I have a blown up picture of the concert.  It is damaged and I want to replace it, but with a good quality piece.

Instead of just giving me what I had asked for, she gave me everything she has.  My mother hasn’t made the switch to a digital camera yet, she prefers a disposable 35mm for now.

To some people what I’ve done is just a waste of time, but to me I’ve just preserved the memories of an awkward time of my life.  It covers a time span of about 3 years, 1994 – 1997.

Once I’m done cropping and restoring I’m going to burn these to a DVD for my mother to keep.  I’ll keep what I want and  upload them to flickr.