Blackouts

Two blackouts in two weeks: one of the electricity kind, and one of the not-remembering-anything variety.

You can read about the latter here.

As for the former, the electricity randomly went out today at work around 4:30pm.  Some say that it was because today broke 90 degrees (in mid-April, yikes), and the electric companies just couldn't handle all the computers with the weather.  Others say it's a vast conspiracy (similar to Enron) and that there's probably more blackouts to come.

Either way, it was decided that it would take about an hour after the power came back to get everything up and running again, so it probably wasn't worth it to stick around.  Everyone got to go home an hour early.  Woohoo.

On any other day, that would be welcome news.  But if you're me (and you're not), you wake up Monday morning (on the week of your birthday no less) to realize that you have a fucking flat tire. 

How do you know this? You try pulling out of your parking spot and the car feels funny; it brings back memories of an evening about a year ago when you thought you were going to die as the car shook badly along the highway.  Oh, the good ol days when a flat tire was something you just heard about and never had to experience first-hand. 

This time, since the car was already at my apartment, I decided it'd be a good chance to try and change it myself (especially after the first mechanic complained loudly about having to change a flat only a couple days after being shot).  Turns out I didn't have half of the stuff needed to change the tire.  My co-worker was nice enough to drive me to the auto shop to get the necessary materials and help me change the tire.

Should take only half an hour at most if you have all the tools, but it ended up taking much longer with all the driving and half the traffic lights being out around town (due to the blackout).

So off to the auto shop, where they say it'll only be an hour wait.  Yeah, turns out to be like an hour and a half.  They apologize and give me coupons, but can coupons bring back time?

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