I’ve been posting elsewhere.
- Two short music reviews (Sinead O’Connor & Motown Remixed) for JIVE.
- A not-at-all-clique-y restaurant review on Metroblogging Atlanta.
- A new set of auto part mystery photos on Flickr.
Those last two items are more connected than they might appear.
The restaurant was the location for a very pleasant surprise birthday gathering for a friend of Nikki’s. The friend was wonderfully shocked and we all had a lovely time. The plan was to then head over to the apartment of another friend of said friend for the traditional cake and so on that should accompany any such celebration. To make it all the better, said cake was rumoured to be a Jake’s Ice Cream cake.
But on the way back to this apartment (we had gathered there before the restaurant surprise), this sudden wailing of rain starts beating the hell out of every car on our patch of I-75 South. Instantly, every auto slowed to a crawl. I cranked my wipers up to ludricrous speed. For a moment, I considered pulling over at an underpass, but we sojourned on, eventually hopping off at Delk Road.
It looked like Delk Road might be better, what with more lights and less people, but that was before we stopped at a redlight close to the Spaghetti Warehouse. From out of the gas station to our right, this dude whips his car out and to his right, making a huge arc. “Asshole,” I said out loud. The light turned and I had to retract my curse. The guy was purposefully avoiding the massive and sudden patch of deep water that covered the right side of the road. I kept my foot on the gas and we made it through, but I was more than remotely terrified. We all were.
After fording the flooded plain, I drove on up the hill to a gas station at the top. Higher ground, I figured. Steam or smoke was just pouring out from under my hood, so we found some space under the station canopy out of the rain. I popped the hood. Nothing looked out of place, but Nikki had noticed a grinding noise as we pulled into the station. So I looked under the car and found the aforementioned mystery part.
Now I need to decide what to do about the part. I got advice at the scene from a fellow partygoer, the fellow running the gas station and this nice guy that just rolled up in his car at the pump next to us and slid right under the car to take a look. All said to just be careful going home and to watch my gauges. I’ve done so. All seems fine. It drove just fine yesterday and today. But parts are meant to be where they are, so I suppose I should take it to the dealership or try to repair it myself. I’ve posted my query to Ask Mefi, but any further words of wisdom would be appreciated.
