No Free Lunches ...

As you all know, nothing is free in life, except for a palette of shit brown tile at Sherwood Tile in Newburgh, NY. E!'s brother in law (Schwager) had noticed them, and told us right away.

So we figured, we'll go get them, or at least as much as fits on our pickup truck. Ever since the early days, we have been hunters and gatherers (Jaeger und Sammler). This hasn't changed, and knowing that tile is expensive, you want to grab it while you can, even if the color would be most fitting for a torture room.

So, E! took off with said truck to go get some, while I was still up on the rig trying to finish some work (remember, the aerial lift will leave Wednesday morning). After it got too dark to continue working, I cleaned up, to take Piglet out for a walk, when the phone rang.

It was E!, she was still down in Newburgh (about 20 miles away). The brakes on the truck had started to feel spongy (schwammig). So I drove down to Newburgh, and assessed the situation, and didn't you know, the car was dripping brake fluid (Bremsfluessigkeit) all over the place. No chance you could drive it on the emergency brake alone for 20 miles.

That's what we have AAA (der hiesige ADAC) for. No wait, that's what we have AAA Plus for, because you get 100 miles of free towing. To make a long story even longer, we call AAA, and an hour later the tow truck arrives.

We load my pickup truck on the truck, E! takes off for home, and I sit down in the tow truck. The driver wants to go backwards, but doesn't find the gear (Gang), so he simply goes forward, crossing the lawn (Rasen), but even that sounds painful. He's working the gear box (Gangschaltung), and the crunching noice doesn't sound comforting. He declares that we have to go back to his garage (Autowerkstatt) to get another truck.

So we drive 20 minutes in the opposite direction where we were suppsoed to go to. We get to the shop, it takes another 20 minutes to move my pickup from one tow truck to the other, and off we go. I got home at 10:30pm (22:30 Uhr).

What a busy day. That called for a drink. A good occasion to open the bottle of Scharlachberg Meisterbrand, which we got from Joe as a wedding gift. I will tell you about Joe some other time, remind me if I forget.

Dirk