Another Car Repair Story

     Page Two Hundred Eighty-Two.
     This is my first blog, after a nice little vacation. More about the vacation later. But first, this is just too good...
     I planned on leaving Friday morning, August 15th at 8AM. The previous Tuesday, the 12th, at 3PM, I took my car to my mechanic, 2 short blocks from my apartment, to get an oil change which was 1000 miles overdue. He called me 15 minutes later with the news that I needed a new timing belt and transmission pan. Great. I picked up the car and then dropped it back off on Wednesday evening at 6PM. Tom said, "I'll have it ready tomorrow evening or sometime Friday morning".
     "No", I replied. "I'm leaving Friday at 8AM. I need it back Thursday night."
     "Okay, you'll have it back Thursday night." 
     I phoned him on Thursday at 5 to say I'd be by at 6, when they close, to pick up my machine.
     "It's taking longer than we thought. Give us a couple of extra hours."
     So I went over at 8 and sat for an hour 'till Tom and Mike finished. Prior to driving out at 9, I gave Tom a boatload of money. I appreciated that they each stayed 3 hours past closing so I could drive to New York the next morning and I told them so. I have an extremely good relationship with my mechanic, Tom, and his employees: Mike and Gary. I then drove the 2 blocks home and got ready for my get-a-way. 
     I woke up earlier than anticipated on Friday and pulled out of my parking lot, ready to go, at 6.30AM. (Leaving for a long road trip 90 minutes ahead of schedule, that early in the morning, qualifies me for a Nobel Prize in some category. I'm just not sure which one.) Within 100 feet though, I knew there was a problem. The machine didn't feel right at all. First, I was in denial. I figured that the new pieces simply had to "gel", which really isn't that bizarre. Sometimes when you have serious work done under the hood, it takes a few moments for everything to sound and feel normal again. But as I went to the bank and Starbucks and it wasn't getting better, I proceeded from denial to stubborn. "I don't care! I'm going anyhow." Then, as I was leaving the gas station and beauty salon (which I had to prep for the day) I went from stubborn to acceptance. "I don't f***ing believe this!"
     I then drove back to Tom's shop, parked in the lot, turned on the radio, WCLV - Cleveland's classical station, turned off the car, pushed the seat to full recline and went to sleep. This was at 6.50AM.
     I was rudely woken at 8.05 by Tom knocking on my window. "Jeremy, what are you doing here?" I explained the situation. He fiddled under the hood for a few moments and told me to drive around the block. It was a little bit better but not much. He then examined under the hood with all his experience as Mike drove up and stared at us. Apparently, Mike's expression was such that Tom then said to me, "Mike just threw up in his mouth."
     They fiddled under the hood for a while and 20 minutes later Tom declared that some very important hose split while all the work was being done the day prior. It had to be special ordered and then picked-up from Marshall Ford, way down Mayfield Road, which is under construction. I made myself comfy in his shop and phoned my NY hostess, declaring the problem.
     While I was sitting, drinking Starbucks and pretending to be driving to New York City, a lady walked in and declared that she was there for her oil change and tire rotation appointment. We talked for 90 minutes or so while her car was happily being adjusted, without incident, after which she handed me her business card and suggested that I apply for a job with her very large company which was hiring. We agreed that we'd talk at some point in the near future.
     At 11.15AM, Tom declared that the hose had been replaced and I'd gotten a tune-up, all for free. I appreciated that. Ethically speaking though, that really is what he should have done. But still, there appears to be such a lack of ethics in today's work place, that when someone actually displays it, there's and air or refreshment. I felt it.
     I called my New York host and hostess (whom I hadn't laid eyes on since 1995) after getting on the freeway at 11.30. They were cool with the delay. I pulled in their driveway at 7.30PM and met their extremely lovely 15 year old daughter whom I've been sending Valentine's cards to since she was born and also met the family dog whom I'm now friends with on Facebook. Literally. The dog has his own Facebook page with a couple hundred friends. I'd describe this family as "wacky" except for the fact that he's a cardiologist and they live in Pelham Manor. (Peham Manor is a rather swanky and chic suburb of NY.) I wasn't exactly roughing it.
     I just LOVE seeing long-time friends. 

Only One Day Of The Feast

     Page Two Hundred Eighty-One.
     Last year I wrote heavily about one of my favorite events: Cleveland's Feast of the Assumption. I won't get into that again, here and now. But, suffice it to say, the food is extravagant and one of the things I look forward to the most during the entire calendar. This year though, I'm off to New York City to help my ex-step-nephew celebrate his wedding which will be the same weekend. So, I'm only going to catch one day of the most glorious food that Cleveland-based Italians have to offer. I may not survive the lack of nourishment. 
     By the way, after NYC, I'm off to Vermont for a couple of days to visit some other friends. One friend in Vermont is the head chef at a vacation lodge and the other friend is her mother who's an elderly, German woman. NYC food... head chef food... elderly, German woman food... okay, fine... I won't starve, I guess.

Quito. Chapter 4. How Do You Know?

     Page Two Hundred Twenty-One.
     So, um, how do you know all this stuff about me and my new powers?", woofed Quito.
     "Well, here it is", responded Judd quickly before his brothers had a chance to tell the story. (Again, he seemed proud to be saying anything remotely interesting.) "A couple of years ago, we all had the same dream on the same night. And even though it's been a few years, it was so intense that we all still remember it. We didn't know we'd had the same dream until we started talking and then we realized..."
     "I was in a very famous New York city dance club from the 1970's named Studio 54", started Judd. "YMCA was blasting and everybody was dancing all over the place. They were really dressed wild too; lots of sequins on their shiny clothing and some people were in crazy costumes. I could barely see through the haze in the air due to the smoke from the smoke machine which also smelled so terrible I thought I 'd gag. Balloons, confetti and colored sprinkles were raining from the ceiling and everything was sparkling from the bright blinking lights. The music, colors and people were all really loud. But I was really there buying groceries for noodle kugel. You know, the noodles, the apricot nectar, cottage cheese, corn flakes... So I was walking around, pushing my yellow grocery cart and buying the food, but it was between rows of people dancing. Suddenly I saw a 6 foot high, shiny, chrome plated, pink wooden handled spatula walking toward me. Then she began talking."
     "Judd, hi. My name is Tarantula, but my friends call me Ran. I want to tell you that one day in the future somebody you know will be slightly burned by a flaming ball from the sky and will then develop cold-fusion powered super powers. The reason he's going to get special powers is so he can protect the children of the Earth from all sorts of hard things like mean teachers, toys and computer games which look cool on TV but you get them home and they're really lame, things which will make them fat, terrible TV shows and movies, stupid songs and unreasonable parents. He's going to be able to fly and have super strength. He's going to have ESP for 5 minutes if he listens to any music by Henry Mancini and he'll be able to conjure up any person who's ever lived, even make believe people for 2 minutes to help him out when the bad guys get him. Except when he gets wet he'll loose all his powers, 'till he dries out. And he'll have other powers too which I'll tell you about later."
     "But because of this, his life will be in danger 'cause the bad guys will always try to destroy him. And they can eliminate his super powers permanently, too. All they have to do is lift his front right paw and put it on his heart and while holding it there say, Oy Rebanish Alelim."
     "Then Ran turned into a blue boutonniere made with hyacinth buds and butterfly wings and flew around. The Hokey-Pokey came on and everybody started doing that dance and then I was suddenly eating chicken fingers dipped into honey mustard sauce. All the confetti and things stopped falling from the ceiling and instead the club was open to the sky and all the stars were really twinkling and sparkling. Then Ran turned into a skunk and walked over to me. I picked her up and her fur was so soft. Then everything turned red and I woke up."
     "And I'm telling you, my brothers and I all talked and discovered that we'd had that exact same dream. So when you showed up this morning with your powers, we weren't surprised." The three brothers looked at Quito. Only the sun's rays shining through the window and brightening the flying, sparkling dust provided any sound." 
     After a quick moment, Quito said, "how do I find the bad guys?"
     "I think they'll find you", said Zachary.
     Continued next week... Chapter 5. Telling William and Thomas

On Putting A Dog To Sleep

     Page One Hundred Fifty-One.
     I'm doing some dog-sitting this weekend. I'm here right now while Mommy and Daddy are in Nicaragua visiting daughter #1 and her family. Next weekend I'll be back here, again, while they visit daughter #2 and her boyfriend in New York City. I've been this family's dog-sitter for maybe sixteen or seventeen years or longer. And, in fact, once during the late-90's, I stayed here one long weekend baby-sitting both girls while Mommy and Daddy were off trotting around the globe somewhere. So, I'm quite close and friendly with this family.
     Last week, I accompanied mom as she put the older of their two dogs down. Dad was out of town and the whole family knows that I care about these animals practically as much as they do. Mom needed some emotional support, of course, so she called me. It's always horrible to put an animal to sleep. This particular dog was a fourteen year old collie. That's really a long life for a large dog. I think she could've been put down earlier, months earlier. But, oh well.
     A couple of days ago I stopped by and spoke with dad. He thanked me for going with mom and then told me it was really his fault that Wanda wasn't put down a few weeks earlier. He's a doctor and changed Wanda's medicines. He thought those med changes might buy her some months. Then he promptly went out of town on business. Wanda didn't improve and in fact, got worse. To back up, over the course of the last few months, both girls came in town to say good-bye to their beloved pet. So, everybody's been seeing this coming for a while. The problem has been determining when Wanda's pain was really affecting her quality of life. She rarely acted like she was in pain, even on her final day. And the fact is, she probably wasn't in much pain, even then, thank heavens. But everything else was such a disaster that she had no real quality of life left. It was just time. That's all.
     So here I am baby-sitting just one doggie, instead of two. If I know this family though, and I do, it won't be too long before there's a cute, little puppy on the scene. Lord help us.

Cleveland's Playhouse Square

     Page One Hundred-Seventeen.
     Well, it's official: there's one spot in downtown Cleveland where I can purchase a good hot pretzel.
     On page one hundred-thirteen of this blog I wrote about my displeasure with the current state of  affairs concerning contemporary, American, hot pretzels. However, I mentioned that I did eat a good one recently while downtown at a performance. Well, it happened again at the same location. So, I think I've hit on something here.
     Playhouse Square is here in Cleveland, downtown, at the intersection of East Fourteenth Street and Euclid Avenue. It's a conglomeration of about eight or nine stages with over ten thousand seats. It's the largest theater complex in America outside of Lincoln Center in New York City. The buildings and primary stages were all built in the 1920's at the height of the "movie palace" era though some were intended to be Vaudeville houses, too. The theaters had a great run until the late '60's when they began loosing customers to the suburbs. Then, fires and vandals were a real threat to the buildings and there was serious talk of tearing the buildings down.
     The Playhouse Square Association, a non-profit group, was formed in the early '70's to purchase and save the buildings and stages. Over the next twenty years, The Playhouse Square Association was extremely successful in their renovations and marketing of the venues. So nowadays, you can go down and see visiting Broadway musical productions, dance, Shakespeare, student theater, avante-garde theater, the occasional Rock show, you name it. (One of my brothers tells the story of how he saw the Doors at Playhouse Square in 1968.) Almost any evening of the year you can go down and see two, three or four different wonderful things. Well... maybe not quite that much all the time, but often it really is that much.
     So, right now, and for the next two weeks, they're showing classic movies at the Palace Theater. Last Thursday at the opening night of the 16th annual "Cinema at the Square" they showed Grease. And, not only that, but it was a Grease sing-a-long, with all the lyrics superimposed onto the screen. The Palace is huge, a few thousand seats, and it was packed. It was too fun for words and they served a great hot pretzel.
     I was down at Playhouse Square a few weeks ago when I got the other really great hot pretzel, too. So I think I've hit a gold mine for good hot pretzels. (The play I saw a few weeks ago was awful, but the evening was glorious because of the wonderful pretzel.)  On Sunday, August 11th, at 2PM, I'll be back down there to see Who Framed Roger Rabbit? I can't wait for that hot pretzel!
     (Actually, I have quite a history with the Palace Theater. In the 1990's I was an extra in Cleveland Ballet's version of The Nutcracker for five or six years. So I was on that stage many times. Then in the late-90's I was once in charge of decorating the Palace lobby for a benefit party. It's a stunning, opulent theater. These are two separate stories that I'll share sometime.)