My car wash adventure

 

 

I have gone on a glorious adventure. I took my car through Delta Sonic. That is the car wash here in Buffalo.

Here are a few pictures of the psychedelic experience.

On Sunday at the Latin Mass coffee hour I dined out on this experience. In Buffalo you are not brought up to pay to have your car washed. You are supposed to wash your car yourself. And we are all fascinated by the experience of going through a car wash.

Not being brought up to go through a car wash, I have been in one only... well, only once. The Buffalo News had me doing a story on going through Delta Sonic on the first warm day of spring and so I did.

What a pain! I remember begging Howard to go with me however Howard would not. I had to go through on my own. Not easy!

This second time around was just as challenging.

The car wash puts out no prices, no options. There was nothing in print as far as I could determine. It is expected that you know these things.

As I was heading into the car wash I had to notice for myself that one lane, you did not go in that lane, nobody was in it. Everybody was in the other lane. The lane on the right was not open, however nobody told you that. There were no signs.

When I got out of the car wash the drama continued. The arrows were all pointing in this one direction however when I followed them, the only exit I could find was the road going the wrong way. It was the road where the people coming into the car wash were supposed to go.

Luckily nobody was coming into the car wash at that moment. However I thought, I must be wrong. I backed up the car. I looked around. 

I could not figure out any other way out!

So I went out the wrong way. I reached Sheridan Drive successfully, hung a right, and I was out of there.

I do want to become accustomed to going to the car wash. Sure, you get hosed -- pun intended. 

Still it is worth it to get your car cleaned. I am trying to get my life together and cleaning my car is part of that. I am, as YouTube motivation gurus would put it, raising my floor.

The car wash was part of a larger surge. On the way to Delta Sonic I also went to the dry cleaner, for the first time in my life. And to the shoemaker, also for the first time in my life.

But that is another story for another day.

A tights situation

This morning it was almost warm and I thought: I am going to ditch the black tights.

What a mistake that was!

I put on these spring stockings and a cute skirt and I was all ready to go to work. But first I had to go walk to the garage to pick up my car which had needed a brake job. So I set out in my pink spring stockings and my cute spring outfit.

Zut alors!

Things started out nice. It was warmer than it had been and I saw robins in the trees. But then it got cold and a drizzle began. Rain began. There was a kind of street guy who I saw hassling women and I had to go a little out of my way trying to steer clear of him. I had these heels on and I am click-clicking down the sidewalk. The walk was long.

By the time I got to the garage, I was cold! My feet were wet. I could not believe I had dressed like this. Whose idea was this? Spring clothes. Indeed.

So after I had paid for my brake job -- ouch! -- and reclamed my car, on the way to work I swung by my house again and changed into, you guessed it, tights.

It is like 1934 when the Pennario family moved to California.

It is cold!

I know squat

Tonight I went to Zumba class. Our teacher was wearing a shirt that said in big letters, "YOU DON'T KNOW SQUAT."

By the end of the class I knew squat.

Hahaha I am seeing online there are all kinds of inspirational quotes about squats, such as ...

And...

It is funny, what good it does you to move around after a day sitting at your desk. On the way to the gym I was vexed because my brakes were making a noise and I am thinking I will have to go in and get a brake job. Once I walked into the gym and went to Zumba class I forgot all about my brakes. And when I came out to the parking lot and remembered them, it did not seem as bad.

Brakes, schmakes.

So what?

So I spend a thousand dollars, big whiz. Remember that when you were a kid, you would say "Big whiz." Haha.

My car is getting to the point where it is this or it is that. All little things, nothing that will strand me, but I have to start thinking of if I want to get a newer car, one that will give me less trouble. My CD player has been kaput for some time, which is torture because I have Leonard Pennario's "Virtuoso Showpieces" sitting right there all ready to go in the slot in the driver's side door. The sun roof kicked a while ago. All kinds of things are not working and so decisions must be made.

But not today. That is a nice thing when you can say that no decision has to be made today.

It can be postponed!

Sunday driver

Wow, adventures in driving! Today I got stuck before it was even 9 a.m.

Foolishly I had driven out thinking I would go downtown to Mass at St. Anthony's. Even more foolishly I told the organist, Josephine, when she called that I could pick her up. First I had to shovel this drift in front of my garage to get out and then I realized that the side street where my friend Josephine lives had not been plowed. Holy St. Anthony's cannoli, I was stuck!

In the middle of the street!

I was blocking the street but luckily at 8:30 a.m. nobody was around except for a few people with snowblowers. One man, he was like some kind of saint, he helped unstick me. This was after I had gone and gotten one of Josephine's snow shovels and failed to dig myself out.

You got to love Buffalo. Other people appeared on the scene and helped too and I was free, at least momentarily. Howard, wisely as it turned out, insisted that I come home. So I did. Between there and getting home I got stuck one more time, just for good measure. The same good people dug me out. I will never figure out exactly which people were helping me so I think what I will do is, I will go to Josephine's street, Norwalk Avenue, and leave a bag of cookies or something in everyone's mailbox. I owe them big!

So does Josephine. When I left, the snowblower guy was telling her he would drive her to church. "But you don't understand," Josephine was saying. "It's downtown by City Hall."

And he was saying, "That's OK. I'll still drive you."

Darn, I wanted to go too! We were having a church party I had been looking forward to. But on the other hand I just wanted to get this behemoth of a car home. I could not leave it in the street or get it into anyone's driveway. Also I admit it, I was just stressed out. First the other night and now this! Anyway, I left Josephine with this snowblower gentleman and as far as I know, they went together to St. Anthony's. I went home.

I took a nap because I had been up really early thanks to Leonard Pennario. Then I went to Mass at St. Mark's. I am lucky in that there is a church I can walk to in about two minutes.

This was another beautiful Buffalo experience, as it turned out. I was walking to church mostly in the street, because the snow was so heavy and piled everywhere. And other people were also walking in the street. When I got to the corner there were other people heading over from other directions, in ones, twos and threes. And I realized everyone was going the same place I was! Everyone was going to church!

It felt like a village in the 19th century!

The Mass was not what I am used to, and sure I miss my Gregorian chants, but it was gentle and sincere, it was so sweet, this snowy day, this church packed with people. Everyone into it, too -- men, women, kids, everyone. A very nice morning, after its dramatic start. A very nice day.

Later my niece and nephew came over and we baked cookies, la la la la la la.

Fa la la la la la la la la.

In my future this week: more cookie baking, more caroling, and a new yule activity, ice skating.

And I think I will ride the bus.

The good, the bad and the Ugli

 I put up my tree last night and so now I radiate Christmas. It is no wonder it was an amazing day for pre-Christmas presents.

My friend Patrick from church gave me this vinyl album, Christmas with the Oak Ridge Boys. That is it pictured above. It is a classic!

Patrick said, and he is right, that you do not even have to listen to it. Just to own it and be able to look at it is enough. There are some Leonard Pennario albums you could say that about to only with different meaning.

In another magical touch, the mechanic who did my car inspection today and fixed a few things that needed fixing gave me an Ugli Fruit when my car was ready.

Or it may have been a Uniq Fruit. Later I was wondering about this later. I did not want to insult the fruit by calling it Ugli if in fact it was Uniq.

Whatever it was the mechanic did not want it.

"It looks like a brain," he said.

He said another customer had given it to him earlier that day. The customer was some kind of a potter, and he taught kids pottery, and he has an eye toward unusual beauty, such as possessed by the Ugli Fruit. Or the Uniq Fruit. I still do not have it straight.

Now I have my Ugli Fruit and my Oak Ridge Boys Christmas album.

I wonder what tomorrow will bring!

Sale of the Century

This year's Taste of Buffalo festival in downtown Buffalo is featuring my old Buick Century for sale.

Howard has it on display in front of Big Blue! And hundreds of thousands of people will see it because Taste of Buffalo is said to be the biggest food festival in North America.

Howard arranged it artfully with professional For Sale signs in its windows. A few friends aided and advised him including the former Jaguar dealer and also the automotive columnist for the Buffalo weekly Artvoice.

That is it pictured above, awaiting the festival. This is the car that was stolen from me and we found it on Lemon Street. But this car is no lemon! It is 165,000 miles young and, as Howard puts it on the sign, extremely reliable.


That is funny to remember when it was stolen. It was right before I met Leonard Pennario, maybe a month before that. That is how I date things. We found it because of the GPS tracker Howard had on it. It was stolen by some drug dealers apparently and when they realized it was bugged they thought it was a bait car and they abandoned it. Look at streetwise me, slinging around phrases like bait car.

I wrote about that theft here, remember, about how I had secretly cheered on the thieves. But since then Howard pretty much rebuilt the whole car. By then I had a new car of course.

Anyway, today my old Century could become, in our lives, history.

As our dear departed radio announcer John Otto used to say .... yes, maybe ...

Maybe not.

Howard in the news

Howard is the star of Artvoice, the Buffalo news weekly, starting today.

That is the picture they ran today of him in his Scout! It was taken by our friend Carl. That is Carl's thumb you see in the picture.

I picked up the paper after Zumba class at the gym and I was so proud when I read the story.

I have Leonard Pennario and Howard has cars.

It is a fine balance!

The dawn of a new Century

Howard bought a new car! He has upgraded his 1994 Buick Century to a 1998 Buick Century.

"Because I can." That is what he bragged on Facebook. He posted that picture up above of his prize. It has only 34,870 miles!

The 1994 Buick Century used to be mine. It was stolen, the summer right before I met Leonard Pennario, so that would have been in 2007. It was brazenly lifted from the parking lot at work and we found it, insultingly, on Lemon Street.

I secretly cheered on the thieves because I was sick of that car at that point anyway. I rented a little Hyundai Sonata and I remember thinking one morning how my life had improved, with this neat little rental car sitting in the back yard, and my actual car God knows where. And right then was when the police called with the news about the Lemon Street find.

You could definitely call that the steal of the Century. Hahahahahaaaaaa!

Ahem.

Howard is sweet and wanted the old Buick back as a matter of principle. It has been his car since then, lumbering along in these Buffalo snows.

The new Buick -- er, the 1998 Buick, is a smaller model. That was the year they changed the Buick Century. It does not look quite sporty but it is pretty in a Buick Century way.

I had to take Howard out to Lackawanna to pick it up. It was in a particularly rugged part of Lackawanna with vacant lots and projects and those stupid wind turbines. Can you believe those dumb wind turbines? A couple of them were not even turning. They were just sitting there.

And I was just sitting there, though not as peacefully, as Howard prepared to drive the new Buick away. Zut alors, I was afraid people were going to think I was a narc, sitting there in my police car. A few cars passed me and they always slowed down and I felt myself getting looked at. Prepare to be shot, you know?

But all ended well and last night Howard took me for a ride in his new Buick.

It is beautiful!

One afternoon in Buffalo

Howard took this picture. It is a Buffalo classic!

That car! It is a classic Buffalo vehicle. Howard said that a few minutes before he took this picture the guy was completely under the car with only his feet sticking out. It is too bad he could not capture that.

But he did take this picture a couple of minutes after taking the first one.

That is the Pierce-Arrow plant in the background. Back in the day they would build the Pierce-Arrows there and drive the cars around on the roof to test them. Buffalo produces things like that guy and that car in the picture but we have also produced wonderful top-shelf things like the Pierce Arrow and Leonard Pennario.

Last night Howard and I laughed and laughed over these photos.

Buffalo, you got to love this town.

We are so without vanity!

One step forward

I went to get my car inspected and guess what?

It needed nothing!

It was fine!

That is a picture up above that I took while I was waiting. That is my car up on the lift! I was at the Goodyear Service Center on Transit Road.

What about A. Conger Goodyear? That is a Buffalo WASP name I have always loved. Here is a painting that is in New York's Museum of Modern Art that is from the A. Conger Goodyear Collection.


What about the Goodyear Mansion on Delaware Avenue? It was built for Charles Waterhouse Goodyear who married Ella Portia Conger, thus explaining that marvelous name A. Conger Goodyear. It is now the Oracle Charter School which is not as exciting as when it was the Goodyear Mansion.


Does anyone out there in Blog-O-Land know if Goodyear Tire and Rubber has anything to do with our Buffalo Goodyear family? It has to.

Yesterday at the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. on Transit Road Howard thought I should sit there and wait because a year ago when I got my car inspected I went wandering around getting my hair cut and buying William Kapell records at Goodwill, and I ended up being charged thousands of dollars in repairs which, Howard doubted that they were necessary.

Yesterday, no such difficulties. Perhaps that was because I waited. Here is another picture I took while I was waiting.


Look at all those cones! They will never be through with Transit Road. It is like something out of the Bible.

One thing about the car, it still has its snow tires and I have to get those replaced by normal tires. I have to make an appointment to do that. Knowing me I will put it off long enough so it will be only a week before I have to put the snow tires on the car again.

Howard has been bugging me forever to get the snow tires off the car but when you are writing a book about Leonard Pennario there are just some things you cannot get around to doing, I am sorry. If Pennario were a normal pianist with a normal career I might be able to do that, but the situation being what it is, things like snow tires have to fall by the wayside.

Other things I cannot get around to doing include, but are not limited to: Laundry. Paying my water bill. Cleaning the bathtub. Oh, and paying my Verizon bill. Every day the Verizon robot calls me at 8 a.m. to nag me and still I cannot get to that.

I have, praise God, gotten around to: That dental surgery, now behind me! Chiro adjustment. I did that the other day. And the bottle-for-a-buck sale at Premier. As long as you can make that bottle-for-a-buck sale your life is not hopeless, is what I always say.

Because on the one hand your life is a mess but on the other you have enough wine in your house to sink a battleship.

How bad can things be?

My husband, the motorhead

MKG welcoming visitors to Tonawanda.

I was so proud today to see Howard weighing in on the Buffalo News blog site about the drag racing -- or street racing, more accurately -- incident. He is right in saying that being from Tonawanda he has knowledge of motorhead matters. Amen, I say.

Once when I had been going out with Howard about two months, I had car trouble. My car just started making this noise. I immediately detoured to Howard's Tonawanda childhood home, where his mother was still living. I pulled the car into his driveway.

The original Goldman Motor's Tonawanda location.

Immediately the lights to the garage went on. Suddenly this quiet Tonawanda street looked like Transit Road. Then Howard came out of the garage, dragging things, all kinds of coils and hoses and chains and whatnot. These people from Tonawanda know this stuff. They are a different breed from the rest of us. It is a miracle now to think how in the world we can balance each other, Howard with his knowledge of radiators and air filters and me going around all day thinking of nothing but Leonard Pennario and William Kapell. But I guess that is one of the mysteries of life.

This is a secret: Howard and I went street racing once.

Bolts Dancing photo by HG

A few months ago we had that tragic incident when someone died after text-messaging on a cell phone while driving. The point was made: It's illegal to talk on a cell phone, but why isn't illegal to text-message?

I want to scream when I see these knee-jerk law proposals.

It's horrible when you lose someone in an accident. I know what that's like. But accidents are always going to happen. You can go only so far to protect people against themselves. About these driving laws: While you're driving, is it illegal to eat a three-course meal from Oliver's? Is it illegal to look someone up in the phone book? Is it illegal to take out your Latin missal and work on memorizing the Credo? I have the urge to do that, sometimes, in heavy traffic.

Long story short: Is it illegal to be dumb? If we continue on the road we're on, that's where we're headed.

Let's step on the gas, and see if we can get there first.

Revved up

MKG poses with her Republican-econobox.

What with the soaring gas prices, I am thinking it is time to buy a bigger car.

Maybe it's time to buy an SUV. I never liked them. I think they're ugly. But I hear you can get great deals these days. Say I saved $20,000 on a $60,000 slightly used Intimidator, or whatever they're called. That means with the $20,000 I saved, I could get 5,000 gallons of free gas. Such a deal!

When shopping for a new car, seek the advice of a professional driver like Buffalo cab-driver Ron Moss.

With the amount of driving I do, I would use only 50 gallons every two weeks, tops. Which means my free gas allotment would last me two years. That is cheaper than buying a Prius! Plus I know, you know, we all know that gas is going to come down. When it does, I can sell the SUV for what I paid for it, or pretty close to it. Or maybe more.

MKG recovering her stolen Buick on Lemon Street.

Meanwhile all those Prius owners will be dumping their out-of-fashion Priuses like last year's padded shoulders when they have to buy a new $5,000 battery. What is with those batteries? They cost more than a whole engine! I must pause to point out that every appliance I ever bought that needs batteries has been a ripoff. Think of those tears on Christmas mornings when you were a kid. Also, my Water-Pik kicked a few days ago -- after what, a month of use? Already I have had to buy a new one. Let that be a lesson.

Hmmm, maybe I'll buy a Hummer. They are closing the plant. They can't give them away. They have been humming a different tune.

Now, I am, too!