When a long string of days passes without a post appearing over on the Fafblog, they can always explain their prolonged absences by saying that they've been stuck up a tree, defending their stockpiles of ham from an attack by zombie robot gorillas an Dick Cheney an zombie robot Dick Cheney an such.
Nothing quite like that happened here during the past week. At least not the Dick Cheney part, anyway. My stockpiles of ham are still safe.
I did spend nearly 24 hours in a Pep Boys in Delaware, waiting for the younger siblings of the members of Blink 182 to fix my car. Almost, but not quite, as bad as an attack by zombie robot gorillas. (Actually, once they got around to it, the kids did a great job on my car.)
I came away from this experience with a new distributor and three pieces of wisdom I'll share here:
1. The Better World Club — "the nation's only environmentally friendly auto club" — is just as good at roadside assistance as AAA, and you don't have to worry about your dues paying to lobby against higher CAFE standards.
2. Via the very capable dude from D&H Towing, here's how to back up with a trailer: Put your hand at the bottom of the steering wheel. Then if you need the trailer to turn right, move your hand to the right; if you need it to turn left, move your hand to the left. Genius.
3. Always, always, always bring a book. You never know when you'll be stuck in a Pep Boys with your reading options otherwise reduced to back issues of Motor Trend and the paperback rack at the pharmacy next door. (I can't say I recommend David Baldacci's latest, but it was more entertaining than Motor Trend.)
So, um, anyway … where were we?
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