Trucks & Tribulations

So, I took my truck into the mechanic for the routine oil change/tune up bright and early on Tuesday morning. The got the tune up all done, but then they told me that there was a leak in the oil pan and if I wanted it fixed, it'd be an all-day job. So I scheduled it for Wednesday. When I dropped my truck off on Wednesday morning, they told me that they'd call me and handed me off to the shuttle driver.

However, as I was giving the shuttle driver directions to my home, he told me that I was outside of his driving area. Great. I ended up having him drop me off at the nearest park & ride to my home that he could go to (which was still a good 7 or so miles from my home). From there, I caught a bus that dropped me off at a stop that was about 3/4 mile from my home (it was as close as he could go on his route) and I hoofed it the rest of the way home.

Now, I had asked my girlfriend to give me a ride to the Toyota dealership to pick up my truck once they finished working on it, so she stopped by that afternoon. However, the gentleman in charge of the team that was working on my truck called me and told me that it wasn't a leak in the oil pan, but was actually a leak in some valve/gauge and they didn't have the part. When I asked him how long it would take, he told me that he expected to have the part arrive tomorrow (Thursday) and gave me the option of picking my truck up and bringing it back tomorrow or just leaving it there overnight. I chose the latter.

Then comes the morning. I'm up. I've gotten a few things done, and my girlfriend is planning on picking me up and driving us to the theater to see a matinee of "Terminator: Salvation" followed by stopping by the dealership to pick up my truck.

So much for that plan.

After the movie, I check my voice mail only to find that they still haven't completed the work on my truck. I called them back and asked them when I could expect them to have it finished and he replied sometime tomorrow (Friday) morning (around 9:30). So now I'm inconveniencing my girlfriend, yet again so that I can pick up my truck on Friday from a task that was only supposed to take a day after getting my oil changed which originally was only supposed to take a half hour on Tuesday morning! If this takes much longer, I may get hostile with them.

*exasperated sigh*

At least all this work is covered under warranty (the dealership even told me so) otherwise this would be really upsetting.

Space... The Final Frontier

Yes, I watched the new Star Trek film way back on May 7th but I'm just getting to my post about it now because I had other things on my plate. So what did I think about it?

I loved it! I felt like it was faithful to the original spirit of the original series(TOS) (plus it had all the cool sound effects from the classic series) while still making things accessible to first time Trek viewers. Yes, they made tweaks to the characters and the universe, but they didn’t take away or discard the continuity and adventures from TOS and it’s successors. As a result I didn’t feel like anything had been lost.

One of the changes that was made with this film that I really appreciated was the intensity of the fight scenes. Because, with the exception of Picard in First Contact and Sisko boxing with Q in that one episode of DS9, I’ve hated most of the fight scenes in recent Trek because the punches and strikes were telegraphed worse than a WWE warm-up match. However, with this Trek film, you felt like the fighting was real and someone was really getting hurt.

Another element that I really liked about this film was the fact that it set up a new continuity. They could have gone the safe route and told the story of Kirk, Spock, Bones, & the rest just meeting for the first time and dealing with some random Romulan threat that helps establish the status quo that we all know from the original series. But instead, they start off with a twist that changes everything and leaves you wondering if any of your favorite characters might die before things really get going. It's a very interesting idea and it could have been mishandled VERY easily. But it wasn't and as a result we have an amazingly fun and exciting Trek film with lots of nods and winks for classic Trek aficionados.

And the acting was excellent! Karl Urban (from The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and The Bourne Supremacy) as Leonard "Bones" McCoy was easily my favorite of the cast. There were moments where it felt like he was channeling DeForest Kelley. It was uncanny. Another cast member who deserves high marks is Simon Pegg (known for his work in the brilliant films "Shaun of the Dead" and "Hot Fuzz") for his portrayal of Montgomery "Scotty" Scott. His Scotty was a little more whimsical and comedic, but he was still one of the best engineers that Starfleet has ever had. That's not to say the the rest of the cast wasn't pulling their weight. Everyone in this film did a brilliant job. But Pegg & Urban really stood out for me.

I will definitely be picking this up on DVD when it comes out (in fact, I may try to see it again in the theatre if circumstances permit). Yep, it was that good.

Grandma

As many of you who read this know, my Grandma passed away last Wednesday (most likely because you were at her funeral or I told you personally about it). She always had a quiet dignity (at least when I knew her). My mom and her siblings would probably tell you a different story (usually involving hairbrushes with handles broken off because they were used to discipline unruly children).

However, I never knew that side of her. No, I knew her as a quiet, well-read woman with an iron will. Not "Iron" in the sense of a totalitarian dictator, but in the sense that she was strong. How so? There were several times in my life that Grandma had wound up in the hospital as a result of one physical ailment or another. Each time, it made some of us in the family wonder if she would survive it. And each time, she not only survived it, but she managed to get back on with her life and make it appear like nothing had ever happened. She didn't have some special healing ability like those portrayed in sci-fi novels and comic books (at least as far as I know). No, she got through these trials on sheer strength of will and faith. Even when she passed on, her strength never failed her (because let's face it, she didn't lose the fight. She just changed her spiritual location). How do I know? Because she waited until she had a chance to hear from everyone that she cared about before passing on. Holding on for as long as she did couldn't have been easy to do. Yet she did it. She lasted for nearly three days once the in-home nurses put her on "crisis management" (which, as I understand is their term for "near death"). They expected her to go within hours and she waited and toughed it out until she was ready to leave on her terms. To me that shows real strength of will. I only hope that I have that kind of strength for the difficult times that I may have to face in my life.

Rest in Peace, Grandma. And thank you for all of the kindness and strength that you have shown.