ignition snap
Last night I watched a truly ridiculous movie on Hulu called Shadow in the Cloud. It stars Chlöe Grace Moretz, is set mostly inside a bomber plane gun turret with only her onscreen, and features a "gremlin" scrambling around the plane, much like the famous Twilight Zone episode.
It was so ridiculous, in fact, I found myself having a great time watching it. I still gave it a C+. It's just so stupid.
I did rather wish Laney were in a place where she could watch movies on wifi, though. I am dying for her to watch that movie so we can talk about it. I don't know who else I know who would even consider it. But, she's camping so far out in the middle of nowhere in Utah right now that I just got confirmation this morning we'll almost certainly have to postpone the Virtual Happy Hour we had scheduled for this Friday.
It gave me something to do and review, anyway. Although in between finishing the movie and starting the review, I had to spend some time down in the garage . . . with a locksmith. Shobhit, who had his class last night (during which I watched the movie) but did not have a work shift yesterday, had gone to City People's for some soil and plants. He somehow managed to snap the end of his car key off inside the ignition, and so at around 3:00 I had to take the bus over there to bring my own car key. This was one instance in which it was both lucky that he wasn't at Big 5 when this happened, and I wasn't at the PCC office when it happened—with him being there and me being at home, I was able to hop on a #11 bus at a stop half a block away, which took me straight down there via Madison Street only a mile down the road.
Incidentally, City People's is right on the plot of land where the Madison Valley PCC is supposed to open as the anchor tenant in a new residential project . . . someday. The first announced opening date for that store was 2017. God knows when the fuck that will ever actually happen, but neighborhood organizers have sure succeeded in blocking the progress so far. They won't be able to forever, but at this rate I'll be retired before that store opens. Not that I care so much anymore: the Central District store is closer anyway, and as we have already discussed, I have more than enough on my plate with just the fifteen stores we have operating now. I am no longer eager for any other new stores to open.
Anyway, I found that I could start the car with my key, even with the chunk of Shobhit's key still in there. Trying to put the other portion of Shobhit's key in didn't work, but pressing it in with mine did. So, I drove us back home, and we were able to wait there for the AAA locksmith to arrive.
We both really felt price gauged by that guy. AAA covers the first $100, but if you count that hundred bucks, the entire price was $374—after he had already quoted us $350 as a minimum cost. Even that was after he quoted Shobhit $229 over the phone. But, when he arrived, he said the labor of getting the piece of the key out of the ignition added cost to it. He even said that if he wasn't able to just get the piece of the key out, and had to take the steering column apart, it would take a couple of hours and be at minumum five hundred dollars! Thankfully it didn't come to that, and after maybe 15 minutes he used his special tools to pull the key chunk out of there.
Shobhit had his class to contend with, but still came down briefly both when the locksmith arrived and when it was time to pay. As he noted, this cost was a hell of a lot per hour considering how little time it actually took for him to get the key out.
That's not even what gets to me the most, though, because I have so little frame of reference there. But get this: he had the equipment right there in his van to cut a new key copy for us. The price for that alone? $95! What the shit? Shobhit went to a nearby locksmith today to get copies made and he got two key copies made for a combined price of ten dollars. That mobile locksmith, holy shit what a racket.
I just finished with Office Lunch Meetup #41, my 39th, via Microsoft Teams. The attendance worked out a little different than usual this time, as when I joined the call, Rebecca wasn't already there—and, in the end, although she did eventually join about halfway through the hour, she kept not showing up. I even considered reading while I just waited to see if anyone was going to hop on, but after a few minutes, Noah joined the call, from his desk at the office.
And then, shortly after he got on, for the first time ever, Scott joined the call. He later explained he's working at the office on Wednesdays now, which suggested he might join in the future as well. I keep a spreadsheet of each call and who joined, and Scott makes the 25th office staff person ever to join these calls. (The most we ever had at once was on the very first call we ever had, with 11; the highest after that has only ever been 8; lately it’s usually been around four.)
Rebecca was assumed at first not to be joining at all, as we knew she was taking paid time off this week. She did tell me last week she would still join us since she would be home and had no plans to take any trips anywhere, but when she was not on the call at first, we thought maybe she wasn't even thinking about it—which we all were totally on board with; she's on vacation, after all. Also, it would mean she only had one more week than me instead of two again! But, then she joined at 12:27, so she's still two ahead of me. She remains the sole person who has managed to be present at every one of these weekly Office Lunch Meetups we've ever had.
Her late arrival to the call did keep us on a couple minutes later than normal, though, and then I needed to write this up, so I really need to get this posted and get back to work.
[posted 1:12 pm]