Let’s just do this one in chronological order, shall we?
I woke up earlier than I planned and couldn’t fall back asleep, so I killed some time before I had to head up to San Francisco for a job interview. Yes, this would a job in the city, yes it would be an hour train ride each way, yes that’s still a major consideration in the job, but we’ll see what happens anyway. The parking lot at the Sunnyvale station was full, so I ended up parking in three hour parking for six hours, and hopefully I don’t get mailed a ticket or something.
The train ride up was longer than I’d expected, even though I’ve ridden the train before, I’d never been on it with the frame of mind of “what if I did this every day?” I brought a book and my iPod and my DS, but if I ended up commuting, I’d need Internet via cell phone + laptop or something or I’d go crazy.
The interviews themselves seemed to go fairly well, I only stumbled a bit on some of the Perl questions, as it’s been a few years since I’ve been in a Perl kind of frame of mind and it took me a bit to get back into it. No real point going into further detail, I suppose, that’s not the fun part of my day, that was the sanity inside the insanity sandwich.
The train back wasn’t nearly as bad, as it was a limited, so it only took 48 minutes. I get to my car, no ticket or anything. I drive out, and while waiting at the light at Mathilda and Washington, I see my oil light come on. My first thought is “Oh no, not again.” (Have I ever told that story? I must have. I’ve told other people. Once upon a time I had my oil dump out completely on Central Expressway while I was driving because the guy put the wrong oil filter on when doing the oil change, and when I accelerated, it came loose.) I noticed the engine starts sounding percolated, which I recognized as the bad sound of an engine with not enough oil in it (see the things you learn from practical experience?) so I cut the ignition. At the next green, I put it in neutral and push it around the corner with the help of the couple in the car behind me.
Once there, I get out and notice the large puddle of oil where my car used to be, and judging from my practical experience again, I deem it to be about an entire engine’s worth. As the cars turn the corner, the puddle gets spread out over the street, and all the time I’m sitting there, I can hear the occasional car skidding a bit as it passes over the slick pavement.
So I call up AAA, my first time ever in the 13 years I’ve had a membership. Of course, my membership had expired. Yesterday. Fortunately, the guy is able to process that after sending out a tow truck. The tow eventually gets me and my car to the Pep Boys, the only place still open, and where my car awaits an oil leak diagnostic for $30, with more charges inevitable. Oh, and the tow guy also tells me about the loose boot on my front axle, which I just found out about when I got my oil changed a few days ago.
I had to phone Leon to pick me up, and when we get back and check the mail, I get another letter from the IRS, asking for further documentation on my stupid missing Schedule D. They want the Schedule D. I gave them the Schedule D. They want it again or they didn’t get it before or something stupid and I need to go to HR Block again and ask them what the hell is going on with this.
I had happy things to post before, things about FFXI, but I’m not in the mood.