Minutes to Memories

Disclaimer #1: Today had so much to it that I didn't have time to both do everything in it AND tell you about it, too. My sincere apologies.

Disclaimer #2: Before sharing one incident from today, a self-effacing email I'll affectionately title, "Un-Pimp My Ride," let me offer my sincere and heartfelt condolences to the tornado victims in Southeast Alabama. Hearts in Ocean Springs particularly go out to storm victims, now more than ever, so please share with me any way in which the Ocean Springs Church of Christ might be able to respond and help.

UN-PIMP MY RIDE

Thankfully, my busy schedule this afternoon was somewhat flexible. After an enjoyable visit with my friend, Bruno, I went to Eagle Express to have the oil changed in my car. I also went to renew my inspection sticker since I noticed recently that it expired in January. This was not good. Expired inspection stickers carry severe penalties in Mississippi, something akin to the electric chair.

Anyway, at Eagle Express I learned that there is a new anti-tinting law in Mississippi to protect... well, I'm not sure what it protects: discrimination against UV rays? Whatever the case, both backseat windows and the rear window of my car did not pass the new standards (even though this is the way it came from the factory in 2004), so I could not get an inspection sticker. This, by the way, was worse than the bad referred to earlier.

So I inquired as to my options. I was told of a glass place down the road that would peel the tint off the aforementioned windows for me. So I went to this place where, luckily, I was able to get right in. I had a great visit with the receptionist for a couple of hours, who kept giving me weather reports from her computer. There was a tornado warning in our area at one point; at this I considered that being in a glass shop full of product might not be the place to be during an actual tornado. At one particular point the glass (and tinted, by the way) doors began opening and closing on their own. The receptionist locked the door at this juncture.

And to somewhat condense a worthless story, a couple hours later - and $133 later - my car was officially un-pimped.

And now it wouldn't start.

It seemed that crawling around the backseat with the interior lights on, etc. for a couple of hours drained the battery, so they jumped it off quickly and told me I was good to go.

But I wasn't.

I got in the driver's seat and discovered that my car's power steering no longer worked (it's electric). They told me to pull the car back in, which wasn't the simplest of feats without power steering, but I did and the employees boosted the car for a much longer amount of time.

Thankfully, for all readers in blog-land, this worked, and after dodging tornadoes, I was even able to get the inspection sticker before Eagle Express closed for the day.

This was just part of my day. So how was yours?
:-)