the “check engine” light came on in my car yesterday and gave an “P0740 TCC CIRCUIT MALFUNCTION” error. this, i’ve discovered, means that there’s a problem with either the control system for the torque converter or an issue with the torque converter itself. i looked it up to see if anyone else with my car has this problem and i came upon an upsetting website that lists over one hundred complaints relating to the complete and sudden failure of the transmission while in traffic.

since the car still drives normally, i’m going to close my eyes real tight and assume that the control system is the faulty one of the two. after all, only one of these complaints cited the P0740 error so i’m hoping that it means i’m not going to end up blocking traffic for hours on Lake Shore Drive one day.

i saw a lady in a big SUV come to a full stop at a green light the other day. it was awesome.

got a parking ticket today because i didn’t feed the meters in a private lot. the good news is, the fine was actually cheaper than what i would’ve had to pay to park there legitimately.

i had to pay nearly two whole dollars for parking the other night. i hope my replacement disabled parking placard comes in the mail soon.

i had to slog through rush hour traffic on Michigan Avenue today thanks to the flatulent monster that is Lollapalooza. it involved much swearing at tourists, honking at idiots, swerving around buses and squeezing between cabs but i managed to get through unphased and unscathed just in time to hit beach traffic on Lake Shore Drive.

in a bizarre twist of fate, my jetlag seems to have its own jetlag as it’s hit me head-on two days later than it probably should have. i’ve tried everything to right my sleeping schedule from eating copious amounts of delicious red grapes to watching Monster Tajima smash the 10 minute barrier at the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb. frankly, i’m running out of ideas.

with a list like this, you might expect my Sundays to be packed full of racing and you’d be right most of the time. not today, though. today is one of those rare Sundays during the middle of the season when i have nothing to watch. it’s weird but i think i’m so desperate, i might even watch Formula One.

OH WAIT, I ALREADY FOUND OUT WHO WON THE SPANISH GRAND PRIX BECAUSE THE BBC POSTS SPOILERS IN THEIR HEADLINES.

so i sat down to watch coverage of the 2011 season opener of AMA Superbike the other day. i was relaxing at my desk watching the pre-race stuff when this series of short rider interviews came up about eight minutes in. the horror. THE HORROR.











alarmingly, the terrifying font in question is NOT the lovably hateable Comic Sans but some sort of obnoxious derivative. i can understand wanting to breed weakened strains of the bubonic plague for research purposes but why would anyone want to create a variation of the most loathsome font in the history of mankind? and once such an abomination came into existence, why would anyone want to use it for anything important like a nationally televised sporting event?

2:25pm: standing on the street with my camera, a 40 piece ratchet set and a thoroughly frozen fish head in a black plastic bag

6:07pm: washing the grime off my hands after spending 1.5 hours trying to swap license plates on a car (with a mangled, rusty front license plate bracket) with my brother

6:33pm: eating slivered Sichuan style pig ears

had to wade through a sea of overly cautious drivers as we drove back from Beka’s mom’s tonight. not only was there a heavy rainstorm going on but the temperature was only a couple of degrees above freezing which made for some relatively tricky driving conditions. combine the adverse weather with idiots in Buicks* and you’ve got a surefire recipe for a mildly annoying night of driving.

* i firmly believe that idiots in Buicks can be linked to every single roadside accident and traffic jam, a theory which i may discuss in a future post.