the day, december the 14th. the people involved, myself and sir eli allman. the place, I-5.
-5:30 pm leave portland driving in 4 wheel drive on snowy/icy roads heading south to ashland.
-6:00 pm watch beat up 2 wheel drive toyota loose control and scoot across 4 lanes and settle into a nice kiss from the concrete wall.
-7:00 pm stop in north salem and get food at panda express, do some donuts in an empty parking lots, giggle like little girls and head back on the road
-7:05 pm get stuck in traffic going 5 miles an hour and soon settle to a complete stop in south salem
-8:20 pm after waiting in stop and go traffic i hear a small chunk come from my motor and dies imediatly, after tooling around with it for about 10 min i relize that it needs medical help and push my 4runner off to the side of the road. i call AAA and am told it will be about an hour before a tow truck can get to us.
-9:45 pm after waiting in 25 deg cold i get a call from AAA telling me that I-5 is closed and the tow truck can't get to us. luckly there is a road right off the freeway so eli and i grab some essentials, bundle up in some warm clothes and head out on the road, though we have no idea where we are or where we are going. the plan is to find a bar, get some shots, call a taxi and get back to my sisters house in salem.
eli's stoked
-11:30 pm after walking about 4-5 miles , passing a couple of closed bars, and asking half a dozen people we stop into a plaid and ask the the clerk how far we are from the nearest watering hole. he tells us we are no more than 6 block away from a bar called "jammers". getting a little spring our feet from the news we head out on the road. we get no more than 2 blocks away from the store when a red car full of salems cultured crowd leans out the window and yells "nice sweater faggot!" obviuosly articulating his piont quite clearly. (eli and i are both wearing hooded jackets)
-11:56 pm WE FINALLY MAKE IT TO A FUCKING BAR! i b-line it to the bar tender and order a couple of whiskey shot paired with some sweet sweet PBR. after a few more drinks, some terrible hot wings and a half a pack of smokes its closing time and the cab company tells me that its too icy and are not running till 8 am. at this piont im so numb to bad news i calmly go to the bar tender and ask them about getting the fuck back to my sisters house, they call a cab and we get picked up within 5 min.
classy place
-2:30 am we arive at my sisters house, grub up on some home made christmas cookies and fall asleep to short curcuit. Jonny #5!
the next day ran a bit smoother but was still exhuasting. my sister lent me her car that was front wheel drive with no studs or chains to get back to my truck. i call AAA again and they tell me it will be a 3 hour wait till a truck can get to us. FUCK. no more than 5 min go by after the awesome news that a truck pulls up. lucky for us he happened to be right there and towed the truck back to the repair shop. after explaining our plans to the owner we go to this hole in the wall diner called the ritz and have some awesome breakfast (seriously, that place is good) while the gentleman at the shop diagnose my truck. after about an hour the dude gets back to me and tells me that my timing chain broke, its $500 for the teardown to seeif anything else got broke and about a $1200 job total.
now i am pissed.
about 4 months ago i put about $2500 putting a new rebuilt motor into the truck planning on not have to worry about it for at least a couple of years. this motor made it 4500 miles...ITS A FUCKING TOYOTA! that motor should be good for at least 100k+ before the thought of a new timing chain crosses my mind.
anyways... my roomate drives down from portland and picks eli and i up, we go get my sisters car, pick her up from work, grab our stuff from her house and get back to portland around 9:00 that night.
worst 24 of my life. fuck
i spend the rest of my time off lazing around my house before having to start work again on the 17th. living in deep se it takes me about an hour on bus to get to work in nw. after i got off work on thurs i go out in nw, stay at a friends house and get snowed in for the next 5 days. though i went 120 hours without shower or toothbrush not all was bad. i drank a lot, smoked my favorite spirit lights, and spent a bunch of time with my buddy ryan hangin out in his garage (man den) and sledding in washington park on couch cussions covered in black outdoor trashbags. watched nightmare before christmas and watched a bunch of gingerbread house be made. so not a terrible place to be stuck.
though i couldnt spend it with my family christmas was pretty tops this year. i got a shift covered for friday and was able to join eli and auben to her parents house in zig zag about 20 miles from hood. it was beautiful up in the mountains. they have an awesome cabin surrounded in 3 feet of snow. after having some spagetti on christmas eve i start in on a bottle of bulliet whiskey and help out with passing out gifts. the end of the night was spent listening to joan (aubens mom) jam out with eli on her new flute she got.
christmas was started early waking up at about 6:30, getting some breakfast, putting on some boarding armour and heading to meadows for a day of snowboarding. after a pricy $60 ticket (after student discount) we head out. myself being used to mt ashland this mountain was a wonderland of new terrain. every run was covered in about 1-2 feet of powder, which after riding in it for a couple of hours i forgot how much energy it takes to make it through. the crew (auben, her parents, sister and her husband, eli and i) all met up in the medic room for some soup and cookies. after about half hour a patient is rushed in for cardiac arrest which was my cue to leave. the rest of the afternoon was guy crew. after hitting some snow drifts, getting faces full of snow, and trying some log jumps the weather started to turn and my legs turned to jello. with my goggles frozen over and my bladder ready to explode it was time for me to turn in and get out of the freezing rain. this is at about 2:30 eli, i and mac head in for a break. getting a bit more grub eli and mac are ready for more and go back out for a few more runs while i go to the bar and some whiskey and beer. we take from the mountain at about 4 and spent the first part of the night at the house with no power. luckly it comes on in time to catch the the blazers loose, bummer. i turn in at about 10 while everybody else watches elf.
next day the power was out again so eli and i get workin outside on a bitchin snowman. sitting at about 6'5" with two large slug-like eyes and sporting EE breast with icicles for nipples we were pretty proud of our creation. after wowing the neighbors with our artistic skills we go exploring in 3 feet of pouder in the woods behind the cabin. after crawling through a hobbit hole we found we entertained ourselfs by standing beneath a tree and kicking so the snow on the branches would fall on top of us. the only thing that would have made that more fun is if we had some gangster to smoke before hand, regardless we were back to 10 years old playing in the snow.
this past week after christmas has been occupied with work, skating and hangin out with my new lady friend bethany. as i was writing this i got my truck back from salem and could be happier to have my baby sitting in the driveway, running or not
newest addictions as of late: add on for firefox called stumble upon, leather shoe lace belt i got from a buddy complete with joint stuffer and roach clip, and granola my roomate made, i know i know but we are in oregon.
well thats about it for me, till next time kids
-wispy
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