Leave the house at 8:45 AM, drive Anne downtown to her class at The Bar Method. Drive to Herzog-Meier in Beaverton to find out about a new key for Anne’s Mitsubishi. On the way I notice two (TWO!) battery shops on TV Highway. I might need a battery for the remote control that is built into the key. Turns out the key is not covered under warranty. Warranty expired 800 miles ago. Keys are $130 each, plus $20 for cutting, plus $40 for programming. Plus they need an hour and a half. Too much bad news all at once. I bail.
Drove to Precision Locksmiths on Canyon Road in Beaverton. They want $190 for a key, but they might be able to get me a “shell”, which doesn’t contain the electronics, for considerable less. They will check and let me know.
Go looking for a McDonald's to get something to eat. Remember there is a Burger King on Beaverton-Hillsdale Highway, just a few blocks from where I am. Get there, it’s not a Burger King anymore, now it’s some kind of Hawaiian joint.
Turn toward Portland, oh look! There’s a McDonald’s at the light near Jesuit High School. Didn’t turn at the light, can’t turn after that, there’s a divider bump in the road. Too much trouble to turn around. Give up on the idea of food and decide to just head downtown. Take Scholl’s Ferry road up to the Sunset Highway. Traffic is light, which gives me time to think, and I think this is a nasty little road. Steep, twisty, narrow, no shoulders, jammed with traffic most of the time. No wonder I seldom take it.
Downtown I find a parking spot right outside the front door of the exercise palace. I pull out the paper and finish reading the comics that I started earlier when I dropped Anne off. I finish and Anne’s still not out, so I start on the Jumble, but I don’t have anything to write with. Well, let’s see how far I can get without one. I get through the four initial words okay, but now we have the final phrase. This is where a pen would come in handy, but today’s phrase is only two three-letter words. I might be able to do this, and I do. The answer is “YOU BET”.
Anne shows up and we head to the Bonnie L. Hayes Small Animal Disposal Facility, er, Animal Shelter in Hillsboro. One of our two cats has been missing for a week. One of our neighbors found some tufts of suspicious looking fur in their back yard, so she might have gotten nabbed by a coyote. On the other hand, Anne is looking at pictures of cats that have turned up at the animal shelter and one that got posted on Sunday looks like it could very well by our missing Iggy. Turns out, no, this one was found in a mobile home clear on the other side of town. I don’t quite understand the situation there. Not sure I want to.
On our way home we stop at Black Rock Coffee for a cuppa Joe. There is a small shopping center across the street from Shute Park. Juan Colorado’s Mexican Restaurant is there. A coffee kiosk appeared in the parking lot there several years ago. It ran for a while and then closed up. Now we have a new coffee operation there. Good coffee. $2 for a good size cup.
Home, check my messages, make a call and it’s time to head out to lunch. John comes along, he wants to pick up the by-now-infamous Marshall amplifier from the shop in downtown Portland. We pick up my friend Jack and head over to O’Connors, where I parallel park my truck on the first try in a spot that is only a few inches longer than the truck. Jack pretends not to be impressed.
We eat out on the deck in back. I have Joe’s Scramble because I didn’t get any breakfast. It is some kind of egg thing with shrimp. Pretty tasty. We are sitting and talking while waiting for our check and a track hoe (a power shovel on tracks, we used to call them steam shovels) clanks by on the road below. Then a street sweeper comes by. Yeah, we aren’t going to be able to hold a conversation out here anymore. I look at my watch, it’s one fifteen. Oh, that explains it. The construction gang took a lunch break, but now they are back at work.
We wander over to Post-Hip to visit with Scott. I pick up a novel by Georges Simenon, the prolific Frenchman. Glancing at the book I notice that Chapter 4 starts near the very back of the book. Wait a minute, this isn’t a book of short stories is it? No, it’s not, but the chapter layout is very weird. Chapter 2 starts on page 163. There are only 188 pages in the book, so the first chapter takes 163 pages, and the last three chapters only take 26. Well, we shall see.
John calls amplifier man. While the amp is ready, the shop isn’t open today, so no trip downtown. On the way home we stop at one of the aforementioned battery shops. It looks a little sketchy when we pull in, parking lot is empty. Who knows what they have inside? Jack does. He was here last week, and recommended them. Inside it’s a different story. Not a big store, but impressive. Any kind of battery you might need. Everything from watch batteries to car batteries. Bought a new battery for remote control / key for Anne’s car. $4. They even have batteries for cordless power tools. My Makita drill is getting old. I may need a new battery before long.
Back home I pause for a minute to regroup and then I am off to pick up a couple of items. Epoxy from the hobby shop (JB Weld for $7), vacuum cleaner bags from the vacuum shop, and printer paper from Office Depot, now $5.50.
Home again I get to work on the old broken key. Replace the battery and then mix up some epoxy. Slather the inside of the case where the stub end of the key goes and pop it all back together. It takes three napkins to wipe up the little bit of excess epoxy that got squeezed out. Who knew epoxy was so messy?
While I did not accomplish much, I did see a few interesting sights:
- one 1950's vintage Dodge truck in very nice condition
- two battery stores on Canyon road in Beaverton
- three cops with their lights on who had pulled people over
- four armored cars (one each Brinks and Loomis and two from Garda)
That’s enough for today, time for a nap.
You did manage to keep $180 in your wallet ($190 that key shop would charge you minus $10 worth of supplies).
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