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Yuba City, Ho
Jan. 12th, 2013 10:49 pmToday I made a day trip to Yuba City to visit my nephew Shane and sister Kelli, along with my mother, who is staying with them because the cold weather has driven her down from the Yuba County foothills where she normally lives. (They're pictured from right to left in the icon, with big old me looming over them between my sister and mother. I was the only one who was dealt the Tall gene.) I took the early Capitol to Sacramento, rented a car, and popped up to see them for a few hours this afternoon, then headed back and caught the 5:40 train out of Sacramento. Maybe for one of these trips I'll try the connecting Amtrak bus to Marysville; although it would require my mom or nephew to collect me, it would be cheaper, since I wouldn't have to pay for the car rental.
My mechanic called while I was on the train to tell me that he replaced the starter motor and fixed the unrelated problem with the front end linkage, and I could have collected it today, but since I was already on the way north, I told him I'd come by Monday morning. Since he'd only recently done a front-end alignment on the van (and said he should have noticed this other problem at the time), he didn't charge me for a new alignment. It's still about $600 in repairs. He did, however, warn me that my tires are nearly expired and I need to replace them very soon. I'll have to hope they hold out until my next trip home, as I think we want to have them replaced up in Reno/Sparks rather than in the Bay Area. I'm not going to bother getting snow tires, however, because I don't have four-wheel drive. Whenever the conditions get bad enough to require chains over Donner Summit, they usually are "R-2" and only 4WD with snow tires are exempt. However, I will need to consider getting a somewhat softer, grippier tire given the number of trips I make over the mountains in the rain.
Walking back to my apartment on the way back from the VTA bus stop after riding the train back to Santa Clara, I popped into 7-Eleven for some small bits for dinner. To my surprise, I found new (2014 sell-by dates) cans of Dill Pickle Pringles, which other people told me over a year ago were discontinued. Obviously they must have made at least one more back of them.
My mechanic called while I was on the train to tell me that he replaced the starter motor and fixed the unrelated problem with the front end linkage, and I could have collected it today, but since I was already on the way north, I told him I'd come by Monday morning. Since he'd only recently done a front-end alignment on the van (and said he should have noticed this other problem at the time), he didn't charge me for a new alignment. It's still about $600 in repairs. He did, however, warn me that my tires are nearly expired and I need to replace them very soon. I'll have to hope they hold out until my next trip home, as I think we want to have them replaced up in Reno/Sparks rather than in the Bay Area. I'm not going to bother getting snow tires, however, because I don't have four-wheel drive. Whenever the conditions get bad enough to require chains over Donner Summit, they usually are "R-2" and only 4WD with snow tires are exempt. However, I will need to consider getting a somewhat softer, grippier tire given the number of trips I make over the mountains in the rain.
Walking back to my apartment on the way back from the VTA bus stop after riding the train back to Santa Clara, I popped into 7-Eleven for some small bits for dinner. To my surprise, I found new (2014 sell-by dates) cans of Dill Pickle Pringles, which other people told me over a year ago were discontinued. Obviously they must have made at least one more back of them.
