Car Trouble: Part Deux

So I'm now driving a green Mazda econobox with a crystal angel dangling from the rear view mirror and a selection of Vietnamese and Chinese CDs.

How this happened: yesterday excessor delivered me to the shop over by 101 to pick up my car. The new solenoid/starter had been put in ($250) but the mechanic/owner wanted me to buy a new battery. I told him I had already bought a new one several months ago, so I would put it in as soon as I got home. He said he had tested for current drains and not found any, so there should be no problem. So they jumpstart the car and away I go.

About a mile later, I pulled into a left turn lane at a 6x6 lane intersection. I noticed the ABS and BRAKE lights were on, and flickering oddly as the turn signal clicked. Then the car died.

Now you car fans no doubt know that a modern automatic has an interlock to prevent you from changing out of park while the car isn't running. The override for this is usually somewhere near the shift lever. I know exactly where mine is, having used it the previous day, but I had nothing long enough to reach the override button a few inches deep. So I was locked into place in the middle of the street, and cars started coming up behind me. I waved the first few around and made the quick decision to run back to the shop as the quickest way of getting help, since I'd left my cell phone in my gym bag, which was in Paul's truck. About 9 minutes of running later, I arrrived at the shop.

The owner told me to get into his car and we'd drive over to mine. When we arrived at my car, he pulled out his jumper battery and started to work on the car. He told me to take his car and come back on Monday to pick up mine. So I did. I now drive a green Mazda with good luck charms and the smell of incense.

BTW, we're not going to make it to the city today to see various people as planned. I got almost no sleep last night, then discovered there were quite a few things I needed to do before the painters return to finish up tomorrow morning, notably sanding out some poor patching they did in the front of the house (yes, I'm compulsive about things I will notice every time I walk by them.) I missed the gym Friday because of the car problem, and got only half a workout yesterday for the same reason. So I'll go to the gym instead of trying to get up to the city for the remaining three hours of daylight. I'm sorry to disappoint everyone.

Top 40 Hits keep on coming

The gym has switched from a rotation of tapes (really headbanging metal, then rap/R&B, then disco...) to a more steady diet of oldies from the 70s and 80s. Not too many metalheads or urban hiphoppers in Mountain View, but the oldies tapes are strange -- I haven't heard so much ELO in years. The Eagles -- I'd forgotten some of their lachrymose songs.

Anyway, I've dug up another bit of ephemera from the archives for you: a Top 40 radio survey from 1968. See, kiddies, long before iTunes and the iPod, there was this thing called radio. Far out in the hinterlands, radio stations were the only way you might hear new music, and their playlists generated sales of individual songs on 45-rpm records, known as "singles." Each week the record stores were surveyed for their sales numbers, which begat playlists confined to just the highest-selling songs -- thus "Top 40 radio." This led to payola, where the record company would pay DJs under the table to get their new music on the air long enough to get some sales.

[addendum: there's a web site on the historical role of station WHB in inventing the Top 40 format. They also pioneered call-in talk shows and other staples of AM radio. The station has changed to all sports now.]