I just want to take a moment and quote Brian Eno:
Although variety’s the spice of life
A steady rhythm is the source
Simplicity’s the crucial thing
Systemically, of course
(This is the same guy who says:
If you follow the logistics and heuristics of the mystics
You will find that their minds rarely move in a line
So it’s much more realistic to abandon such heuristics
And resign to be trapped in a leaf on the vine
And anyone who uses ‘heuristics’ in a song lyric is OK with me.)
New tires. Vroom. So far, I have to say that Michelin Agilis 81s rule. Mostly because they come in 14-inch rim sizes, but also because they rule. They make the van handle like a sports car, and they aren’t nearly as loud as those crappy mud/snow tires that came with it.
I ran out of gas today, too. The gas gauge doesn’t work, so I have to guess.
I started hearing this noise.. A kind of high pitched gurgle-y whine. “What on earth could that noise be?” I wondered. Yet another strange noise from the van is how I wrote it off. So I went to the tire change place and did all that, and decided to get something to eat in Ballard.
The whining got louder… It wasn’t exactly overwhelming, but it was there as I made my way to the fabled land of Ballard. Until, finally, the van started losing power. I pulled over and wondered… “What did those guys do to my van? Did they break the fuel line when they put it up on the rack to change the tires?”
No, Homer, they didn’t. You ran out of gas, dumbass. The whining was the fuel pump.
So it’s nice to know there’s a way to tell the van’s about to run out of gas. One wishes it were a fuel gauge, but instead it’s the death cry of the fuel pump.
I eventually made it to Ballard, after walking about a mile each way with a gas canister and then driving to a gas station. But after that, none of the places I had in mind looked really appetizing.
