Friday, February 16, 2024
I forgot to finish the tire story yesterday. (I was slightly in a food coma, perhaps) We took the tire to American Tire Depot. They couldn’t find anything wrong with it. They overinflated it overnight and nothing leaked at all, so they called and said come and get it. Keith went. They put the tire on for him, checked all the tires, and wouldn’t even take a tip, much less charge him anything. Just imagine how much cheaper that was than riding to the airport in a tow truck! The only idea the tire man had was that someone purposefully let air out of our tire. That in itself was a super weird thing to have happened, but the low tire light came on the night before the flat. Keith was going to go to a gas station to check it yesterday – before we found out it was really flat. If someone let air out, they did it a little bit once, then returned and did it a lot. That really defies the odds, doesn’t it? No low tire light yet, so we are glad that is done.
We went to a model railroad museum today. As usual with model trains, everything around the train was the really interesting part. There were two big rooms, with two levels in each, connected by four tunnels through the wall. We enjoyed watching the trains and looking at the details of the towns and countryside. Someone had painted wonderful backdrops on the walls. I think I will have to paint a background to Keith’s Cars land (Radiator Springs)… I’ll let you know.
As we were leaving, I saw a guest book and stopped to sign it. While I was, Keith picked up a flyer from next to it, advertising a miniatures museum. It closed in 65 minutes and was 30 minutes away. I said, “Let’s GO!” He said we’d only have half an hour. I said we’d see more in 30 minutes there than we would in our hotel room. We went.
The featured exhibit was the “finest automotive model every made,” a 1932 Duesenberg SJ. It took over 20,000 hours to create the over-6,000 scratch-built parts. Think about that. Oooof! It was just gorgeous. Of course we couldn’t touch it, but they assured us that the engine works, the dash dials work, the door locks work; the brakes do not work because the liquid couldn’t go thru the tiny brake lines!
There were lots and lots of engines and motors and boats and planes on one side. On the other side were doll houses and music boxes. We split up, then shared the high points with each other and felt pretty much finished when the light flicked off at 4:00.
Next was the current high point of the trip. We had dinner at Chin’s Chinese restaurant with Keith’s friend from Thomson Reuters and Seismic, Dave Owen and his wife Lindy. They live not-very-far-away, and we were delighted to be able to share a meal. The food was DELICIOUS (as Dave said, “Chin’s. All day, every day!”) What fun it was to chat with Lindy and hear about her two boys and share a bit about our two boys and tell stories everyone else has already heard 🙂 Keith and Dave chatted a bunch about old coworkers and common friends and a little bit about their current workings. Sometimes the four of us all talked together. It was lovely. They were very interested in going to the Sunset Market, because they have heard of it, but never gone. They had never heard of the miniatures and are in for that, too! In the car on the way home, Keith told me that Seismic laid off some of their staff this week and his old team was completely decimated. If he hadn’t left almost two years ago, he’d probably be looking for a job now.
OOOOOOF!
Dave’s job is secure, so we are glad of that. We are packing up to head back to San Diego tomorrow. Oceanside has been relaxing and fun and a lovely vacation.
😁
Obviously thought of you the whole time