driving

I installed the car seats for the babies and our backseat is now occupied by 3 car seats. The good news is that they all fit. The bad news is that the driver's seat had to be pushed to the front so my seat is not as comfortable anymore.

It might be a sign or something -- the moment I was admiring our three car seats I saw four minivans and SUVs in front of the YMCA.

When we drove in New Jersey this weekend I noticed that one of the car's low-beam headlights was broken. I stopped at two gas stations to see if they carried a replacement bulb, but I couldn't find them.

Today after work I went to the car dealership and they had the right type of bulb. I installed it myself.

Yesterday I took care of the car registration and got my DC driver's license.

To get the car registered in the District it has to go through an inspection. There's only one inspection station in the city and I've read stories about people waiting in line for a long time, but since I went during working hours it went smoothly.

Fromt the inspectation station I went to the Department of Motor Vehicles in Georgetown, and took care of the paperwork. It was more busy there; I waited a hour or so. Initially I received a license made out to "Guustaff" and fixing that took a while too, but now I'm the happy owner of a DC driving license, a car registration and Zone 2 parking permit, which allows me to park unlimited on the street anywhere in the District.

The only thing remaining now is to install the license plate in front of the car. In DC you're required to have a plate both in front and on the back, but our car doesn't have a mount in front so I'll get that installed today.

Today I had a flat tire, for the first time in 90,000 miles.

I was driving on the Durham freeway when I heard a strange noise, and after a few moments I realized that something was wrong with the car. I couldn't quite tell what it was. I left the freeway, and thankfully there was a parking lot right at the off ramp.

I called AAA roadside service, and within 45 minutes someone came and replaced the tire with the emergency one. It actually didn't look too difficult, and if it ever happens again I might try it myself. I went straight to the car dealership to get a new tire installed.

I left the apartment in Somerset at 9.30 am this morning.

I'm on the road now. The car is pretty full and I have our plants next to me on the passenger seat.

My colleague Jason reattached a mud flap to our Camry today. One of the screws was out -- the flap must have gotten loose recently when a piece of road junk hit it. It was the first time I looked at the underside of the car. Thank you, Jason!

Tomorrow I'm driving back up north to New Jersey -- 450 miles or 725 kilometers.

Monday afternoon on the parking lot at work I discovered a crack in the windshield of our car.

It was about 6" to 8" long, and from the marks on the windshield it was clear that small stones or other debris had hit it. This probably happened when we were driving from New Jersey this weekend.

I brought the car to a glass repair shop on Tuesday; it took about an hour.

I had a fun dinner in Bernardsville tonight; it was great to see some folks again who I hadn't seen in a long time.

I got terribly lost on the way back home. When there was a traffic jam 3 exits before mine, I thought to be smart and to take a secondary road. It took me about an hour longer to get home... highway 28 (one way, then the other), finally highway 22 and then back on 287 where I took a wrong turn again. Made it home!

It took me two hours to get home from the office today while usually it only takes 30 minutes. There were 2 big pile-ups of cars on I-40 very near each other; blocking the highway completely for 30 minutes followed by a few hours of 1 lane traffic (1 instead of 4).

Still, glad I wasn't in the pile-up. When I finally drove past it I saw 28 damaged cars, some in really bad shape.

Yesterday I left for work around 8.20 pm, and when I entered I-40 from the Durham Freeway there was a big traffic jam, all the way until the Wade Avenue exit.

At first I thought it was perhaps the State Fair, but that didn't start until today and in any case never caused so much traffic on I-40 as there was yesterday. I arrived at work at 9.30 am and had to take a conference call while driving.

At work I heard that there was a motivational speaker's event in the RBC Center. It's funny that speakers, 'live through a satellite connection' can attract so many people.

Stopping for the traffic jam on I-40 yesterday. Yes, I need to clean the windshield of our car.