Powerless in Avalon

Location: Luau Larry’s, Avalon (map)

No Internet here, but there is AC power. Power has been a precious commodity lately, as we discovered that the boat’s alternator was broken. No juice. We would start the motor and the high-tech electrical thingie still said we were still draining the batteries. Cause for only minor alarm, as the engine battery still had plenty of life in it, but the battery for running everything else was getting alarmingly low. That meant no computer recharges, no tunes, and (gasp!) no refrigerator. I didn’t come on this trip to be inconvenienced!

After a few calls back to the company that rented us the boat (good thing I had my phone along), we established that no, in fact we were not just doing something stupid, the system was not working. This morning the boat repair man came out on his boat to our boat and took a look. He determined that the alternator was indeed fried. He didn’t have a matching part. Oh, grand. He had a close-enough matching part, it turned out, but it was just damn expensive. More phone calls to home base to authorize the service. Finally it was approved.

When I used to do home improvement projects, I measured success by how many trips to the hardware store it took. The fewer the trips, the better I was doing. This guy came out by boat to look at the alternator, then went back to the shop to see what he had. He couldn’t reach the rental people, so he came back out to our boat (map) to explain what was going on. While he was there we reached Seabreeze and they authorized the repair. He had not brought the new alternator with him, however, so he went back to his shop to get it. Back out he came for the third time, and got everything installed, except he needed to go back to shore for a nut. Finally everything was cool, the alternator was alternating, and he went on his way. A few minutes later another, younger guy shows up in the boat, chasing us down as we are leaving, because the guy had copied the phone number of Seabreeze wrong. (Of course, he had already called them once.) Total: five trips.

He was a real nice guy, though, and knew his stuff.

Rather than wait for the ship to get it’s juices flowing again, I took off to town to find a bar with an outlet. That’s what led me to Luau Larry’s. It’s not a big place, and it isn’t as busy as it has been the provious times I’ve poked my head in, but to be honest the service really sucks. Granted my table is out of the way, towards the back while most of the customers gravitate toward the front, but I have frankly given up trying to get another beer here. I have tried everything short of being an asshole to get someone’s attention, even when the waitress was just two tables away. I thought it was me but I’ve watched others get crappy service as well.

Luau Larrys: Nice look, nice looking help, but the help isn’t really help at all. I’m leaving here sober.

Post Script: Now I’m back in the marlin club, talking to toothless, bearded people and I’m where I belong.

17 thoughts on “Powerless in Avalon

  1. All right gang, in honor of Jerry the ramblin man: who’s gotta favorite road song?

    Despite Jer’s current situation, I won’t proffer Sloop John B (Beach Boys?), because A) it aint’ about the road, and B) I don’t particular care much for the song. But it sounds like Jer can sure identify with it, at the moment.

    I have very fond memories of barrelling between Las Cruces and Socorro with the man his-self, in his Opel Cadet (Kadet?), cranking out the Boston Turner Overdrive.

    It doesn’t even have to be about the road, just something that adds sauce to the miles. Offer as many songs as you like. Its not a vote, just a list.

    bumper sticker of the day:

    I support two teams,

    the Red Sox and whoever beats the Yankees.

    Can I get a witness!

  2. Yup, Jess’ drunk agin or was it all that brown acid of the seventies?

    I believe you meant “Bachman Turner Overdrive.” “Boston” being another big guitar band of that time, I can see how you’de be mistaken. Randy Bachman would be pissed – speaking of down with the brown acid.

    Yup, old man Votaw harshin’ your buzz.

    My vote of course is for Creedence’s (or was it Fogarty? same dude, same sound, different band) “Old man down the Road.”

  3. Man, and they warned me about the brown acid. Shudda stuck with the mickey mouse tabs. Good catch, all though maybe if I sent Boston through the left channel and BTO thru the right…

    Old man down the road is hysterical. Or we could vote for Touch of Gray by the Dead. But that’s just mean. And I feel bad because there is absolutely no gray in my beard whatsoever. Just white.

    I believe Fogarty was solo when he did old man.

  4. Hmm… those are good suggestions. I’ll have to check and see if I can dig them up.

    For the record, driving down from LA yesterday it was Gwenmars followed by Dead Milkmen. Neither one really road music per se, but good tunes.

  5. Who was that 80s hair band that covered golden earring?

    Were you listening to the Dead Milkmen in your bitchin’ miata?

    I gotta million of ’em folks and I’m here all week. Please tip your waitstaff.

  6. Bitchin’ Camaro was not on this album, but If I Had a Gun was crankin’ as I passed an accident in Laguna Beach with police all around. I assumed they were too busy standing around discussing donuts to bother with some punk-ass forty-year-old.

    Not to trivialize the work that they do, which is difficult and dangerous, but it seems to me that at a typical accident scene there are twice as many cops as there are things to do.

    But I digress. I went to a concert at Tingley Colosseum in Albuquerque once–Golden Earring opening for Rush. It was a blind datish king of thing. The acoustics in that place were really horrible, and at one point I turned to my semi-date and asked “haven’t they played this one already?”

    She thought I was rippin on the band, and that was the end of that. Turns our she was a big fan of Rush. I liked Rush, too, but honestly, I thought they had played that song already.

  7. The car was an Opel Kadett, which was most recently imported to the US under the nameplate of the Cadillac Catera — I kid you not. That which used to be the best econobox available in the US (it got eclipsed by the Toyota Corolla in 1967 and never recovered) has evolved into a luxury sedan.

    As for the best road song, it’s got to be “Born to be Wild.”

  8. Born to be wild is definately a good song, and Jerry has actually seen Steppenwolf. No, he’s not that old, it was more a controversial facsimile of SW. I think the drummer was original.

    Other good road songs:

    For the SoCal freeways: Classical.

    For the desert: techno, trance, or a collection of Route 66 covers.

    For the mountains: polka.

    Anytime you need to eat miles: Any stadium band 1970s live album.

    When you get sleepy:Sousa. Or polka.

    In vegas or Reno: Any recording by the rat pack.

    When you get to Bill’s you should fire up Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys.

    If you fire up Kansas’ Point of No Return you’ve gone too far.

  9. I believe it was the pseudo-Steppenwolf concert where there was no bass player on stage, but someone was definitely playing bass in the songs. I assume that means whoever it was was offstage – imagine not rating enough to be seen with a fake band.

    Still, it was a fun show.

  10. Speaking of BTO, as Gerald and I were setting off on our journey from Albuquerque to Five O’Clock Somewhere, what should come on the radio but “Let it Roll (Down the Highway)”?

    Oh, yes, speaking of bumper stickers, as we were returning to Albuquerque Sunday evening, we passed a Geo Tracker with Vermont plates that had an ideal bumper sticker to describe Jer’s journeys: “Not all who wander are lost.” Pat and I are both pretty sure it’s Tolkien — Pat thinks it’s from /The Hobbit/, while I believe it’s from /Lord of the Rings/, part of the poem about the sword that was broken. Confirmation, anyone?

    (Meanwhile, how in Mozilla does one make the text do italics and boldface?)

  11. Not mozilla. I’ve just been using HTML code right in my typing a comment.

    Use the greater-than, less-than symbols to create a code “tag” like such: (I hope this works, I will turn off the coding with the ampersand symbol so you see what I mean)

    open the tag with & , then write your word(s) here; finally close the coding so the browser knows to turn off the italics like this:

    &. All together it looks like: & italic &, and if I rewrite the whole mess without the ampersands I get my coding: italics

    substitute “b” for “i” if your want boldface.

    And yes, this will slow up typing a comment. Anybody have a different solution?

  12. Grrrrr. I don’t know what happened to the final example. It looks like the ampersand erased everything after itself. One more attempt:

    & your word here &

  13. Meanwhile, I think the “not all who wander are lost” quote could go into the rotation at the upper right hand corner of the screen. It does sum up what Jerry’s doing.

  14. Google tells me “not all who wander are lost” is a very popular quote amongst bloggers. Therefore, avoid it, although it suits you and the site. So does “Muddled Ramblings” and you’ve made that your own.

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