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Wed.Mar.15.2006

2:12 am EST        30°F (-1°C) in Dearborn, MI

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I’ve done a ton of shit since my last update nine days ago. From western New York on the morning of March 6, I headed over between Rochester and Syracuse to pick up a load bound for Louisville, KY; after that, I was sent to intercept another driver just south of Cincinnati, and re-power that load to deliveries in Yorktown, IN, and Bridgeport, MI. After returning home from Bridgeport, I must say for the sake of my Michigan readers that if you want a scenic freeway drive in the state, Interstate 75 in northern Oakland County — basically from the U.S. Route 24/Dixie Highway exit northwest of Clarkston up to the Genesee County line — is the place to go. There are more hills and scenery along this stretch of I-75 than almost anywhere else in southern lower Michigan.

Working as quickly as possible once home, I proceeded to install my new tires and wheels on my car. With all the tools I had bought in recent months, the job was not a very hard one at all, and I had it done in roughly 1½ hours. Once that job was completed, it was off to Ann Arbor to spend most of the weekend with my friend Marc; he gave me his apartment keys while he went to work from 8:00 pm Friday to 5:00 am Saturday, and during that time, I mostly did laundry and played games on his Xbox.

The primary reason for the trip was Saturday night’s second-round CCHA playoff game between Michigan and Ferris State, a game that marked my first return to Yost Ice Arena in five years. Following a 6-4 victory in Game 1 on Friday night, Michigan won Saturday’s Game 2 by a 3-2 count to punch a ticket to this upcoming weekend’s CCHA final four at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit. Yost is almost as crazy as I remember it from years ago, although some of the overt profanity seems to have been cut out of the chants, and the seating area reserved for the opposing players’ parents has been moved to section 4, across the ice from the Michigan student section in sections 14-18. (Additionally, the Michigan Hockey Pep Band has been moved from its former home in the top rows of section 20 to a newly-constructed platform in the southwest corner of the building, adjacent to sections 22 and 1.) The game marked my fellow Catholic Central High School alumnus Brandon Kaleniecki’s final contest at Yost; he scored one of the three goals.

After the game, much Pizza House-age and NCAA Football 2005-age ensued. We eventually stayed up until daybreak, with Marc teaching me how to play Texas Hold’em, and eventually me kicking his ass in said pursuit. I headed back home Sunday morning, and spent most of the rest of Sunday trying to simply stay awake long enough so that I would be exhausted by night (to reset my screwed-up sleep pattern).

After that, the last two days have turned into a disaster of epic proportions surrounding my car, namely getting a full, honest-to-God four-wheel alignment job done. After three tries and a likely rip-off of $80 by Saturn of Southgate (MI), I still have only the front end aligned right; I’m hoping to get the rear end done correctly later on today. We’ll see what becomes of that.

Jeez, time flies when you’re updating Larry’s Phat Page …