45 minute raspberry

sometimes you’re smart. and sometimes you’re really stupid.

evidence of the latter this morning: i was driving the miata down to work, where i’m going to sit it in the parking lot while we’re off on our honeymoon, since i can’t keep it in our garage due to the fact that we haven’t sold the land cruiser yet. all is well, except that i hear something that sounds like a ripping or a clicking, up by where my top was sliced and is now taped up with gaffer’s tape. i’m thinking maybe the tape is stretching or the strands are breaking, but then i realize: something’s just flapping.

i pull over at tanforan mall, and yes, it’s true. the tape is slowly coming off, slightly but not completely. it had stayed on fine yesterday when i drove down to daly city, but that was in the afternoon sunshine. this morning, freshly covered with dew, it couldn’t stick properly and was coming off.

the stupid thing is that it’s my own fault. when deciding to tape up the hole, i did consider duct tape instead of gaffer’s tape. and i decided against duct tape because i thought it would be too sticky. i was influenced by some bizarre anal cleanliness idea, to make sure that there wouldn’t be too much tape goo which would somehow mar my otherwise pristine ghetto convertible top with the multiple cuts and tears.

so stupid.

and so i tried to dry it off and press it down, to no avail. so i was left with driving the rest of the way down to sunnyvale with the tape flapping in the wind. the only thing is that when tape flaps at 80mph, it does so at an incredibly high frequency, so it’s not so much a flapping but a buzzing. or like someone’s giving you a raspberry. for forty five minutes. pbpbpbpbpbpbpbpbpbpbpbpt. a continual loud reminder of your foolishness. you’re an idiooooooooooot.

it reminds me of that peanuts cartoon, where charlie brown says to sherman, “you think my dad doesn’t know anything about cars? just the other day we were driving and he heard a loud noise from the engine.” sherman says, “let me guess, he got out and fixed it, right?” and charlie brown says, “no, he just turned the radio up louder.”

:s/radio/ipod/g

Posted at November 17, 2004 11:15 AM