Satan working my end too!
Joe was right about one thing, that sound coming from my trucks’ transmission wasn’t normal. I’ve been driving the thing with a weird spinny squeek for years, and since I don’t drive it much, I kind of ignored it. I pulled the trailer, aka Super Jen resupply enclosure, up to Idyllwild campground, and the noise got much worse. Even turning up the radio wouldn’t let me pretend it wasn’t a problem.
Super Jen is taking a few zero days, letting her blisters heal, and trying to change her bad boyfriend boots’ behavior. She’s got them all oiled up, and is stepping on the toe box in an effort to get them to loosen up a bit. I don’t have faith, but she does, and in the end, she’s got to walk in those things. Not my clowns, not my circus.
She’s holed up watching episodes of Rue Pauls’ drag race, and hanging with Marley and Bernardo, so that gave me the opportunity to get out of dodge and get some training in. I jumped in the PickEmUp truck and went down the hill to Palm Springs, current temperature 101, wtf, and hoped my truck would self heal. Mechanics are like Doctors, they’re expensive, and I usually assume that, in spite of all evidence to the contrary, these things will self heal. Ask my shoulders how that is working. They’ll respond by making grinding and popping noises.
Finally I had to admit that, much like Bobby Hill, something about that truck just wasn’t right.
Of course, broken trucks can wait, there was Jiu Jitsu to be done, so I pulled this squeaking hulk into the parking lot of Hurricane BJJ in Palm Desert. http://hurricanebjj.com/
Cathedral City actually, but how is one to tell one place, who’s defining characteristics are excessive heat and a lot of old people, from another, also very hot and filled with old people. Regardless, the school was really nice and clean and new, and Professor Hurricane, aka Josh Dubinsky, was very welcoming and chill. I really liked his warmup, which consisted of lots of technical shrimping movement, technical standups, and other BJJ related moves. People whom I train with are laughing at this, because I’m famous for being the “guy who skips warmups” guy. Everybody else runs around the room, while I pretend to tie my belt.
We worked a couple of loop choke varietals, and then got some rolls in. I got the small white belt who should have tapped to a key lock guy, the really athletic blue belt, and a huge 250 lb former wrestler white belt, who was shockingly chill. I love huge people who are all about learning the technical end of this sport, rather than laying on people. I should do that more.
Sadly, I had to return to reality, and to my truck. I had spotted a transmission shop on the way in, which is I guess how I knew this was the gritty part of Palm Springs, and in I went. I was fully expecting to get the “see you in a week” treatment, but they took me right in, drove the truck around a bit, and diagnosed it for me. Bad U-joints (much like my semi-arthritic shoulders), and probably a bad drive shaft. I was logging in to get a new car loan and doing the “dump it or fix it” math in my head. I figured about $2,000, ten days, lots of hassle. Is my 1998 Ford f-150 worth fixing?
$700 is the worst case scenario according to Mr. Transmission Guy. Wow, really? When can it be done? I tell him that I’m not from here, need to be on the road, he says Friday. Really? Wow, this is not the mechanical Hell I was expecting. So, it was less than awesome, but Satan still didn’t get to us.
Jen has been off trail for two whole days, and is getting back on tomorrow, starting at mile 180, after the fire detours.
Oh, and I got to train again! This time I went to Palm Springs BJJ, and got a good two hours in. http://palmspringsjiu-jitsu.webs.com/Whew. Now I’m tired. Prof. Ramon Diaz was awesome, and he was really excited about Jens’ trip. He hikes a lot in the local area, so maybe this visit will inspire him to get on the trail. Go Professor!They have a great school, but it’s one of those really unlikely locations. A water park. The story is that they used to be housed in a gym, but when the park changed hands, the gym went away, but they stayed. 11 Years later, it’s pretty much an empty building, with the BJJ school occupying a small piece of it. Can’t judge a book by its’ cover, they were really welcoming, had two black belts plus a brown belt on the mats, and we worked Kimuras’, so I was pretty damn happy. Plus, live rolls!
Jen is ready to get back on the trail, my truck is ready to pick up, I might get a session in tomorrow, all is right. Oh, and I’m making steak for dinner, so that’s going to be awesome.
lo
