This Is The Vacation That Isn't

So I have the next two days off.  Originally I wanted to go to St. Louis, preferably by car, and make it a six-day vacation straddling the weekend and ending on Tuesday.  Unfortunately, rates for car rentals were so obscene that I shaved off one day, and when my parents said they were coming back, I shaved off another.  I was going to give away today and tomorrow, too, but like I bitched and moaned about here, everybody this summer has taken a vacation except me.  Besides, I am racking up the paid time off and, in an e-mail I got Tuesday, my boss confirmed that we can only carry over a week's worth of it into next year, which means I have some days I have to burn off or else I lose the money I make from not working.

So, I am giving myself two days off.  Am I going to St. Louis?  No.  Besides the sky-high prices of cars (which I think have backed off now) and my parents coming home, when I proffered the idea that I would take a road trip for just, oh, four days (and I was thinking Friday-to-Monday) because hey, my parents would be home to mind the house, Mother freaked out about, like, me passing out behind the wheel or something.  I didn't want to deal with her grief, so I nixed the actual vacay for a fake one.  (Say, have I blog posted this story here on WAF already?  I don't remember.)

So I'm telling my parents I'm taking half-days today and tomorrow.  If they ask, I'm going to tell them I'm bringing my car in for service ... which is true.  But they don't know that I'm bringing it to a shop I've never been to before.  It comes recommended, although I wish it had more reviews.  But while the car after I get it back from the dealership runs fine, it's expensive and I haven't been all that happy with the customer service.  Plus it's got some extensive maintenance that's supposed to be done on this, which means I'll have to cool my heels for at least a few hours (at least I think), and that dealership is not a place I want to get stuck in for a few hours.  This shop is on a bus line, so I will be able to go downtown for breakfast, maybe get a haircut and, oh yeah, get picked up by ******e for a handjob at her parents' house, where she's staying at right now.

(Aside: This car repair place is very close to my house.  And it's so close that I'm afraid that, as I take the bus to ******e's place or back to the shop to pick up my repaired car, I'll see them driving around in their minivan while they, for example, buy more milk because I almost used up the last gallon that is in the refrigerator.  Yeah, I can explain the truth, that I've taken my car into a shop.  But the BS I'll get from them for such a run-in will still be unrelenting.)

The problem is the timing.  The big variable to my day is how long will it take to do all the things that need to be done to the car.  If it takes all day, that will mean a lot of long bus rides doing all things I can and want to do, but that'll get exhausting.  And even if it takes, oh, two hours (doubt it), these are long rides on the bus, so any plans I make will pretty much be set in stone because I will be downtown and 45 minutes away from the car repair place.  I just want certainty.  I might get it when I bring it in in the morning.  I really, really hope I get the car back at the end of the day; I can't get home without it.

Some vacation, huh?