totally related side story to the previous post

starting with a totally unrelated side note:

this belgian beer is Damn good... that's with a capitol D, if you didn't get it. i suppose that's what you get when you get a bunch of monks together to make a 10% beer.

mmmm

anyway. so...

i'm driving on a side road to Tuscany last saturday. somehow, i managed to travel 160 miles in the first two hours and only one mile in the third hour. it seemed like a sign that i was supposed to take the road less travelled, and so i did.

the thing with italy is... there is a thing called "Riposo" where everything closes for a couple of hours in the afternoon... generally between noon and 2pm... but it could vary by a few hours in either direction.

so i'm driving on SS64, which is a small state route that runs through the hills/mountains of NW Tuscany. absolutely gorgeous drive. the road wound through the tiniest villages in along the deepest river gorge with little stone footbridges that connected the road to teeny houses across the river. were i more comfortable with my masculinity i might even say that it was something straight out of a fairy tale, complete with trolls and winged godmothers.

green green, everywhere there's green.

so anyways, i'm driving around a particularly turny turn and my car starts beeping at me.

that's fine, beep away, i thought. the only thing that worried me was the the beeping (which had started happening lately) was accompanied by the OIL light... and it didn't stop beeping for about 20 seconds.

it had come on in the previous month, but only when i went around a particularly agressive corner. being the dependable little VW POS that it is, i thought its german engineered oil system just couldn't handle the incredible lateral G-forces that i was able to command from the old squeeky tires.

nope... the oil was just low.

long story longer, i pulled into the first gas station i saw and asked the old guy that i came across if the station was open for business as i needed both fuel and possibly oil as well, if it wasn't too much trouble.

literally, i pointed at the gas station and said (in italian) "closed?"

my italian is that good.

that's when i noticed the old guy standing in the doorway with a padlock in his hand. i looked at my watch and realized that if i had shown up two minutes later they would have been closed.

so i get my gas and check my oil... that's funny... usually i can see some on the stick... i was going to buy two liters of oil, but i thought better of it and bought three... at 12 euro per liter... luckily our dollar is so strong and it only cost 50 dollars.

my suspicions were confirmed when the engine swallowed two litres without flinching.

that's the end of the story. the light and beeping have not returned. the little engine is quite happy with it's haute couture tuscan oil, and i made it the rest of the way.

man... this beer is good.