Fish Wednesday, Broken Things Edition

If you’re coming from the Tercel message boards, well howdy! You should know that we’ve since sold our old friend Theodore Tercel. He’s still running, though, and I saw him the other day in my old neighborhood, happy as ever, with a dog sitting in the front seat. Theo always wanted a dog, I’m glad he’s got one now. For the record, we replaced Theodore Tercel with a Pontiac Vibe, a four door hatchback made by, that’s right, Toyota.   I still kinda miss Theo, though, and today, when I pulled in to the supermarket next to an 87ish 4WD Tercel, I got a little weepy. The Vibe is nice, but it’s just a car, something I’d never say about my trusty old 85 Tercel. 

Last night, a light bulb went out in the kitchen. I was handing the glass cover back to Mr. Nerd’s Eye View when he knocked it out of my hand. It hit the floor with a tremendous crash and shattered in to, well, I don’t know how many pieces.

Today, off we went to the hardware store to get a replacement. You know, you can’t buy replacement parts for hardly anything anymore, you have to throw the whole thing away and get a new one. This makes me crabby. There I am, crabby in the parking lot of the hardware store when I see that some fucker, excuse me, but that’s the best word I can think of, has plowed in to the front driver’s side panel of my car. It didn’t happen when I was in it, I think I’d have known. I was angry, to say the least.

Perhaps you do not know about my car. It is a 1985 Toyota Tercel Wagon. At the time, Toyota called it the deluxe model, which is a hilarious thing as this car has no power windows, no power steering, no power locks, the defroster has two settings, full and off…well, let’s just say that this car is free from features and in some places, paint. It’s kind of a hippie car and indeed, has served remarkably well on three long haul hippie odysseys, one to British Columbia and out to Calgary, one to the great national parks of the Rockies, and one along the spectacular Highway 1 Pacific Ocean/Yosemite route. When the Tercel first joined us, it got a whopping 44 miles to the gallon on the freeway. I thought it was a mistake in my math (I went to art school) until it continued to get 44 miles to the gallon for another several years.

I was pretty grumpy in the first hardware store and this did not get any better when it turned out there was no replacement glass or even a full fixture that would do the trick. We drove my wounded car across town to the next hardware store where they also did not have what I wanted. We made a quick stop in the appliances section where a whopping giant of a man asked me what he could do for me. “Find the bastard who hit my car,” I said. He stared at me for a minute. “What do you want me to do with him?” he finally responded. “Oh, I’ll take care of that.” He then offered me a great price on an appliance, but I was not interested in that unless he was going to drop it on the hood of the car that hit my Tercel.

We made one final stop at Alexander lighting where I was able to get what I needed almost, but now I have a extra fixture with no glass. I hate to waste stuff that’s perfectly good, it makes me irritable. (Yes, yes, I will put it on Freecycle.) While we were driving home from the lighting store, I made a snap decision to stop at A-1 Chinese Buffet. We stood on the steps in the rain next to another crazy tall human, a woman who was an officer with the Seattle Police. The door was locked. People were inside chowing down on chow mein while Officer Seven Feet Tall paced back and forth along the sidewalk trying to get someone’s attention. I thought for sure that this was just another broken experience, but the door opened and the hostess explained. “Sorry, someone broke our door. We got burgled, someone came and took a lot of money. Please…” she put an hand on my shoulder, “sit down. Can I get you something to drink?”

A-1 Chinese Buffet isn’t exactly A-1, but it’s not bad. I don’t mean just adequate, I mean a-okay! Thumbs up in a cheery way! For seven bucks you can eat all the General Tso’s or Kung Pao or or or – they just keep it coming. They had a big tray of poached salmon with lemons and another batch of rather tasty mussels with some kind of black bean sauce. Their chow mein uses the fat tasty noodles, not the cheap greasy ones. The veggies are crispy, not overcooked. They have tiny eggrolls – but eat as many as you like – and funny little wontons stuffed with something that tastes like cream cheese and these roasted potatoes that are really good and, well, it’s a huge buffet.

And it’s a fun scene. At one end of the restaurant sat a table of 20 or so lunching ladies, Asian looking but probably locals, they chattered at the buffet in unaccented English. A couple of Spanish speaking girls stuffed breathtaking amounts of food in to ‘to go’ containers. A kid named Ezekiel – his mom called him – walked down the buffet line with his big sister while his dad, in a jumpsuit that said Washington Facilities, sat at the table. There was dessert too, jello, which Ezekiel really wanted, we heard him say so, and sesame balls and cream puffs and fruit.

I wouldn’t say it’s the best Chinese food in the city, but it was a-okay. The trick is, I think, to eat what the guys are bringing from the kitchen as they bring it – and they bring it, baby, they do. It keeps coming – and you can taste that everything is quite fresh. (Also, you with the take out containers? Don’t waste all that real estate on rice!) The only downside was that the dishes were not quite hot enough – hence the tip to eat what’s just come from the kitchen. FYI, I asked on the way out and dinner is a little different – they add King crab and salt and pepper prawns, among other things.

I’d recommend A-1 Chinese Buffet and hey,they could use your business, post burglary. May that thieving bastard that hit the nice folks of A-1 sit next to the fucker that hit my car in hell. If I have anything to say about it, you’ll all be at the level reserved for bicycle thieves. It’s nasty there. Also, Officer W., who came to take the report about my Tercel, told me that I should ask around and see if anyone saw the intentional accident. If you were on Cap Hill and saw someone crush my car, would you go to the hardware store, get a fridge, and drop it on the car that hit the Yodler? Thanks ever so. And yes, to my annoyance, I am now in the market for a new car.

A-1 Chinese Buffet is at 701 Rainier. Lunch is from 11-4, dinner from 4-930. Go hungry.

Episodes featuring the Tercel, from the archives:

• Consumer Reports
• The Yodler’s Lament
• Car Talk

[tags]Fish Wednesday, hit and run[/tags]