On Wednesday night, I was supposed to go to the Red Sox game. I got a ticket through work - I threw my name in for one and I ended up with a ticket a few weeks ago.

I failed to realize at the time that it was scheduled to be the night before the last day of school - always a busy time.

So I started to regret it...but then I got psyched up for the game again - especially Wednesday.

I had hot dogs for lunch, and was getting hungry in the afternoon.

I was looking forward to a sausage and pepper sandwich, or something great at the game.

I figured I'd find a New Thing to write about at Fenway Park too.

But I never got there.

What you're looking at in that picture above is a piece of my car hanging off the bottom of the car. (My wife's car, if we're being technical about it.)

I was driving down Storrow Drive when all of a sudden I started hearing a loud scratching noise. Eventually I realized it was coming from me...and then I feared I had a flat tire. I pulled over on Commonwealth Avenue - less than a mile from Fenway Park (whether I would have found any metered parking there became moot) - and was relieved to see the tires were fine. When I peeked under the car, though, I saw our problem.

Recently my wife had a rattling noise on the car - she brought it in and apparently there was a piece of metal hanging off and making the noise. The guys at the garage removed it, free of charge, and we were on our way. I think this is related debris that is hanging off - and it was scraping the road. The guys at the garage said they were meaningless pieces of metal. But - and I don't know much about cars, so humor me here - I imagine you can't have too many metal pieces fall off the bottom of your car before you're dealing with a major problem. So we'll see what the deal is here.

I have more to tell you about Wednesday's situation, but allow me to break in for a moment to tell you about 'Old Time Garage' in Newton, Massachusetts. These guys are amazing - tremendously honest and reliable. If there's nothing wrong with your car, they'll tell you. We've experienced that before. They're great. Highly recommend them.

They're right down the street from Newton-Wellesley Hospital on Route 16. We have had great experiences on that stretch of road, first with 3 daughters being born at the hospital and then with the garage.

OK. Back to Wednesday night. I'm going to look on the bright side:

-I really started to learn how to drive with a piece of a car hanging an inch or so off the ground. Smooth roads, avoiding manhole covers, and not hitting the brakes too much are all key elements for success. (It was slightly embarrassing though - because when that thing scraped the ground it was LOUD.)

-Amazingly, I had never driven to the end of Beacon Street before. My wife, once I told her where I was on Comm. Ave. and where I'd be able to get to Beacon, said I should just take Beacon to where it ends and then I'd be on Route 16 by the hospital. What an interesting tour - I saw all of these places I had seen from different approaches (Boston College, Coolidge Corner, Cleveland Circle, the Reservoir, Newton Center), and didn't realize that Beacon Street cut through them all. And I lived on Beacon Street for 2 years - just shows you how reluctant I was to do New Things and go to new places for much of my life.

-I got to spend some time with my daughters and rest up for the last day of school.

So that's my story. I'll have to make my first trip of the year to Fenway another time. I did watch some of the game on TV.