In Gatineau and Ottawa yesterday to have a Mazda dealership look at the headlights (previous entry) and return a book to Carleton University’s map library. A librarian very generously allowed me to sign out a reference book for a two-week period; the book, a guide to managing small map collections, is a must-read as I look towards cataloguing the Pontiac Archives’s map collection this summer. I wanted to get the book back on time; and Jennifer had made an appointment at the dealership, so off I went.

I arrived at the dealership at nine-thirty, and asked what kind of wait I should anticipate: sit in the waiting room; go for a walk; jump on the bus and go downtown. In the end I took the bus — the number 38 bus was both nearby and surprisingly quick by the STO’s standards. Within the hour I was on the Carleton campus (transferring to an OC Transpo number 7 in downtown Ottawa).

After returning the book, I decided to walk back — at least as far as downtown. I had errands to run in the Glebe and along Bank Street, so it made a bit of sense. It was about seven kilometres and it took me around two and a half hours, stops included, to make the trip. I managed it well, even though I’m not in as good shape as I once was. Thank heavens for my iPod or my mind would have revolted.

The errands were all little things that I’d had (or would have had) trouble finding in Shawville: a new printer cartridge, some miscellaneous office supplies, a patch cable. Picked up a whole whack of DVDs for Jennifer; it’s her birthday today — the HMV in the Rideau Centre is an extremely dangerous store, more so than I remembered.

Back at the dealership by three, where I was told that the problem with the headlights was due to connectors that had, bluntly, melted; they replaced these, which cost less than a complete replacement of the daytime running lights module (that would have been the most-expensive-case scenario). Plugged the iPod back into the FM transmitter, and then home.