May I bitch? Thank you.

So. This morning I got up an got dressed and had the great idea of riding my Vespa to work as I had no meetings scheduled for this morning. Its a beautiful morning and I hop on the damned thing and start tootling down El Camino Real happy as a retarded little clam. At the intersection of El Camino and Ravenswood in Menlo Park, the Vespa stalls out and will not restart. So I push it to the side of the road and call CSAA. After describing where I was ("the west side or the east side of Ravenswood?" "How the fuck do I know? Do I look like a Boy Scout to you?") the operator tells me this is one of four free tows I get per year (used to be unlimited. Remember?) and says a tow truck will be there within the next 90 minutes. 90 minutes? I'm WALKIN' here! So I go to Cafe Borrone (less than one block away) and am distracted by my phone telling my spousy what is up and dealing with CSAA by text and do not realize that the guy behind the counter is ready to serve me. "Real world calling, here" he snarks at me. I drop all my stuff (purse, lunch bag, helmet and snarl at him "you might want to tone it down a bit" but of course he doesn't. I get my shitty pisswater coffee and leave. As I walk out, I see a tow truck drive by. Me. Waving frantically. I call CSAA again but it turns out that wasn't my guy. Sit sit sit. Wait wait wait. Another flatbed tow truck goes by. Me waving frantically. CSAA calls and says they are getting a special tow truck for me (a flatbed one) and it will be about 90 minutes. You mean like that one that just drove by? I know I know he was on another call but I'm standing there and can't help but think these things. At this point I get excited at the hapless CSAA guy. Finally, after 2.5 hours of waiting Thomas the sweet young Hungarian guy shows up in his truck. He turns the key and the Vespa starts right up. Mortification. I say: I don't want to drive it in case it does it again. He is nice about it and loads up my Vespa onto his flatbed tow truck. He drives me and my godforsaken device to San Jose, where the mechanics at BMW/Vespa San Jose are really nice about everything. During my time walking the sidewalk in Menlo Park I surfed the internet and found info that the fuel pumps on some Vespas had been recalled. The guy at San Jose looked my scooter up and there it was: the fuel pump on my scooter had been recalled. Replace for free! Then he commented on how infrequently I drive it (noted the mileage). Yeah yeah. Because it breaks down, maybe? Anyway I hopped on the bus and took a 1.5 hour ride home. By this time I bagged going to work. Because I didn't get home until about 3 pm. After breaking down at 9:15 am.

This is what I had on when these events transpired.
And here is a picture of my hapless scooter being hauled onto the back of Thomas's tow truck.

And now for the bitching: I do love knit silk shirts. However, I wear my clothes during my life and sometimes it so happens that I sweat a little bit while wearing clothes. Sometimes this happens when I have a knit silk shirt on. Yes I use anti-perspirants. Sweat on a knit silk shirt ruins it. I have tried washing these shirts in Woolite to no avail. I have tried dry cleaning which results in pressing the sweat stain in with a hot iron.  I have tried regular detergents. I have tried careful vinegar rinses and all kinds of stuff I got off the internet. What are you supposed to do? Throw them out? They cost money! I hate it! I have ruined two shirts with sweat stains. The red silk shirt and now the brown silk one. With the red silk one I tried everything including scrubbing the stain with every soap I could lay my hands on. Much unhappiness. I think I'll stick to cotton T shirts from Target from now on.