Excitement

Though Excitement is the title of this post, I have to say, I feel pretty even keel at the moment, though I have several reasons to be excited:

• My car is now legal to drive.  All it cost was over nine hundred dollars and a lot of time.
• I have a toilet that flushes now, a bathroom window that opens, and a bathroom light that turns on.  Tell the neighbors, ma!
• In two days, I will see my favorite band live for the first time.
• I just wrote a song about what I plan to make for dinner.  It took about three minutes.  I imagine it as a B-52's tune:
  

I'm making my burritos tonight
I'm gonna make 'em so tight
I'm making my burritos tonight
One bite will make your life alright

Take my hand! I'm going to show you
Burrito land, where the winds will blow you
through the sands, over the hills
wear your head band, the sweat will chill you

Hot burrito, hot hot love
Hot burrito fits like a glove
Hot burrito, hot hot love
Just one bite and you'll join the club!

I'm making my burritos tonight
I'm gonna make 'em oh so tight
I'm making my love-ritos tonight
Just take a bite and it'll set you right

Take my hand! I'm gonna show you
Burrito land, where the kings will know you
and the bands will blow out for you
Take my hand, take my hand!

Hot burrito, hot hot love
Hot burrito tastes like God's love
Hot burrito, hot hot spice
Take a bite and you'll be in the vice, yeah!
Take a bite and you will feel so nice, yeah!
Take a bite and you'll be seeing Christ, yeah!
Take a bite it's made with parboiled...


...riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice!

Hot burrito, hot hot love (x6)
Hot burrito, I think I love you.

The Moment of Automotive Truth

Today's the day my car's going into a Ford dealership to see if they can track down why the computer is not recording any emissions data. Will they find what's wrong? If so, what will it be? How much will it cost? I will likely find these things out as the day unfolds, so read and bear witness to my car's moment of truth:

8:08am - They called to inform me that they're going to approach this as they would an engine light problem: by "pulling the codes" from the computer. This should run me "ninety four, ninety five". Currency or units left unspecified. Notes: Intentionally?

10:03am - I haven't heard back yet. Growing nervous. What's labor/hr? Problem is likely to be either something simple, or something complex and hard to track down. As time passes, I'm suspecting and fearing the latter.

1:31pm - I hope my car is faring better than my nerves. At least the weather is beautiful, so the walk home won't be so bad.

1:56pm - A Call! They had the same problem. They took it on a road test. It came back passing emissions. I have my emissions sticker. Don't know why it wasn't reading before. $105.82

9:36pm - It's good to have my car back. I'll have to go Saturday to pick my inspection sticker up, and hopefully close the book on this stupid chapter of what's supposed to be a fine summer.

I'm Sleepy, So Blog Post Will Be the Title of this Blog Post

It's freaking hot out. I spent the weekend at D.M.H's place, which thankfully has air conditioning. Saturday I took my car in to Meineke for an emissions recheck. I'd driven 702 miles since my last visit two weeks ago, so I crossed my fingers hoping the computers had gathered enough data.

A couple hours later I got a call. It hadn't. It still read as unable to provide emissions data. I've got an appointment to take it into a Ford dealership on Wednesday, which will be a pain to work out. Plus, god knows how much this will cost.

The rest of Saturday after that was fun, as we threw a surprise party for the D.M.H.'s roommate. Lots of fun and food and drink.

Today I took a ride back home. No Slim Jim this weekend, so my bathroom's in the same condition. Last Monday he was on his way when his serpentine belt broke. I can only assume more car troubles, though I don't know cause he never got back to me. At least I got the yard mowed, and my plants seem to be doing well.

Digging in the Dirt

Monday I slept in my own bed for the first time in eleven days. The bathroom is an empty shell save for a toilet that drains, but does not flush. The rest of the house is a mix of supplies, tools, and my own displaced clutter. The only room left untouched is my bedroom, which feels like a sanctuary away from craziness. Yesterday I spent a couple hours replacing the dryer belt, which broke a week ago. If I thought it would have been difficult, I be surprised at how easy it was. Instead, I thought it would be easy, so of course it kicked my ass.

Last Friday the girlfriend and I took a trip to her home for the holiday weekend. It was nice to see her family again. Actually, it was more than nice. The Mistress showed me about the leavings of her past, and there's little I revere more than our personal childhood mythologies. She also continued in her lessons on how to shoot an SLR camera. Like, you know, a real film camera. I had a blast, and I can't wait to get the pictures back.

We got in late Monday night, and I had taken Tuesday off so I could get my car inspected at the place around the corner from D.M.H.'s house. I knew the tires were iffy, but I was hoping that they might pass and I would have a bit of time to shop around for a new set of skins. If they didn't, I figured it'd be a "hey, go buy some tire and bring it back to get your sticker." Instead I got "you failed on tires, and we couldn't get an emissions reading because the computer says there's not enough data. You'll have to drive the car around for a while until it resets. When you bring it back we'll have to re-inspect the car. That'll be $90."

I had my Monday all planned. I would drop the car off, then enjoy a quiet day to sit and write. A day with nothing going on and no one around. A day unlike any I've had in longer than I can remember. Instead, I figured I'd better try to get my car legal, so I ended up at Wal-Mart, where the cheapest tires were $70. For $75 they had some discounted performance tires, so I went with those. Two hours in Wal-Mart, then Three in the Meineke up the street to get an alignment and another inspection. At least inspection and emissions only ran you $50 there. At one point the guy working on my car came in with a concerned look, the kind you don't want your mechanic to have, and asked me if I just got my car inspected recently. I told him my story up to this point, and he said they should have explained to me that I have 30 days to come back and get my emissions re-checked free of charge. The first place didn't tell me this, even though I explained that I moved from a county where emissions checks aren't required, so I therefore didn't know how things worked. Assholes.

My choice at that point was to drive around and bring the car back on Saturday, hoping the computer gathered enough data, or keep driving it after the inspection ran out to give it more time. I chose for the latter, not wanting to waste any more money. I've never been pulled over, and I don't intend to start now. I'll see if I can get in this Saturday or Monday, and until then, cross my fingers. I will cross them also in the hope that my car's computer's got all the emissions data it needs, and that I don't need to take my car to Ford to have the computer diagnosed at a presumably high cost. Or, that my car fails emissions, which would also suck tons.

Somewhere in there my upstairs computer, the one do all my writing and audio stuff on, crashed. Could not find the operating system. This means hard drive difficulties. I've rescued my writing, but one hard drive is down permanently and the other still won't boot. Props go to my Linux booting iMac for being able to grab my writing from my crippled Linux hard drive, albeit at a turtle's pace.

I feel I've lost the past two weeks. It's exhausting, and I'm overwhelmed. On the exciting side, mom gave me some flowers, three pepper plants, and a tomato plant. I put them in the ground Monday, and it was kind of crazy. I didn't expect to have such a powerful experience, and I still don't understand it, but there was something about seeing all the critters, all the roots, the rusted bolts and pieces of glass hidden buried and forgotten half a foot below my yard that made me feel connected to this place in a way I haven't known. Every morning and afternoon on my way in and out I stop and check on my plants, more excited than I should be.