Dream Propulsion Engineer

My pie is baking. That means that it's time for silly. Since I don't get to eat the pie until tomorrow.

( cut for memery )

I think I may go to the Big Island Rendezvous on Friday evening so I don't have to drive down on Saturday. tmancer, if you have room, could I share your tent with you on Friday night?

Then Sunday is Canadian Thanksgiving! w00t!

Mmm... Pie...

Also, you (in MN) should all go see In the Shadow of the Moon at the Lagoon. It's a documentary about the Apollo program, with lots of really fantastic footage that you probably haven't seen before, and lots of interviews with Apollo astronauts. Michael Collins in particular is a laugh riot. It ends this Thursday (today, for most of you reading this), and you should drop whatever stupid Thursday plans you had and go see this instead. Face it- a Saturn V rocket just doesn't have the same effect if you watch it on your TV. And! World Space Week begins tomorrow, the 50th anniversary of the launch of Sputnik. 50 fucking years. It's no wonder nobody seems to care anymore.

Seriously. It's a really amazing thing, space exploration. Go remind yourself of that. It is reassuring to see the awesome things that a bunch of monkeys can do, in the midst of everything less noble.

the hedge abides.

So, when I take my car in to be welded back together, the repair is supposed to last more than a week, right? Because a drive to S'dy and $54 isn't bad for a car repair... unless you have to do it every five days.

Grr.

the hedge abides.

Sputnik's got an appointment at the exhaust place in Schenectady on Wednesday. I've decided to go with the generic fix, because I'm not loaded. And because $1300 in parts is dumb, even if you are loaded. So I'll need new catalytic converters for sure, and I'll know soonish whether the current custom pipes can be reused. Then they do a bunch of welding and I will have my newly-frankensteined car back. Exciting!

Mary and Dan called me back last night after they got back from CA for my cousin's wedding. It's nice to talk to them, even if Dan's going to go canoeing without me and Mary thinks that my car is stupid.

Also had a good zombie-jesus weekend, complete with spring weather, dyed eggs, candy hidden in nests for us to find and the cats to bat under the sofa. We also have a List. The List. Now research will be done, jobs will be sought, and there will be much debating (*deadpans* yaaaay).

So even though it's just words on paper, I feel a lot better.

the hedge abides.

Damn you people. My sleep schedule is totally fine. It's all y'all and your waking up early that's bonkers.

Actually, I wouldn't have any problem with waking up early... If only there were about 6 more hours between 4 am and 6 am.

I hate everything.

And I can't find my MP3 player, which is going to make the walk to work tomorrow especially tedious. Why am I walking? Because my car is broken. Should I be walking anyway? Yes. Stop giving me that look. I hate walking.

Albany seems to be a hotbed of crappy things happening. I'm only saying this because I wouldn't have to worry about walking to work without music if only someone here hadn't stolen my bike last year. Well, that's not true, I'd probably be saying that anyway.

Why does Albany suck so much? Why am I not tired? Why do I even bother?

the hedge abides.

So, having slain the giantess who killed her father, Sputnik's family was avenged.

That's how it *should* end, anyway.

I got a call from the mechanic just as I was walking out the door today- the tensioner had broken, which is what caused the timing belt to loosen. Amazingly enough, the engine itself is fine. She should be all fixed up by tomorrow.

Now, I just need $500 more dollars. By tomorrow. Without resorting to selling Mya on ebay.

Pants.

In other confusing news, I seem to have two extra boxes of Thin Mints. How? I don't get it. I mean, not that Thin Mints are difficult to get rid of, if it comes to that, but they *should* belong to someone.

In other hilarious news, Evelyn Waugh is funny.

...Paul, firmly grasping the walking stick, faced his form.
"Listen," he said. "I don't care a damn what any of you are called, but if there's another word from anyone I shall keep you all in this afternoon."
"You can't keep me in," said Clutterbuck; "I'm going for a walk with Captain Grimes."
"Then I shall very nearly kill you with this stick. Meanwhile you will all write an essay on 'Self-indulgence.' There will be a prize of half a crown for the longest essay, irrespective of any possible merit."

(Decline and Fall, Penguin Books Ltd, New York. 1978.)

the hedge abides.

My plans for this weekend were simple: drive down to Northampton on Saturday, meet up with Hillary and Laura, putz around Noho enjoying ourselves until Monday, drive back to Albany. By Saturday afternoon, it was becoming rapildy apparent that these plans were nothing but wishful thinking. Let's begin at the beginning, shall we?

I wanted to get my oil changed before I left, because the oil has been higher than it should be since I bought the car. I've put about 2k miles on since I bought it, so I figured I might as well, but that it wasn't absolutely necessary. I bought oil myself, and washer fluid while I was at it. I meant to put the washer fluid in myself, but the hood latch is doing something weird where the forward latch pops out only when you're pulling the inside latch, then retracts. Opening the hood is now a two-person job. I figured out later that I could pry it out, but that was later. So I didn't get to look at the engine compartment before leaving.

I took it to the Valvoline across the street and got in line for an oil change. Two essays in Mapping the World of Harry Potter later, they come out and tell me that they can't change my oil because they can't get the plug out. They could put more torque on it, but they'd risk cracking it which would make them liable. You'll have to take it to a mechanic, they say. So I drive off, noticing that they've at least refilled my windshield washer fluid (albeit not with the stuff I'd just bought).

At this point, my mechanic is closed and I'm running behind anyway, so I get on 90 and head to Noho. Everything is fine for the first 45 minutes. Then my coolant light comes on as I accelerate away from the first set of MA tollbooths. The Lee travel plaza is barely 5 miles away, and my engine temp is actually only halfway up the gauge, so I slow down and turn gadgets off. She's running warm, but not poorly at all. We make it to the travel plaza, and the engine temp moniter is still just a little over halfway, so I let her sit while I manage to pry the forward latch for the hood out of its little hidey-hole and open the hood. The coolant container is totally empty. (first question: how did the oil change people refill my washer fluid and not notice that the coolant tank was bone dry? they're right next to each other.) As my manual has no recommendations for coolant other than that I should get it from my Audi dealer, I go inside and buy a bottle of the brand that I recognized (there were only two options, anyway), and a gallon of water. I sit around and let the engine cool down some more, then fill the tank with a 1:1 mix of coolant:water, as indicated on the bottle. I let it sit some more as I clean up and get something to eat. She runs a little rough when I start her up again, but calms down some as I drive towards the on ramp, so I figure she'll keep getting better as the coolant works its way through the system. Indeed, by about the Lee exit a couple miles down the road, she's either running fine or I've totally gotten used to it.

But a couple miles past the Lee exit, the engine just stops firing. No weird noise, no lights come on, just a totally unresponsive engine. I pull off to the breakdown lane, and open the hood. The coolant tank is steaming a little and the level is lower than I filled it to, but not exactly empty. The liquid seems darker than the bright orange stuff that I put in, but the sun is setting by now and it's begun to rain. The engine temp hadn't been rising, so I don't know that the coolant is to blame at all.

A Masspike safety vehicle pulls up and offers to call a tow. I say that I want to give it a chance to cool down first, and he gives me the number to call and drives off. I let her sit a bit, but when I try to start her again, the engine cranks but doesn't fire. The electrics are fine, I've got a half a tank of gas, but no spark. I call a tow truck and wait.

Fortunately, I'm still close to the Lee exit. Unfortunately, that's still a $75 tow right there. They're closed for the night, but will be open Monday morning. They offer to look at it on Monday to try to diagnose it, then decide where to go from there. I try calling Carolyn, but she doesn't pick up. I call Mya, who is just leaving work, but whose car won't even make it to Lee, much less back. She'll try if I can't find anyone else, I know, but neither of us really wants that. Crystal and Steve would both pick me up on a moment's notice, but they're both out of town. I call Rachael, who is at the lab. She answers the phone "hey, bitch!," but when I ask if she knows where Carolyn is and explain my situation she revises her schedule and says she'll go home right away because she thinks that Carolyn is probably napping. She does, and she was right, and Carolyn picks me up in Lee a little over an hour later. A little running around, but at least that worked. Carolyn, by the way, is an absolute godsend.

So today the towing company takes a look at it, says the battery dead, so they charged it, but the engine still turns over but doesn't fire. Unfortunately, their computer is too new for my car, and can't check it out that way. They swear up and down that the fuel pump is still pumping, though, which is what my mechanic in Albany said it's most likely to be. They can't do diddly-squat there, so they're towing it the 50 miles up to Albany tomorrow morning, where my mechanics won't get a chance to look at it until Thursday, they say.

I'm getting out of Lee with about $300 in charges. I don't know how much it'll be in Albany, but I only have about another $100 to work with, and that's all my money until the 25th, most of which needs to go to rent and insurance and bills. And it means that I can't buy my light box this month, either. Let's see, I was told to get that back in, what, October? I guess the plus side is that at least this happened in a month that I was going to have a little extra money, but since that "extra money" was all going to go for medical necessities and paying my dad back, it hardly feels like a plus side. I know that getting a car was setting myself up for these kinds of problems, but that doesn't make it any less frustrating. It also doesn't make it any easier to live without a car in Albany; the weather finally turned January-cold, I have a Girl Scout meeting this week, and I'm supposed to be starting a biochem class in Troy on Wednesday.

What a shitty weekend.

the hedge abides.

Hey, yeah, P.S. I bought that car. The audi. Yeah, the moose car. She's the red menace, so I've named her Sputnik. And she's fuuuun to drive. Even when I stall out in front of school busses.

So now I just need to get that right reverse light to work, and take her in for inspection. Which is technically supposed to be done by Sunday, but I've been out of town too much. I just hope that the tires pass inspection. Maybe they'll only look at the L rear tire... That one is fine. I'm just hoping to be able to hold off on buying new tires until spring; I'll put the snow tires on in November, and buy a new set of three-seasons come spring. *fingers crossed*

Today is for camping. Connecticut ho!

the hedge abides.