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thewayneFirst, the car strangeness. The transmission seems OK, so crossable body parts crossed.
I listen to LOTS of podcasts when driving, sometimes lots of music. Depends on the mood. Yesterday, I was working through my short backlog of Intelligence Squared US podcasts through my car stereo when suddenly the sound died. Initially I thought maybe the podcast had been poorly produced and the audio had dropped from the recording. Nope, car battery had died! And this battery was about a year old! If I lived in Phoenix full-time, I might have accepted it as a dead battery, but not up here. I had been planning on finishing up and leaving soon, but that was definitely out of the question. Fortunately, after letting the car sit for another half an hour or so it started up.
I think the thing that killed it was that I forgot to turn the headlights off and the key was in the accessory position. I normally run with the headlights on all the time, so I'll have to be a little more mindful of that. Still, I'll get the battery and alternator tested today, just in case.
I've been working on clearing out the storage locker to eliminate $45 from our monthly expenses, and to just get rid of a bunch of crap and a lot of books that I have no interest in reading again. And I found two little treasures: Harvard Lampoon's Bored of the Rings, and National Lampoon's Doon. I have to admit that I carefully cut out the very first page inside the cover of Bored of the Rings: it had a scene that does not appear in the book that was sort of a bodice ripper of a dark elf seducing Frodo, and I was afraid that my parents might throw it away if they saw that page.
I wonder when I bought it? First publication date is 1969, but I know I didn't get it when I was in the second grade. Still, mid '70s? Must've been something like that.
If I can work on my storage locker for a couple of hours daily, I think I can finish clearing it in 2-3 weeks. Lots of stuff to throw out, lots of books and stuff to take down to Alamogordo to a thrift shop, and then other stuff to bring up to the house. The thrift shop is only open until 3:00, so usually it's work on locker, then next day go to thrift shop to drop stuff off, then work on locker.
Then I have address our "library" in our house in order to clear out the storage pod in our front yard that we had to get after The Great Tree Incident of 2012. Once I can get rid of that, aside from saving another $65 a month, I can get our handyman up here and we can clear some scrub oak from our back yard which I suspect may be harboring a tick colony: we found one on our poodle Dante a couple of days ago. But I have a feeling that, while I might be able to clear the pod before the snow starts this year, the scrub oak won't get touched before next spring. Maybe I can get an exterminator up here in October to spray it down before the snow starts, but they're going to need a long hose.
I listen to LOTS of podcasts when driving, sometimes lots of music. Depends on the mood. Yesterday, I was working through my short backlog of Intelligence Squared US podcasts through my car stereo when suddenly the sound died. Initially I thought maybe the podcast had been poorly produced and the audio had dropped from the recording. Nope, car battery had died! And this battery was about a year old! If I lived in Phoenix full-time, I might have accepted it as a dead battery, but not up here. I had been planning on finishing up and leaving soon, but that was definitely out of the question. Fortunately, after letting the car sit for another half an hour or so it started up.
I think the thing that killed it was that I forgot to turn the headlights off and the key was in the accessory position. I normally run with the headlights on all the time, so I'll have to be a little more mindful of that. Still, I'll get the battery and alternator tested today, just in case.
I've been working on clearing out the storage locker to eliminate $45 from our monthly expenses, and to just get rid of a bunch of crap and a lot of books that I have no interest in reading again. And I found two little treasures: Harvard Lampoon's Bored of the Rings, and National Lampoon's Doon. I have to admit that I carefully cut out the very first page inside the cover of Bored of the Rings: it had a scene that does not appear in the book that was sort of a bodice ripper of a dark elf seducing Frodo, and I was afraid that my parents might throw it away if they saw that page.
I wonder when I bought it? First publication date is 1969, but I know I didn't get it when I was in the second grade. Still, mid '70s? Must've been something like that.
If I can work on my storage locker for a couple of hours daily, I think I can finish clearing it in 2-3 weeks. Lots of stuff to throw out, lots of books and stuff to take down to Alamogordo to a thrift shop, and then other stuff to bring up to the house. The thrift shop is only open until 3:00, so usually it's work on locker, then next day go to thrift shop to drop stuff off, then work on locker.
Then I have address our "library" in our house in order to clear out the storage pod in our front yard that we had to get after The Great Tree Incident of 2012. Once I can get rid of that, aside from saving another $65 a month, I can get our handyman up here and we can clear some scrub oak from our back yard which I suspect may be harboring a tick colony: we found one on our poodle Dante a couple of days ago. But I have a feeling that, while I might be able to clear the pod before the snow starts this year, the scrub oak won't get touched before next spring. Maybe I can get an exterminator up here in October to spray it down before the snow starts, but they're going to need a long hose.
