Silence

The Story of Car continues: I could not drive to day 2 of the Freak House Foo because Car would not start. It has never done this before. In fact, I have never seen any car fail to start in this particular way: the electrical system seems to be generally operational, with the dashboard lighting up and the seat-belt chimer chiming and the radio and fan starting up, but the engine makes not a single noise. Dead silence, without even a click or a cough. The headlights work, so it doesn't seem like a weak battery. Noah, who knows more about cars than me (which is to say, he knows some things about cars) poked at the spark plug connectors, but the problem seems even more fundamental then that.

I have decided to try it again when the weather is a little drier, if only to see if I can at least drive the thing to a garage instead of having it towed. I'm hopeful because I was driving the silly thing around this morning and it was chipper as ever, and I have had experience with Toyota engines that act poorly in wet weather, when they are not feeling well. (My previous car -- which I had bought used -- was untrustworthy on soggy days, until I bought it a tune-up. I could no longer ignore its problem once the engine started cutting out while going up a hill or taking a left turn across a highway or what have you. Here are things that I'd rather avoid, with Car.)

Locals are free to recommend a garage they like; I hear it said that the one up behind the high school is pretty good. They gave me my state inspection last year and they didn't seem insane or anything, so that's where I'll go if I don't hear any insistence elsewise.

Sigh. Yeah, I know: good timing. Like some variant of the joke about things breaking as soon as the warranty runs out. Yes, actually, it did occur to me to wonder if, uh, gee, is it too late to change my mind about not giving it back to Toyota? But the answer to that its probably yes, along several axes.

At least I can be thankful that my life is situated so that this is an inconvenience and, at worst, a bummer, but not something worth obsessing over, since I'll be able to pay for what needs paying for (unless it's something truly horrifying) and I can live without the car for as long as it takes.

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FWIW, Cthulhia gave me a ride to the foo, and I had some more hours of fun there, but decided to take the bus back home around 11, before the buses went to beddie-byes. I really don't like being in a distant place and not have control over my ability to leave. Makes me all itchy, even if I can't foresee any reason I'd want to leave. More practical reason: I feel like I have lots of ICCB-related catchup to do, and want to put some of the weekend into that.

Yes, it's 4:30 a.m. and I'm just now getting sleepy. Stupid, stupid Iron Dragon. It's interesting. Uh-huh. Good night.

Bed

The air mattress I've been using as a bed sprang a leak a few days ago. While I can use scotch tape and a business card in such as way as to patch it so that it no longer goes sssssss as soon as I reinflate the mattress, I still inevitably wake up flat against the hardwood a few hours later. Somewhere I have the official patch kit for it, but I can't bring myself to look for it.

Upon waking up this morning I told myself that it's time to buy a bed. I have no reason not to do so now; I can claim neither poverty nor lack of space as reasons to continue to practice of floor-crashing. Beds are hard to move, is really the only thing. But maybe if I don't think about moving, I'll actually live here for more than eight months or whatever.