Category: Things with Motors

One feels better after a drive

There are certain activities that almost always make me feel better, and I suppose it’s part of my conditioning, since from the time I was quite small convertibles were part of life.  So a long drive, in the luscious dusk of Vancouver in July, was just the ticket; also, more pragmatically, I was supposed to check that the dash lights were working.  I also enjoy being able to help people, and knowing that I was going to reduce Keith’s ride into town by about an hour and a half helped.

Keith was full of feels and family news. He didn’t have his jacket so I reluctantly rolled up the window, and we enjoyed a simply wonderful ride home in the MR2; and Jeff’s car collected two compliments while I was out.  I ripped BC Ferries off for four dollars as I flatly refused to pay for parking.  (Not getting the job at the parking lot machine company has made me even more grumpy about paying for parking.  I checked for drones; there being none, I just sat there in the lot.)

One of my aliens (Michel, since mOm will want to know) just said, “I wish your mouth was shorter and your fuse was longer.”   Another character just accused another of practicing lemonade stand feminism.  He he.

I have coffee, I have arrowroot biscuits, and a book and a half to finish.  Better get back to it.

As promised (it’s a 50’s musical patter song) 5 of 50

 

I’m retired

Go around me

I’m retired

I don’t care (spoken like Tommy Lee Jones in The Fugitive)

You seem so troubled

By my slowness

In your anxiety to get from here to there

 

You won’t take my advice

but driving slow is nice

I get to see the swans and geese and deer

Always there are more o’ ya

In the City of Victoria

What prompted you to move from there to here?

Oh, you moved cause you hate snow?

And I hear you fine although

Somebody should have warned you that the pace of life is slow

I’m retired, go around me

Get off my bumper, please don’t pound me

Of all the drivers, yes, you found me!

I’m retired, go around me.

 

Our family understands

That we are now the grands

Who taxi the grandchildren when they’re here

spoken overtop (and the great grandchildren…)

And driving slow is great

And we are never late

Your hurry's no concern of mine I fear.

We stop for farm fresh eggs

so kids can stretch their legs

And gramma wants to buy more crap to put in garden sheds

I’m retired, go around me

Get off my bumper, please don’t pound me

Of all the drivers, yes, you found me!

I’m retired, go around me.

 

 

Why you shouldn’t buy a Hummer

It just seems like the end of civilization to me.

2.2 hours.

Civilian tilt rotor aircraft?  All I can think of is the maintenance.

Keith came by yesterday and pumped up my tires and did a pre flight check on my bicycle.  I am now ready to do a shop via bicycle.

I’ve gotten back into practicing every day, which means that every once in a while I fondle my callouses.  We’ve booked another musical evening at Paul’s for the 17th of April. SO looking forward to it.  Sue and Brian can’t come (already got some answers back, waa.)

Crappy maintenance and poor planning on the part of SFU crash the hopes of single women trying to get a career together.

They put filk music in quotes and rilly rilly pissed me off. A lot about this article is if not wrong, then wrongheaded.

Nothing much to report

Katie came over yesterday; we went for a short walk and I gave her the last half of the banana bread, not that it would have survived until Jeff got here anyway. I read this article to her. We had a good talk about it.

I tried writing this morning but I’m too distracted and ‘off’. I’m also really feeling my back,

I found out there’s a company that will pick up take out and bring it to you, so maybe the next time Jeff and I have a craving for Switzerland Chicken we can get it that way. They’re also licenced to bring beer. Hey, I will be leaving the house today, don’t worry! I’m thinking of walking down to New Westminster and then taking the bus back to spare myself that hill.

Dara, a filk/fb acquaintance, has rewritten some of Yahoo’s code to make the email groups work properly again. This while making an album and renovating her kitchen. Gumption, SHE HAZ IT.

Tony Stewart ran over (accidentally or not) and killed a 20 year old man named Kevin Ward Jr at a racetrack last night. He’s apparently going to race again today, which I think is the height of cluelessness. This show must go on the sponsors are waiting shit has gotta stop. Unless you’re Weird Al Yankovic continuing to tour after his parents died, that was awesome.

I watched the news, and regular tv, last night. When did all commercials become so sexualized? Why is local news so boring? Then I watched something called 16×9 and just wanted to punch out walls for a while. The story was great but I was so mad it ruined my evening, I just ended up going to bed super early. Syngenta is evil!

Explain to me why….

Keystone XL needs to run a pipeline through my city when we’ll be able to make fuel from algae?

This is funny even though the circumstances are not?  (Kingston fire picture).

Sabotaging birth control isn’t already a crime in the US?  It’s certainly a whopping great tort, even if there’s no criminal law on the books….

Anybody is surprised fewer kids are driving?  Between making a conscious decision not to contribute to pollution and the crappy economy, it all makes sense to me.  Both of my kids were well into their 20’s before they even started learning how, whereas I was 17 and wild to have my license.

Anybody wants to argue about what colour Santa is (when he’s an imaginary figure largely promoted by the Coca-Cola company) Link goes to retro Afro American Christmas cards, some of which are the ‘essence’ of charming.

When I no longer have a car, I can finally get a decal which adequately represents my tribble of a cat?

Science news keeps saying that a new species has been ‘discovered’ when the indigenous population knew they were there the whole time?  This is really annoying; saying it’s received a Latin name is different than “New Discovery.”

I didn’t know that Diana Cooper once referred to Winston Churchill as looking like the good little pig who built his house of bricks?

This is even a thing?  (Fundraiser to make a headset that reads dog thoughts which sounds like BS as yet).

Losing three traffic wardens causes chaos in Aberystwyth? It reads like an Onion article.

More judges don’t use their hearts as well as their brains in sentencing?

I didn’t start watching Call the Midwife until yesterday?

 

Ziva’s gone

Well, the experiment is over.  I am not any less broke, but I imagine I’ll smile when I get my refund later today.

As I sold her I said, “This is probably the last car I’ll ever own.”  It’s also the only car I’ll ever own; the Toyota my folks gave me in the lat eighties Paul put in his own name (and did I screech about that, as I recollect).

Church was rather thin gruel yesterday.  I know that the Oneness people have views compatible with some UU’s but I find their theology to be … well… mushy.  My theology starts with science and ends with all the stuff we don’t know.  God can go live in that part of the human world.  All the stuff we know exists that we can’t prove, like goodness and love. We are all connected and blessings are nice but I want to do something about the disconnects and fight racism.

And in selling Ziva, become a better environmentalist, since she’s going to get her oil leaks fixed, finally.  They’ll have to pull the engine.

I have an unpleasant series of phone calls in front of me today, but you can’t have everything.

Fist bumps for health!

Apparently fist bumps are better epidemiologically.

Ziva is still unsold.  I will light a candle in church today.

Oh noes!  New show we’re watching is Burn Notice.  It’s like The Finder met MacGyver met a star who actually does have two black belts!  Bruce Campbell as the awesome buddy!  Gabrielle Anwar as the awesome crazy IRA chica! Jeffrey Donovan as a guy who can have crazy eyes and puppy dog eyes in a split second!  And they tell you how to make BOMBS IN EVERY EPISODE.  Happy.  Best of all they’ve aired the last episode, so we can watch the whole thing.

I didn’t go for a walk yesterday but I exercised HARD. My shoulder is still sore this morning.

 

 

 

The $500 question

The responses I’ve gotten to the ads for Ziva are a panoply of:

  • people who don’t understand that a GT is a standard vehicle (yes, I changed the ad)
  • people who think that when I’m asking $500, they can show up with $180 cash, which is less than the government of BC will give me for it, and I’ll think they are doing me a favour
  • men using their girlfriends’ email addresses
  • people who think that I both know AND care exactly ‘what’s wrong’ with the car and how MUCH it will cost to fix and WHO GET UPSET when I do not share this info
  • people who do not know how to assemble anything resembling a coherent sentence or question
  • people who mock me for trying to sell a standard vehicle (yes, I know)
  • cheapskates, assholes, dingbats and users.

Honestly.  NOT IMPRESSED.

On the cafe front, some guy with a heavy accent keeps calling and asking detailed questions about the shop WHICH I CAN’T ANSWER BECAUSE I AM NOT THE LANDLORD.  I keep telling him to call Francis, and dood keeps calling me WHILE HE IS ON THE SKYTRAIN WITH THE LINE CUTTING OUT AND BACKGROUND NOISE LIKE CRAZY.  He keeps calling back STILL ON THE SKYTRAIN asking CAN I HEAR HIM NOW?  I hung up on him the last time because the line went all wibbly and I couldn’t hear a ****ING thing.

It’s not all bad. Katie has another interview today and she walked down with me to get my copy of the registration for the car, which I had mislaid.  And I’ll get a big whack of money back from ICBC for the refund on the insurance, which I am looking forward to.

Still loving Foyle’s War, mOm and pOp you should definitely watch it.

Now I have to go fill out some forms while I’m waiting for some guy to show up and buy the car.

Beautiful but windy

Katie’s all perky because various job interviews are going well. I am very happy about this and hope she finds work remunerative and suitable to her one goal right now, which is to be back in her own apartment.  I must say, it will be a cold day in hell before she supports another man.  Or so she says, I hope she carries through.

Foyle’s War on Netflix is a wonderful show, Jeff and I are very much enjoying it. No swearing, decorous violence, great dialogue, sweet vehicles, and history all wrapped up nicely with the superlative Michael Kitchen at the helm.  He is GORGEOUS but in a very low key Oh So English way.

Streptococcus salivarus, I salute you!  It is the probiotic that turned my bad into glad, digestion wise.

Mouse traps have yielded nothing; we are moving on to sticky traps today, damnit.

Practiced 45 minutes today.

Yesterday was gorgeous but WINDY.  As I contemplate the lawn, which has now grown tall and fallen over, I keep hoping the Goat Man will pass by.  But he never does.

Ziva’s in Craigslist, priced for quick sale.

Sad day

Kira died yesterday.  She had quit eating and drinking and suffered convulsions.  She is now resting with Bounce and Gizmo and Zeek! her adoptive brother in the back yard.

I have new glasses. They look great.  I’ll be getting another pair next week.

Jeff and I are about to take off to see Pacific Rim.  A full report later.

 

My car is finally being worked on.

I am feeling very low in spirits – my shoulder hurts a lot and I think it isn’t healing right, although I won’t know until tomorrow.

 

I am still working on Midnite Moving though.

One thing and another

Keith and Paul were in the shop today, which was delightful and brief.  I owe Keith money for the beer he picked up last night.  I suppose it being a long weekend and me going to a party tonight (first one in AGESSSS) I should purchase more.  Ziva died – vacuum leaks, more of them, rad problems, sensor and indication problems.  No can get fixed until Tuesday and candidly I am doubting even then.  Sue is going to give me the name of her auto broker.  Ziva has broken my heart and my wallet long enough, I could have bought two decent cars for what I’ve spent on repairs.  Wayne picked up the 50 biscotti I baked for the Hyack Swim Meet volunteers.  I included promo!  This is an improvement.  Also, we are in the flyer for the event, in two places, so instead of spending a hundred bucks on promo I made cookies.  I like dat.  Katie is going on a date tonight and if I say so much as ONE MORE WORD on the subject she’s gonna jam that broomstick up my nose.  Still haven’t mailed pOp’s biscotti, but Katie is leaving early today so I am going to ask her if I can escape to the Post Office to get it mailed off before she goes.  All the fridges are behaving well.  Katie spilled salt two days running and was yelling v. bad swearz, you know, pin a nun to a wall shit. Split pea with ham soup today.  I need to print more business cards. Started watching The Hour with Ben Whishaw (rowr!), Dominic West (McNulty from the Wire) and the exquisite Romola Garai as Bel Rowley.  It’s a Beeb miniseries set in 1956 Britain and everything about it is wonderful.  Abi Morgan wrote the script, which is uniformly excellent and doesn’t make the assumption that viewers are fecking idiots.  We’re up to episode 8 in Band of Brothers.  Also started watching Aaron McGruder’s Boondocks, which is SO TRANSGRESSIVE.  Jeff and I were killing ourselves laughing.  It is a trip to watch black people commenting about white people (and each other) without having to make concessions to hurting anybody’s feelings.  The grandfather is hilarious.  McGruder is a righteous rude boy and anybody who can call Condoleeza Rice a mass murderer to her face is my kinda guy (John is giving me the spectral thumbs up, I can feel it). My news feed informs me that Rob Ford (Mayor of TO) smokes crack.  Now many times in my life I have wanted to accuse any number of political figures of smoking crack, but jeezly hell my darlings, I wasn’t expecting there to be VIDEO.  The roast beef sandwiches have two new fans.  One of them is a climate change denialist and the other is a very entertaining semi-retired gent who put me onto the idea of starting up a cooperative retirement/nursing home.  I think it’s a fan-fucking-tastic idea.

Katie’s taking the day off

I am alone in the shop, sitting up front and wondering where the heck the sun went to.

Some ratfucker called and said that the woman who used to own this place ran a brothel out of here. Uh, no, she didn’t.  She had customers drop by late to pick up arepas.  I suppose it’s POSSIBLE that a devout Jehovah’s Witness could sell poon on the side, but given my interactions with her, I would say that possibility is what you might call out by Neptune remote.  I so wanted to tell the guy that unless he paid for it himself he should shut up.  Instead I left my dreadful Moral Qualms aside and ran through the menu and invited him to be a customer.  Go me.

Scammer came in yesterday and I sent him on his way with a “You let me know when you come up with $34 dollars to get that shipment of maple syrup out of hock!  I just want you to know that I can’t give you money for something I can’t see or taste.”  He seemed very downcast, and I’m sorry, but I would at least shave, shower, change my clothes and pare my nails before I tried something like that.  The hell is wrong with people, I dunno….

Bought insurance for Ziva and promptly lost the tags.  Go me.  Now to file a police report.

I put up a sign advertising Maple Bacon Muffins and just as fast took it down, as one of our regulars cleaned us out of the day-olds.  He said, “I love you guys’ muffins and soups!”  This is especially gratifying because he used to be a hotel chef (he fixes bikes now, talk about yer right livelihood) and he sure knows from food.

Hey pOp everytime I try to get your biscotti off to you something else screws up in my car or I can’t find an appropriate box.  Promise I’ll get it out before the end of the week.

And in other news Jeff and I are almost through Third Watch.  My fave character is still Sully, but Bosco and Yokas are running neck and neck for second.  Jeff and Katie and I have started a rewatch of the Wire when we’re in the same place at the same time.

 

 

 

 

Ziva still be in the shop

So I’m riding my bike everywhere, including to and from work. I’m actually enjoying it and most of the riding is in subdivisions so there isn’t much traffic to deal with.  I even did a shop at SaveOn with the bike!

Today I have an extremely long list and NO energy to deal with it.  Also Beacon stuff keeps nibbling at me.  “Nibbled to death, nibbled to death by mice” thank you Nate Bucklin.