Well, that was fun. We were running errands around town, and everything was going fine. We stopped at one place and both of us went in, and then when we got back in the car it balked at starting but finally relented.

At the next stop, only A had to go in, so I stayed in the car and left it running. After a while I thought “it’s not too hot, I shouldn’t let it idle,” and I turned it off. When A came back out, I went to start it…and got nothing. We called AAA and got an estimate of 90 minutes, so we put up the sunshade and waited. I got the idea to try the engine again, and it tried to start. So a little while later I tried again - and it started!

We drove to A’s parents’ house and unloaded some stuff - without turning off the car - and then I drove to Saturn while A followed in her parents’ car. Mine won’t be seen until Monday morning, unfortunately, but this time they better replace the starter.

• Today I am down to 161 pounds. I started 2006 at 187.5 pounds. That’s progress, but I still have a while to go.
• I now know three people who have the Sidekick 3. I am not one of them, and I only ever see one in person but he doesn’t usually have his with him then. I don’t think I’ll be wanting one anytime soon.
• I decided to put away my iPod until the new battery and/or the AC adapter arrive. I was going to try updating the firmware because that sometimes helps with battery life, but I didn’t remember that you have to plug it into the wall to complete the firmware update. So it’s a brick till I get the AC adapter, I guess…argh!
• It is so frustrating not to pick at my new tattoo. I want to poke it and move it around and play with it. I think if I got another design on me I would want an ILY handshape.
• I decided to revamp the way skins are presented on my site. Instead of having a skin listing in the sidebar, I now have a skin selection page complete with screenshots. I also put up a single AdBrite ad; so far I have earned 53 cents from it but that’s just from network ads - I don’t think anybody will actually buy an ad on my site. But hey, 53 cents is more than I ever got from AdSense. I don’t like advertising in general, so I may get rid of it eventually, but we’ll see.
• My car was reluctant to start Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning, so I took it in last night. It had also been balky about changing gears (it’s an automatic) but that apparently isn’t the transmission or anything else - they said it was just running the A/C that changes the load on the engine. They said the starter might be going bad but it would have been $350 so I said I would wait, and the guy admitted that was actually fine. Turns out I was overdue for my inspection (oops) and in order to pass I needed two new tires. Tires plus inspection plus oil change (that was overdue too) totaled about $215, not bad.

It has been an interesting 24 hours. We arrived in NYC at 3:30 yesterday, and parked in what was technically an illegal space until 6pm, but there were so many other cars parked there that we figured we’d be okay. We came back two hours later…and the car was gone. So we found out which impound lot it had been taken to, and how much it would cost to get it back. A then went to the opening event for her perfume festival, and I went to the opening event for the Leather Leadership Conference.

I’d been promised the other terp was on the way, but she never showed up. Two of the deaf guys never came back from “grabbing a bite real quick” but aidan_boi_x was there and I interpreted for him. Fortunately he’s more English than ASL, so my brain wasn’t quite the pile of goo it could have been.

A was waiting for me when I was done, and we walked to the impound lot about a mile away. We paid $185 for the towing - which seems like an awful lot per car - and discovered two $65 tickets on it. The pound attendant told us one would be dismissed, because they’re not supposed to write tickets for the same offense twice. The first ticket was from 4:10pm, and the second was from 5:00, so the second was written before the tow truck arrived from the first ticket. So she told us to fight that one.

We parked the car again - legally this time - and went to bed. I had a hard time falling asleep, because I was worrying about what I would do if I ended up teaching the 9:30am ASL class.

I got back to the hotel this morning - and nobody had heard from the other interpreter. Well, that’s not completely true - she had responded to my email at 1:00am and said she wasn’t due in until the morning anyway and she’d be there. Yeah, whatever. By 9:00 I was seated in the workshop room and people started arriving…but not the other interpreter. So at 9:30 I started the class and did the best I could. Toward the end, a deaf guy came in asking about interpreting services; I said I could do it when I was done with the workshop so he stuck around and helped me answer questions.

When that was done, we went to the session the deaf guy wanted to hear; the other deaf guy in attendance showed up too. It was very interesting, but it was a long 75-minute workshop. After that I got some lunch; I’d meant to bring mine but I wasn’t expecting to be there till lunchtime - or rather I was expecting it, but I was hoping against it.

On my way back in, the coordinator for the event saw me and thanked me profusely. Apparently all the evaluations from my workshop were positive - and I’ve never taught any sort of workshop before! He was very grateful, and I could tell I was saving the day by stepping in to help out even though I hadn’t been asked to. One of the people in my workshop was the coordinator for the contest the other terp holds the title for, and she was “livid” (her words) that the other terp hadn’t shown up. She asked for my card, so I think I’ll be interpreting for that contest too (in Philadelphia), plus with my super-willingness to help out, I should get future gigs from that too. Which means money, yes, but it’s also a point of pride that I stepped in, helped out, and further established myself as reliable.

As for the other terp, who knows. When the coordinator mentioned how great my evaluations were, I asked about the other terp. He said “oh, let’s not even go there…” heh! So I am interpreting another workshop 10 minutes from now, and then probably another after that. A’s perfume events run to 6 or 8:30 (depending on if she goes out for drinks), so I will just relax a bit once this is done. And then I’ll probably be back tomorrow. Fortunately I get to bill for all this extra work!

This was really a misadventure, I guess. Last night I tried to find a cache near my house, but it got dark before I could find it and I had to head home. Someone else found the very same cache today, so I e-mailed and begged for help. He gave me a tip that I figured would really help me out, so I tried to go back today. I tried to drive all the way down the road to where I thought the park entrance was, but it turned out to be blocked off. So I figured I should have been on the next street over, and I drove back around. No good - that was a cul-de-sac that ended before the park. I got out and looked around, but decided it would be too muddy for me to try to make my way into the park. I petted a sweet kitty (who might have been a Maine Coon, sigh) and got back in the car and drove back around to where I had been.

This time I got out and looked for a way around the fence. Climbing through some big bushes on the edge of a creek didn’t look too appealing, so I figured I’d try the other side. Failing that, I tried to get to the bike path I’d used the day before, but there was another fence separating me from it. I figured I’d drive back to where I parked yesterday and just use the same route I did yesterday. As I walked back to my car, a police officer was opening the roadblock (which led to town property) and he went through as I got into my car. Which…didn’t start. It just made a weird drilling noise. As I tried to figure out what was wrong, another police car drove by. My car still didn’t start, and my cell phone didn’t have reception, so I went to the only office (this was an industrial park) that was open and asked to use a phone. The guy handed me his cell phone, and I called home but nobody was there. Just then the first police officer came back out, so I handed the guy his phone and ran to try to flag down the second officer…and he didn’t see me.

So I hiked over to where I had parked yesterday, because I remembered there was at least one garage there. I ended up in an auto body shop begging for help, and fortunately the guy had one of those little portable jumper batteries. His only vehicle, though, was a little scooter - so he gave me a helmet, I climbed on the back, and away we trundled back to my car! He gave me a jump and it started just fine; I tried to offer him $10 but he declined. I came straight home, of course, because it was awfully dark by this point.

Added: Oh yeah, and this was in my sister-in-law’s car. Mine was in the shop today, and it was indeed the muffler bouncing around. A new muffler strap, plus labor, plus lube job, was all under $150. A lot, but not as bad as it usually is.

Health: My health and its insurance continue to be a major pain in the ass. More runaround with Medco and my doctor’s office, but this time the receptionist is planning to put a one-month prescription in the mail to me to hold me over until we get things sorted out. The reason she is mailing it is because she apparently forgot to leave it taped to the door on her way out on Friday, resulting in me driving all the way out there for nothing.

Also, I have to get blood drawn, which I am not keen on because even though I’m not afraid of the needle I still end up passing out most of the time. But I’ve never had my cholesterol tested so I really do need to get the blood drawn. I just hope I can find the damn prescription again.

Car: It’s been making knocking noises since the beginning of the month. I am finally taking it in. It sounds like something is just loose underneath, so hopefully it will be a simple fix, but with my luck it will cost a pretty penny anyway.

GPS: A’s parents gave me a Garmin Legend for my birthday! Unfortunately my laptop didn’t have a serial port, so last night on eBay I purchased a USB-to-serial cable for under $10 including shipping. Hopefully it will actually work. Now I can play around with geocaching, whee! And since the satellites are up in the sky, it actually works in my house, compared to my cell phone, whose transmitter is earthbound and who doesn’t work down in my little valley.

I have vague feelings of being out of control, and my anxiety is a little higher than normal. I don’t like it.

Saturn cars are plastic. Plastic is bouncy. Bouncy is good when you get rear-ended. A couple of months ago I was bumped by someone at a red light near home; it felt very minimal so I hopped out and checked both out bumpers and everything was fine. Just now, though, everything was not fine. It was the same situation - I was stopped at a red light - but she hit me pretty hard. She immediately jumped out and apologized and said “it’s my fault” (which you should never do, even if it was obviously your fault as this was) and offered to exchange insurance info, etc. I saw her hood and one headlight were smashed and I was worried for my car…but the only defect on my plastic bumper was a bit of something that turned out to be a seed pod and not from the accident at all. Because it was dark and windy and cold we just exchanged business cards; she works in my building so if my bumper suddenly falls off I can get in touch with her easily.

I don’t think it will, though. Plastic is bouncy, and bouncy is good.

Okay, my car stuff is all up to date. My experience with the Maryland State Police was less than ideal. First, I was waiting out there for a long time, so I finally called back. Sure enough, the first dispatcher I had spoke with was rushed and hadn’t taken information she was supposed to - like my phone number. The second dispatcher confirmed that someone had gone out looking for me but hadn’t driven down I-270 far enough, so they had turned back. When he finally got there, he was able to yank the part off the car (turns out it is called the “lower air deflector”) and he also asked to see my license. He brought it back to his vehicle and ran it - this was before he messed with my car, so I assume it’s standard procedure - and when he came back to me he asked if that was my car. I told him no, it’s my spouse’s, and he asked to see the registration. I pulled it out and he said “whose car did you say this was?” I said “well, my partner’s.” He got it after that, and said “oh, like your girlfriend’s, your wife’s.” He pointed to the address on the registration and said “you live here?” (He had already handed me back my license.) I said I did, and he thanked me and I was on my way again.

I drove straight to Saturn in Fairfax, where I was told they couldn’t do anything for me today. I thought I was going to have to take tomorrow off to get it fixed, but it turned out we could borrow my in-laws’ car so that was okay. But the guy at Saturn was utterly useless - he was totally non-committal when I asked about whether or not I needed to get this fixed right away. So I was planning to drop it back off tonight, but thanks to comments and e-mails from missakins, kg4yef, and others I was able to determine that this really isn’t particularly vital. I called Saturn and got to speak to the other guy in the service department, who confirmed that it wasn’t really necessary to fix that part at this time of year. It pulls air up into the radiator to help keep the engine temperature down, so I will need to get it fixed by next summer, but he said the chances of anything happening now are slim. Whew!

I took the car to Jiffy Lube for its regular service (this was on my schedule for today all along), and I asked the guy about the air deflector. He said it was basically just a piece of plastic and not essential at all. So I’m feeling much better…at least I don’t have to get this fixed tomorrow. I asked the Jiffy Lube guy if I would be okay on road trips between now and when I get the air deflector fixed, and he said that as long as I wasn’t planning to drive over 200mph (!) I would be fine.

Could my life suck any more right now? I just had a very nice breakfast with tikva and I was on my way to meet up for lunch when suddenly the car started dragging something on the ground. Turns out to have been the front flap thing. I bumped the curb when I was parking in Rockville and I guess that made it come of. Now my lunch plans are fucked and I am waiting at the side of the road on I-270S for the Maryland State Police to send motorist assistance. I’m cold because it’s breezy here on the interstate and I didn’t bring a jacket because obviously I wasn’t expecting to be out here. I hope they come soon. I am really disappointed about missing lunch and about having to pay to get the flap fixed. But first I have to get it the rest of the way off so I can drive to the Saturn place in Fairfax. This totally sucks.

Today we went to the Wolf Trap box office to pick up some tickets for shows that aren’t until April. (This one and this one.) It feels weird planning something so short so far in advance. One plans vacations in advance, but a show? How does Wolf Trap even know they will be having the show? Are shows usually sold so far in advance? Weird. We also stopped at a yarn shop called Uniquities.

We tried going to Costco to get my tire replaced, but it turns out 1998 Saturn sedans were made with a bizarre special tire that is no longer available. Cooper Tires makes one that matches the original, but they didn’t have it at Costco. Fortunately the mechanic who helped us mentioned a shop up the road that would have the Cooper tires. So we headed up to Craven Tire & Auto - it was easy to find - and sure enough they were able to do it. A wasn’t sure about patronizing a Christian auto repair shop; they had a sign up that said “our mission is to serve God by providing quality auto service” and a “spiritual literature center” with pamphlets and free NIV bibles. I didn’t care, though - our only other option was the Saturn dealership, and I knew they’d charge more for it. We went to a Chinese restaurant while they fixed the tire, and only had to wait about 10 minutes after returning before my car was done. The total cost for two tires (we should have replaced all four but couldn’t afford it, so we just did the front ones) and the installation was about $160. The tires were $60 each but installation was $18 each, and then they gave us $10 off the total.

Right now we’re watching Neverwhere, which I’d heard was horrible but I’m actually rather enjoying it. I think you have to treat it like the silly British television it is, and look through the acting to the Neil Gaiman story underneath. It’s a good story - I like it so far.