Blog-time

Some folks on a Friday night might have better things to do than meander about in Blog-land, but... for me it's a break? Well...

I haven't written because there didn't seem anything too unusual to share. I realize, however, that at least one loyal reader (hi, Jim) looks forward to my blogs - it makes him glad not to be in the immediate vicinity.

One of the dumber things I did yesterday involved super-glue. I kind of broke the tube in half across both hands and a loose tooth crown I was trying to re-cement. I had enough sense to instantly spread my fingers apart so they weren't stuck like mitts and the tooth fell into a corner of dog fur and dust balls. I will point out that nail polish remover did not work to remove the super glue, nor did Goo-gone. The tooth was fine after I scraped it clean with a knife, and I used the same method on my fingers to remove a good portion of the glue.

Super glue dries fast, and most of it has been peeled / chewed off in the last 24 hours. I have a few raw spots on a couple of fingers where it was a little more persistent, and I have once again proved this stuff is hazardous in my world.

Of a more critical nature, I took my wonderful little car to the mechanic's. It was past a tune-up by a couple of years and has been starting a bit rough. I figured some new plugs would cheer it up. It's been needing rear brake calipers for several months, so this, too, was on my list, along with tightening a battery cable (which had presented itself as 'loose' one cold winter day).

I mentioned to Shane-my-mechanic that it seemed to be getting hot in idle, and interestingly enough, when I opened the hood, the radiator was steaming. The seam along the top of the radiator was failing. Shane didn't think it'd be wise to drive it, and I'm glad it didn't go completely while I was 75 miles from home in the middle of the boondocks searching for a census case whilst the sun set Wednesday.

I had noticed the temperature gauge creeping towards hot whenever I idled a few minutes that day, and in hindsight, now I know why.

One of the fuel injectors was cracked and leaking too, which accounted for the gassy smell upon starting, so the car was definitely due for a few repairs. Shane called this afternoon to share his findings, and he was basically dumbfounded that it was even running - something to do with the distributor cap being cracked and sticking together by a small miracle ---

Which proves what I've suspected: Things in my world stay together either from force of habit or love. The car kept running until I could afford to get it "to the doctor" and considering I put about 1000 miles on it in the last 6 weeks of cold, it could have failed out on some God-forsaken - and sparingly populated - road. Between me, the Universe, and my car, I'm glad it didn't.

Should I mention the kitten is in heat? Luckily there's enough snow and cold to keep it inside, but it's trying to escape and scr-owwwls occasionally like its foot is in a trap. My vet is booked out until mid-April, which is not good! Why they don't have birth control for cats until a person can get them spayed beats me.

I do find this a distressing omen of things to come, in that the granddaughter is 12 going on Teen.

Just my corner of the globe. Slightly more stable than the weather and Washington, D.C., and that's a thought to scare the bee-jesus out of any sane person.

Think about it. A lot of people are 'pretending it's stable', kind of like D.C. and the California coast, but somebody that super-glued her fingers and de-furred a tooth with a squalling cat in heat and car running on faith is actually saner...

I could be wrong, if anyone wants to reassure me!