Visit the kelpforest....

Starting to think I am cursed.  We just got the mini-van back from its second round of repairs, which took three weeks instead of the promised one (this dealership is so getting a nasty Yelp review).  Driving to work this morning and passing an extremely slow-moving vehicle on the freeway when suddenly I hear a horrible loud vibrating noise from the back of the vehicle and realize I've had blowout.  Since I was coming up on the exit I was planning to get off on anyway, I just pulled off, turned the corner and parked; I hope I didn't drive it too far on the rim and damage the wheel.

This is what I found when I got out of the car to inspect the damage.


Does this look like a normal  blowout?  I'd almost say it looks like it was slashed, except why would it wait until I was 9 miles or so away from home to blow out?  I showed this pic to my coworker, and she thought it looked like a defective tire.



We've had two tires that had leaks, and one of them has gotten to point I have to put air in it every day. This wasn't one of those.   We've been waiting to replace them because 1) we didn't have the money, and 2) we wanted to get a little more wear before we replaced all four at once.

I called John, who was pretty much incoherent because he'd fallen asleep getting home from work; he insisted he'd deal with it after he'd gotten some shuteye, so I told him I'd call work and have someone pick me up.

Cursed I tell you.

Work has finally upgraded us into the 21st Century by finally migrating us to Windows 7. The upside is that I have a new laptop I'd thought mine would be fixed - I needed a new power cable and a few of the keys on my keyboard didn't work, meaning I had to take a Spongebob roll-up keyboard with me when I went to meetings - but turns out it was out of warrantee, so they figured it was better to issue me a new one. The downside is they're much more locked down now, so I can't download my LJ client, among other handy little things I use, because it's not approved software. Sigh. I knew it was coming. So I'll just have to use the page.

I feel like Tumblr is making me forget how to write. The truth is I don't get much time on the family laptop (I just don't feel like hearing all the grumbling), so I'm using my Nook most of the time lately, and typing on it is really a pain in the ass, especially there. But here, I must have made a dozen placeholders for posts on topics that I haven't written. I thought I'd get some of them done while riding the bus the last three months, but I used the time to reread the original Sherlock Holmes instead. Haven't quite gotten through all of it, but nearly.

I think my last post was when the car blew up. We only got it back last week. It turned out it wasn't just the head, it was the long block - which meant the entire engine had to be replaced.  A week on each end was due to our having to come up with money for a deposit and to pay it off (so much for our tax refund - we still had to get a loan). We looked into buying a used engine, but they came with no guarantees, and John's experience with two used transmissions in the Kia's predecessor (one of which only lasted a couple of months) made us opt for new parts, some of which must have had to be shipped from Korea. John is a good haggler though, and they gave us about a 15% discount for taking so damn long.

With the price of gas though, I think I still should take the bus, even though there's no longer a route down the street my office is on and I have to walk a mile each way to the stop. I really don't mind the walk, but between it and still having to transfer, sometimes it was taking me two hours or more to get home. The Starbucks at my transfer point was getting way too much of my money.

Btw, if they ask, don't let them put two teabags in a Grande sized reusable cup. It's nicely strong, but $3.55 is too goddamned much for a cup of tea. And when I asked for a tall amount of water with one teabag in it, so it wasn't too weak, it took me five minutes to get across to the guy what I wanted. "ok, so you just want hot water? You want one teabag and no water?" I finally had to take the cup, show him there was a line inside for Tall, and tell him only fill it up to there, and no farther. Sheesh.

Anyway, I keep meaning to test out my son's bike to see if it's something I could ride the two miles from my first bus, thus saving the walking time and having to transfer, but I keep forgetting over the weekend.

Huh, this page says I can still send stuff to FB; I thought FB wasn't allowing that anymore.

We finally made the last payment on our Kia Sedona last month. Still in great shape.

I told John Friday I thought the Kia's engine was running a bit rough and asked him to listen to be sure I wasn't imagining it.

After driving to work Friday night and coming home Saturday morning, he confirmed it.

He dropped me off at work this morning because he was going to help his friend Jerry at his house. On the way, it came up about several people whose cars had met their ends, and this one had better not start falling apart because it was paid off.

He just called me. He's stuck on the freeway waiting for Jerry to pick up him, and a tow truck.

Blown head gasket.

FUUUUUUUUUCK!

So much for moving what was the car payment into savings....

On the way to work this morning I was behind a bright yellow Can-Am bike, made more noticeable to me because the rider's headgear, a Shoei helmet that matched the bike, was the same one runsamuck has. From the front, I always thought these things look kind of cool, and that they are more stable when turning than the typical three-wheeler with the two tires in the back, is also a plus. However, following behind it, all I could think of was someone riding a lawnmower down the street.

And while we're on the subject of vehicles, what's the deal with the white roof on a Ford Flex? "Oh, what I really wanted was a Mini Cooper, but I just have too much crap/family I have to haul around..."

There was something else that occurred to me while driving to work today (more than once - runsamuck had two root canals, so I came home to pick up the kids from school and fill his prescriptions because he was too hurty), but of course once I sit down in front of a keyboard, it's completely gone.

Sure you are...
San Pedro CA
Canon 1000D EOS
27 August 2009

This is an actual zeppelin - i.e. not a blimp, a rigid-framed airship - built up in the Bay Area, and it spent Memorial Day Weekend in Southern California. It happened to be flying up the coast as we were driving home, and I inisted runsamuck pull over on the bluff above the Dog Beach so I could snap it.

Airship Eureka
Dog Bluffs, Huntington Beach CA
Canon EOS 1000D
25 May 2009

( Up... )

Our new neighbor's car sears my retinas every morning...

Pink Camero
Huntington Beach CA
Casio EX-Z80A
5 March 2009

Payday tomorrow...I'm sure the bus driver will be happy; today and Friday I've had to pay my entire fare in nickels and dimes, and not even the option of driving, because the Kia has just about enough for John to pick up Gareth at summer school. $10 yesterday was enough to get 2 gallons and barely move the needle off E.

We have a trip planned in August to drive to Carlsbad Caverns and take a cave tour or two, and camp. We were going also visit the Grand Canyon, but with the price of gas that's out. We're planning on using our economic stimulus check for it, and John thinks even if gas gets up to $5.25, we can still afford it.

I am dubious. I am all for staying closer to home. Driving across the desert in August, with three kids who have never been on a long car trip before (two of whom seem to have problems sitting still for any length of time), does not sound like a wonderful time to me.

Well, we'll see. My family made cross country trips in the summer, without DVD player or AC even. We did have a camper and more room to spread out, though. And a couple of those trips were made when we kids were old enough to share in the driving.

I was kind of hoping to use part of our check to get a new camera, but I don't suppose there's going to be any extra for that...

Driving home from Carlsbad again; the home stretch about a mile away from home this time.

Main Street
Huntington Beach CA
Kyocera Switchback phone camera
04 June 2008

( Blimp! )

Attending another meeting in Carlsbad; had one glass of wine and some appetizers while trying to get fishermen's opinions of some issues (and damn is it difficult to get a word in edgewise with those guys, especially when you're an introvert), then drove back home. The clouds were starting to come in from the ocean, but a break in then over the mountains in Camp Pendleton showed more tall sunset-colored thunderheads that would have made a fitting background to a Maxfield Parrish painting. Massive fail on capturing it.

Camp Pendleton CA
Kyocera Switchback phone camera
03 June 2008