OBAMARAMA.

That is all.

Tags: 9/11

I spent last weekend replacing the radiator in my Neon.  Apparently, replacing an object at the extreme front of the engine bay requires displacing virtually everything but the engine block itself.  Of course, after doing this, we discovered that the linchpin holding everything together was the box that held the battery inside--by removing that first, everything else almost effortlessly lifted out of place and allowed us to get the radiator out (or would have, had we known this little trick).

I partly give kudos to the designers for managing to cram quite a lot into a small engine bay.  I partly damn them to the deepest reachs of oblivion for interlocking parts to such a degree that removing part A requires removing part B, which requires removing part C which is being blocked by part A.  It was the most infuriating disassembly job I've ever done--and I've worked on microATX computers.

And then, last night, after two full days of decent operation, the newly-extended hose connecting the transmission to the radiator decided to fail.  I felt something like a shotgun bucking  from beneath my right foot, pulled over and got out, and saw a full quart of transmission fluid right there on the roadway.  I just about had a nervous breakdown on the spot.  I called for backup, and after a scouting mission we patched the hose together and limped the old battleax home.  Now she sits in port, awaiting another repair job, possibly mothballed if the transmission is ruined by the sudden loss of fluid.

I'm so fucked.

Tags: neon, radiator, shit
Current Mood: drained
Current Music: 3 Doors Down - Sarah Yellin'

I was out mowing the lawn just now, and found what appeared to be a wasp nest that had fallen from a tree and impacted the ground quite powerfully.  This nest landed no more than a few feet from where I was stung/bitten a few weeks ago.

I have to admit to a certain amount of paranoia after having seen this.

Tags: wasps
Current Music: Etta James - Miss You (Illicit Remix) | Scrobbled by Last.fm

	About a week ago I had one of those Olympic Coke cans with the company's logo from another country. In this case, it was the logo used in Thailand. I've never had a can of pop speak to me before. It was disturbing.
	On another absurd note, I saw this on the back of a truck moving gravel or something of the sort. I wondered if anyone ever painted twin lightning bolts on their trucks next to those placards.

Tags: amusing, coke, heil
Current Mood: amused

Thursday and Friday were long days.  Well, a long day, because I only had about ninety minutes of sleep to delinate the two.  Went to go see Kim after work on Thursday; we watched some TV ate some Mexican, and I stayed late to meet Keenan before getting a nap in before going in to work.  As it was, I recieved a text on my phone exactly one minutes before I needed to wake up to leave--and needless to say, I didn't want to get up.

My Friday went quickly, besides itchy eyes an a splitting headache.  I went straight from work to home and dressed and packed everything I needed within an hour and a half.  We were supposed to leave early, around 9 or 10 AM, but for various reasons ended up leaving around 1 PM, after convincing my mother that she needed a weekend in Wisconsin.  After a drive that angled through Oshkosh for some good down-home burgers and fries, we stopped for some grocery shopping, and finally reached the farmhouse around 8.  The first evening wasn't really of note, other than a blazing fire we built using various wood products from the cabin across the lake.  One thing I remember was the moonlight--it was a nearly-full moon and clear skies, so bright and clear it was almost like daylight.  Well, when the firelight wasn't overpowering the poor moon.  We experimented with making Smores with Cookies 'N Creme bars instead of milk chocolate, and they were quite good...they might replace milk chocolate in the tradition now.

Saturday was a fairly lazy day.  We fucked with the shitty DVD player there, and decided to put a different one in, a perfectly good one that decided to spontaneously malfunction after I put it in, so the other shitty one went in--it was an adventure of lesser evils, more or less.  We watched the '89 Batman and Cloverfield, and also bits of Escape From NY and LA...such good bad films.  We built another blazing fire that night, enough heat that we had to sit a good 15 feet away to keep from burning ourselves, and enough firelight to illuminate the entire farmhosue, and the neighbor's house, quite easily.

Sunday was pretty much just a boat ride on the White River and enjoying the cool breeze on the water, and then preparing to leave around 2 PM.  A stop in Madison to eat at Perkins before continuing down 90 to get home around 8ish...and here I am sitting blabbing about this to no one in particular.  Maybe someday some archaeologist will find the server this is stored on and discover what traveling to central Wisconsin was like eighty centuries ago.

Off to read some more Chapterhouse...I'm getting close to the end, yay.

Tags: bob, wautoma
Current Mood: sleepy
Current Music: Creed - What If | Scrobbled by Last.fm

Been a long few days of, well, being busy.  I am currently on ninety minutes of sleep, and preparing for a four-plus-hour drive up into Wisconsin in a little bit, most of which I will probably sleep through.  I'm trying to decide if I should bother packing a game system or not...there's a TurboGrafx up there for mega retro gaming goodness, I might want to lug the PS1 with though.

Another fun night past me involving a lady friend of mine.  I'd like to say some experimentation was involved but I honestly feel nervous about it, though we have discussed the subject once or twice.  Maybe next time.  But we did have good Mexican food, and an amusing conversation with Teri regarding an even more amusing phone call she had.  Always good for a laugh, she is.

Time to pack the shit up, maybe we can be to Wautoma by noon.

See you all on Sunday.

Tags: wautoma
Current Mood: awake

So.

I was tasked with mowing the lawn today.  I ventured out into the backyard around 9.30, opened the shed and retrieved the mower.  As I was about to go back in, I noticed a shadow flitting about my shoulders in the manner of a bee.  I stopped and waited for the bee to lose interest, but it persisted.  So I stepped away from the shed carefully, and eventually left the bee's sphere of influence.  After a few more approaches, the same bee appeared and seemed to place itself on border watch.  I still needed to fetch the gas can for the mower, so I decided on another technique.  I went into the house and got a can of wasp/hornet/bee killer.

I sprayed the lip beneath the roof of the shed all around the sides until I came to the door.  After spraying around the door, easily a dozen bees/wasps/whatevers emerged, apparently irritated at the barbarian on their border.  After only a few sprays the can ran out, so I went to the store to buy a new can.  I returned, my weapon reloaded, and continued spraying around the door.  More beethings emerged to guard the imperial capital, and after a while I determined they were coming from inside the shed.  In a quick movement, I reached inside and sprayed around the seam between ceiling and wall, agitating the beethings yet again.  After leaving it for twenty minutes to see if it had any effect, I tested the perimeter again and was again rebuffed.

I decided to try to mow the lawn with whatever was in the tank of the mower.  I made about three-quarters of my first lap around the yard when I felt a deep, piercing sting on the back of my leg.  At first I though it was that kind of imaginary pain you feel sometimes, and I looked down not expecting to see anything.  No such luck--something large and winged was attached to my leg.  With a yell, I swatted at the accursed beast.  In less than a second, it appeared on my other leg, and an identical pain lanced up my calf.  With another swat, I took off for the house.

Now, I normally would just have gone back to the house in a pissy mood due to the sewing-needle nature of the pain in my leg.  But after being bit twice in two seconds, I had no idea if there was a swarm around me or what, and I panicked.  I simply turned and ran for the house, not knowing what had stung me or how many there were.  I actually scrambled fast enough to trip over myself halfway there.

Once in the house, the adrenaline wore off and the pain in my legs increased exponentially.  I took a heavy dose of benadryl, on the off-chance I might have an allergic reaction to whatever it was, and put icepacks over the bite spots.  Even now, several hours later, I feel occasional shooting pains from the areas that were bit, and for some reason the muscle of my right bicep aches--maybe I landed on it wrong when I fell.  The mower was left running when I ran back to the house, it ran out of gas about 15 minutes afterward so it probably wouldn't have even lasted the backyard.  I'm not willing to go back and get it, or return it to the shed.

Well, that about sums up my otherwise lazy weekend.  God that's a long post.

Tags: idiocy, shit, wasps
Current Mood: lethargic

Driving home from work this morning, the sunrise appeared to be doing battle against an inexorably approaching front of nearly black clouds.  The sun was just rising, but at the same time it felt like sunset, the clouds were blocking so much light the streetlamps were coming back on and people had to turn their headlights on to drive.  Looking ahead of me to the south, the sky was bright though not clear...behind me to the north, I saw what actually appeared to be deep night in my rearview mirror.  It's been a long time since I've seen such an intense storm overhead.  When I got home I laid back in bed and listened as the storm hit my house about 30 seconds after I walked in the door.  It was disappointing, though...I wanted to hear a damned storm.  It was a weak one, not much thunder.  But apparently we are supposed to get some light hail tonight when another wave of the same system passes through.  We'll see.

Tags: thunderstorm
Current Mood: artistic
Current Music: The Crystal Method - You Know It's Hard

Just when I thought my new-experiences streak was petering out, it gets its second wind.

Wednesday night, I was at the Ram in Schaumburg to meet a woman.  It was the first time I'd been to that restaurant, and it has rather nice food.  It was also the first time I'd met this woman, who turned out to be very enjoyable company.

Thursday, I got to spend the evening with said woman in the cozy southwest suburbs eating authentic Mexican for the first time (very good quesadillas) and getting a good feel-up, which I didn't complain about.

Friday was another night in the southwest and virginity lost.  Like everything else first-time and sexual, it felt weird, but good.  I can say it's something I can get used to.  And I hope I do.

Spent today annoying my dad and going for another viewing of The Dark Knight.  Had dinner at Old Country Buffet, haven't been there in a couple years or so.  Such good food.

Tags: first, movies, sex
Current Mood: full