Three and a half hours from Fergus to Minota Hagey
Yes, it took me three and a half hours to get home from Joe's today. But Caitlin, you might object, that is only about a forty minute drive. Well, yes, but only if your vehicle agrees to keep driving. When it overheats at a stop light in Conostogo, and then again at Bridge Street and Northfield, it tends to take a bit longer. It managed to overheat twice because I was able to start it again after a break from the first one. Runs fine while it's moving, but just shuts right down when you stop. The first time, a couple of girls in one of the vehicles behind me stopped and helped me push it to the side of the road. The second time, a group of cyclists I passed just outside of Conostogo helped push it around the corner onto Bridge Street so I wasn't blocking traffic. People are pretty awesome and helpful, it turns out.
I got it towed to Canadian Tire, where the guy told me that based on the estimate from earlier this week, it would take about $1500 to fix my van up into half-decent shape, and it would still be a fourteen year old vehicle. He recommended I get it scrapped, which was the primary option my parents and I were discussing when I called them up to figure out what to do with the thing. In the meantime, they're fine with me letting the van sit there until I can call an auto-wrecking place on Monday, and I can call them to work something out in the vein of leaving it there a little longer and leaving them the keys and ownership papers to hand over to the wreckers if I need to. Sounds good to me.
So I guess I'm joining the ranks of the exclusively pedestrian and transit-system travellers again. Could be a lot worse; I wasn't counting on having a working vehicle this summer, after the recent oil switch issues, and the house Joe and I will be living in is walking distance to a Zehrs and pretty close to route 12, which will get us to the university without much dicking around. So I guess I'm trading my '92 Lumina van in for a bus pass this summer. On the bright side, I won't have to worry about repairing the van or it breaking down on me anymore, and I think traveling by bus is much more environmentally friendly on the whole, anyway.
My parents said something on the phone about getting me transportation, but unless they were thinking of replacing their car or something, I'm not sure what that would amount to. Frankly, left to my own devices, I would not buy or lease a car at this point, and I'm going to make sure they know that when we have our weekly phone call tomorrow (many were the phone calls today, though, let me tell you!). People get along just fine on the bus, and I can, too. A car is convenient, but an absolute luxury. Besides, they were probably just talking about getting a bus pass or looking into the People's Car Co-op (which I've had a quick look at--looks like a good idea, but not something I need to participate in. Would probably be good for people who find themselves needing to rent a car on a regular basis, though).
Now, I've got to try to get back to graphics. I set the school computers rendering all of my scripts last night. They're still on my university webspace here, if you'd like to see. Wish me luck. I've done about four of my features so far and hope to do maybe two more, including a final scene, for Monday when it's due. I'm going to try to do solid texturing, because it should be relatively simple, and then I'm going to try to do photon mapping, because it's cool and I want to do it, and because it would probably give me the biggest subjective mark pay-off of anything if I can get it done. Wish me luck. Hopefully, the delicious bowl of butternut squash and red pepper soup I just ate will give me the will to continue.
I got it towed to Canadian Tire, where the guy told me that based on the estimate from earlier this week, it would take about $1500 to fix my van up into half-decent shape, and it would still be a fourteen year old vehicle. He recommended I get it scrapped, which was the primary option my parents and I were discussing when I called them up to figure out what to do with the thing. In the meantime, they're fine with me letting the van sit there until I can call an auto-wrecking place on Monday, and I can call them to work something out in the vein of leaving it there a little longer and leaving them the keys and ownership papers to hand over to the wreckers if I need to. Sounds good to me.
So I guess I'm joining the ranks of the exclusively pedestrian and transit-system travellers again. Could be a lot worse; I wasn't counting on having a working vehicle this summer, after the recent oil switch issues, and the house Joe and I will be living in is walking distance to a Zehrs and pretty close to route 12, which will get us to the university without much dicking around. So I guess I'm trading my '92 Lumina van in for a bus pass this summer. On the bright side, I won't have to worry about repairing the van or it breaking down on me anymore, and I think traveling by bus is much more environmentally friendly on the whole, anyway.
My parents said something on the phone about getting me transportation, but unless they were thinking of replacing their car or something, I'm not sure what that would amount to. Frankly, left to my own devices, I would not buy or lease a car at this point, and I'm going to make sure they know that when we have our weekly phone call tomorrow (many were the phone calls today, though, let me tell you!). People get along just fine on the bus, and I can, too. A car is convenient, but an absolute luxury. Besides, they were probably just talking about getting a bus pass or looking into the People's Car Co-op (which I've had a quick look at--looks like a good idea, but not something I need to participate in. Would probably be good for people who find themselves needing to rent a car on a regular basis, though).
Now, I've got to try to get back to graphics. I set the school computers rendering all of my scripts last night. They're still on my university webspace here, if you'd like to see. Wish me luck. I've done about four of my features so far and hope to do maybe two more, including a final scene, for Monday when it's due. I'm going to try to do solid texturing, because it should be relatively simple, and then I'm going to try to do photon mapping, because it's cool and I want to do it, and because it would probably give me the biggest subjective mark pay-off of anything if I can get it done. Wish me luck. Hopefully, the delicious bowl of butternut squash and red pepper soup I just ate will give me the will to continue.