Weekend: Car, dogs, etc.
Saturday:
* Decide that the loud noise and vibration coming from the rear of my car probably shouldn't be ignored any longer, as having a wheel fly off on the expressway would suck. Buy a wheel bearing/hub assembly and take it to my folks place on Saturday morning to take advantage of my father's tools and the fact that he's a bored man with skillz, who can bail me out if I get in over my head.
* Jack up the car, remove the left rear wheel and brake drum. Watch brake pad fall to ground. *thunk*.
* Decide that free-range brake pad was source of noise/vibration. Go to auto parts store and buy new brake shoes. Buy new drum while I'm there, for grins.
* Install new shoes. Swear a lot as the process of getting all those little springs where they're supposed to be takes several times longer than it should. Enlist help of bored father, listen to him swear.
* Complete installation and drive car around the block. Car still vibrates and makes noise. Begin to realize that I will not be making it to softball after all.
* Remove other rear wheel. Note that brake cylinder appears to have shit brake fluid all over everything. Go back to auto parts store for new, non-shitting brake cylinder.
* Install brake cylinder, wheel hub to replace the one fouled by leaked brake juice. Swear some more.
* Drive car around block, note with pleasure that noise/vibration have abated. Abated so well that I can now hear ominous clunking noise with every bump in the road. Contemplate new car.
* Realize it is now late evening and softball has been missed. Agree to dogsit Nita, parents' lab/golden mix, drive home with dog.
* Spend night being crowded off of bed by tag-team efforts of Nita and Marble, in a rare moment of canine-feline cooperation.
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Sunday ended up being less productive, but a lot more fun. I took Nita for a walk at Busse Woods with Non-LJ Tom, then headed up to the northern suburbs to meet with takaza, roho and genet. Nita and Briana (Roho and Genet's samoyed) got along quite well and seemed to enjoy each others' company. We went to a rather nice dog park up in Lake County and threw tennis balls, eliciting varying degrees of interest from the Nita and Briana. Nita seemed to be on board with the whole fetching idea about half the time, whereas Briana doesn't seem to get the idea at all. Of course, having tennis balls at a dog park makes you a popular guy. It doesn't take long for a few dogs to notice, and crowd around you waiting for you to throw the ball. It doesn't matter that they don't know you, you're the nice man who has a ball he might throw! Dogs really are natural socialists. Hey! That person has water! I'll go have a drink! Hey! That person has hands! She can use them to pet me! All it all it was a fun afternoon. The park included some nicely wooded trails, and Nita and Briana were well enough behaved that we got to enjoy the rare (for urban/suburban dwellers) pleasure of a walk with non-leashed dogs. We finished up the day hanging out at Duncan and Takaza's eating pizza and contemplating our sunburn and mosquito bites. A good day. Once again, I'm reminded that I'd really like to have a dog, but that's hard to manage when one is single and has a problematic work schedule and commute. It would be manageable if I had a significant other in my life, but then there'd be a dog, cat, and a human being all pushing me off the bed, and I'd pretty much be relegated to the sofa if I wanted to get any sleep at all. It's a conundrum.