DS Results / Geo Still A Paperweight / Aunt in Town
I've had a week to play with my new Nintendo DS hand-held game system thing and I'm both disappointed and impressed. While I'm thrilled to have a new "toy" to relieve some stress, I'm saddened that there isn't a wider array of inexpensive games available for it. To my great surprise, even used games for the two-year-old console command a staggering $30. The Tetris game alone costs $40 used. Used!! It's Tetris! There's no way a Tetris game should cost more than.. $15 new. But, who knows. Outside of my disappointment with cartridge costs, it's a nice little toy. There's even a healthy mod community who makes specialized cartridges that will allow me to pass media files to and from the console. That'd be nice. It'd be like my own video iPod.
It's been exactly four weeks since my Geo, my main mode of transportation, broke down. I've been relying on Bryan to get me around, but thankfully I don't usually need to go anywhere important. Right before Ryan left, we disassembled enough of the engine to get at the culprit - a broken timing belt. Last week, I slipped the new belt on and the car started!! It sounded real horrible though because the distributer timing is now incorrect. I reassembled the car and got to work figuring out the mechanical timing which is just as strange. It involves leaving the car running and using a strobe light to determine the proper timing while I jockey the distributor on the engine until the car purrs like it should.
Sounds easy, but wouldn't you know it, I can't get the car to start anymore. Right when I'm ready to do the strobe light thing, it refuses to start. I blame it on frozen fuel lines. It's been below freezing on the north side of our house in the shade for a week solid and I'm sure the car isn't happy. I also fear that I didn't put the timing belt on correctly or the battery may be dead. Either way, I'm waiting until my dad can help me with it in the next couple days.
My aunt from Minneapolis has been in town since Saturday morning. She's here with her fiancé so us Oregon relatives can meet him if we're unable to attend the wedding this summer in the midwest. I last saw her in the Twin Cities while on my road trip in 2005, but it's been many many years since my parents have seen her. Because of my mother's anxiety of traveling, the odds are low that she'll get out to see the wedding so they came here. I've been more or less a fly on the wall the whole time they've been here. I get along with her just fine and the couple is more than welcome here, but I guess you could say I'm just not in the mood to hang out with more relatives. It's been kinda crazy ever since Thanksgiving with people coming and going. It's fun and all and I love company, but nothing gets done when we spend all our time being good hosts. I blame my car not getting fixed on the non-stop influx of relatives and guests.
Hopefully once everyone is gone, things will calm back down and I can be back on the road within the next few days.
It's been exactly four weeks since my Geo, my main mode of transportation, broke down. I've been relying on Bryan to get me around, but thankfully I don't usually need to go anywhere important. Right before Ryan left, we disassembled enough of the engine to get at the culprit - a broken timing belt. Last week, I slipped the new belt on and the car started!! It sounded real horrible though because the distributer timing is now incorrect. I reassembled the car and got to work figuring out the mechanical timing which is just as strange. It involves leaving the car running and using a strobe light to determine the proper timing while I jockey the distributor on the engine until the car purrs like it should.
Sounds easy, but wouldn't you know it, I can't get the car to start anymore. Right when I'm ready to do the strobe light thing, it refuses to start. I blame it on frozen fuel lines. It's been below freezing on the north side of our house in the shade for a week solid and I'm sure the car isn't happy. I also fear that I didn't put the timing belt on correctly or the battery may be dead. Either way, I'm waiting until my dad can help me with it in the next couple days.
My aunt from Minneapolis has been in town since Saturday morning. She's here with her fiancé so us Oregon relatives can meet him if we're unable to attend the wedding this summer in the midwest. I last saw her in the Twin Cities while on my road trip in 2005, but it's been many many years since my parents have seen her. Because of my mother's anxiety of traveling, the odds are low that she'll get out to see the wedding so they came here. I've been more or less a fly on the wall the whole time they've been here. I get along with her just fine and the couple is more than welcome here, but I guess you could say I'm just not in the mood to hang out with more relatives. It's been kinda crazy ever since Thanksgiving with people coming and going. It's fun and all and I love company, but nothing gets done when we spend all our time being good hosts. I blame my car not getting fixed on the non-stop influx of relatives and guests.
Hopefully once everyone is gone, things will calm back down and I can be back on the road within the next few days.