my car died and i fasted
...not on the same day, tho. you know how my car wouldn't start and needed a jump on saturday? well, it died for good on sunday. in the middle lane. a couple cars back from a red light. >.< when you call aaa the first or second thing they ask is if you're in a safe place, and because i was in the middle lane and everyone had to go around me (and i was MORTIFIED), i said "well, uh, not really?" and the woman i was talking to told me to hang up, call the cops, and call them back. so i did that. while i was on the phone with aaa the second time, a state trooper showed up, so i asked the second aaa agent if she could hang on for a second, put the phone on the passenger seat, put the car in neutral, and let the cop push me off the road (literally) and around the corner where i could coast into the bus entrance of the t station that was conveniently right there. i coasted right past the "do not enter" sign, panicked because i couldn't stop, figured out i needed to be stepping on the brake pedal a lot harder than i was, and stopped. and the poor aaa agent could hear me go "i can't stop!" and was freaking out. the cop waited until i got off the phone and knew a tow truck was coming (i wanted to tell him "i'm sure you have cop stuff to do" before he took off) and i sat there in the 80º heat for about forty minutes. >.< the tow guy towed my poor dead car to a garage and then took me home! because i was on the way to his next tow. i walked to the grocery store and had to take a nap when i got back home, because it was so hot. yeesh, self.
the next few days looked like this:
monday: SO FREAKIN' BUSY AT WORK. i called the garage and the guy told me he thought the problem was the alternator overcharging the battery, but they could replace both and i'd get my car back either that day or tuesday. excellent. went home late, but i was expecting that.
tuesday: called the garage, guy said it wasn't the alternator, it was the starter, and he wasn't sure if i'd have it by the end of the day or not. i may or may not have gotten bitchy over his vagueness because tuesday was kol nidre, which is the night before yom kippur, and i needed a car to get out to metro west to a. stuff my face, and b. go to services. so i called hertz. work was fortunately super slow, so i had time to hang on the phone, and i left early, picked up the rental, and got to the restaurant on time. woot. services were good, too.
wednesday: the guy from the garage called me! for once. he said it was the alternator after all, but also he discovered the transmission control module was busted, but it's under warranty, but the dealer has to fix it, so either i can get my car from the garage and drive it back and forth from the dealer myself, or i can let the garage do it. ten points which (much more convenient) option i picked. i'm theoretically getting my car back next week. theoretically. my sister and i went to the late morning services to kill time between those and the evening service, and to take our minds off the fasting, we saw a simple favor which i think i liked. i did see one of the twists coming, but otherwise it was a lot of surprises and i didn't trust any of the characters by the end of the main action. it was weirdly comedy-like for a thriller, or kind of thrilly for a comedy, and in any case the tone flipped wildly and i couldn't quite get into it. blake lively can wear the hell out of a suit, tho. holy cow. i ate too much at break the fast but i was starving and i love me some carbs - and egg salad - so.
thursday: no news about the car. i returned the rental first thing and was (expectedly) late for work, but work was slow and it didn't natter. the receptionist was on vacation all week so i spent a lot of time covering reception. it is SO, SO BORING.
friday: still no car news, which i take as good news. work is still slow, except for the part where one of the partners got a very random letter from the corporate credit card company saying his card was canceled, and i got to call and ask them what the hell was going on. i think someone else canceled her card and got a number wrong or something.
i want my car back. :( and yes, part of that is because i'm lazy as hell and don't want to walk my groceries home on sunday. (it's all uphill. bleh.) and part of that is just that i want it back.
elizebeth friedman, badass ww2 codebreaker.
here's a neat article about clothing british spies during ww2, speaking of. a lot of work went into making these folks look like they belonged wherever they were spying from.
for no reason other than i think they're kind of cathartic and weirdly entertaining, have a bunch of paintings of judith beheading holofernes, with rankings and commentary.
back in the beginning of the 20th century a guy named edward curtis embarked on a project to basically document as many native american tribes as he could, while he still could. his research eventually covered twenty volumes of text and thousands of photos. a full set is going up for auction next month.
the next few days looked like this:
monday: SO FREAKIN' BUSY AT WORK. i called the garage and the guy told me he thought the problem was the alternator overcharging the battery, but they could replace both and i'd get my car back either that day or tuesday. excellent. went home late, but i was expecting that.
tuesday: called the garage, guy said it wasn't the alternator, it was the starter, and he wasn't sure if i'd have it by the end of the day or not. i may or may not have gotten bitchy over his vagueness because tuesday was kol nidre, which is the night before yom kippur, and i needed a car to get out to metro west to a. stuff my face, and b. go to services. so i called hertz. work was fortunately super slow, so i had time to hang on the phone, and i left early, picked up the rental, and got to the restaurant on time. woot. services were good, too.
wednesday: the guy from the garage called me! for once. he said it was the alternator after all, but also he discovered the transmission control module was busted, but it's under warranty, but the dealer has to fix it, so either i can get my car from the garage and drive it back and forth from the dealer myself, or i can let the garage do it. ten points which (much more convenient) option i picked. i'm theoretically getting my car back next week. theoretically. my sister and i went to the late morning services to kill time between those and the evening service, and to take our minds off the fasting, we saw a simple favor which i think i liked. i did see one of the twists coming, but otherwise it was a lot of surprises and i didn't trust any of the characters by the end of the main action. it was weirdly comedy-like for a thriller, or kind of thrilly for a comedy, and in any case the tone flipped wildly and i couldn't quite get into it. blake lively can wear the hell out of a suit, tho. holy cow. i ate too much at break the fast but i was starving and i love me some carbs - and egg salad - so.
thursday: no news about the car. i returned the rental first thing and was (expectedly) late for work, but work was slow and it didn't natter. the receptionist was on vacation all week so i spent a lot of time covering reception. it is SO, SO BORING.
friday: still no car news, which i take as good news. work is still slow, except for the part where one of the partners got a very random letter from the corporate credit card company saying his card was canceled, and i got to call and ask them what the hell was going on. i think someone else canceled her card and got a number wrong or something.
i want my car back. :( and yes, part of that is because i'm lazy as hell and don't want to walk my groceries home on sunday. (it's all uphill. bleh.) and part of that is just that i want it back.
elizebeth friedman, badass ww2 codebreaker.
here's a neat article about clothing british spies during ww2, speaking of. a lot of work went into making these folks look like they belonged wherever they were spying from.
for no reason other than i think they're kind of cathartic and weirdly entertaining, have a bunch of paintings of judith beheading holofernes, with rankings and commentary.
back in the beginning of the 20th century a guy named edward curtis embarked on a project to basically document as many native american tribes as he could, while he still could. his research eventually covered twenty volumes of text and thousands of photos. a full set is going up for auction next month.