Interlude with Butterfly

Because it's halfway through June, and I'm killing time.

The Taurus eventually came home after a two-week stay in the shop. Technically, I should've been entitled to a federal rebate for having a catalytic converter failure before 80K miles, but they weaseled out of it on a technicality (which apparently hinged on me not knowing it was the catalytic converter failing when I took it in to the shop, and therefore not following the preferred repair chain of command.)

I also completed my annual run at Copyright Infringement Hell with a camp logo, despite them being late to contact me. (I did a logo for a second camp, too, but haven't heard back from them yet.)

The rest of my life is more or less the same as it has been for far too long. Unfortunately, change is expensive... at least, the kind of change one wants, as opposed to the kind Life likes to throw at you when it's bored and wants a few laughs.

At least the butterflies have been pretty this year.

At Least It's Not The Transmission...

Last week, my car started making a Noise. Not just the average noise, as one might expect from a seven-year-old vehicle. This was a Noise: loud, disturbing, and impossible to rationalize away. It's over 60,000 miles, so it was probably due for something bad... even though I just had it in for another Noise not so long ago. Given the mileage and that the Noise came with a drop in overall power, I figured maybe the transmission had decided to give up the ghost.

The shop called. Turns out it isn't the transmission. It's the catalytic converter.

At least they found the problem.

Every time I get a little extra money stored up, I swear...

Enough With The Rain, Already!

I am well aware of the fact that I live in the Pacific Northwest, not one of the drier regions of the nation. I am also well aware that it is spring - a traditionally wet season in a wet area.

But, seriously, enough with the freakin' rain, already!

We haven't even gotten any decent rainbows out of the thing... or decent storms. All around us are rainbows galore - I see the pictures on the news sites. But we just get the gray and the wet... especially when I'm off work. Or trying to drive. I'm honestly surprised there wasn't an accident on the freeway today when a hail squall hit. It was just like driving through a car wash - wave after wave of solid water battering every inch of the car. Then a couple miles later it was blue skies. And, no, no danged rainbow to make up it, either. At least, not one I was allowed to witness.

There's a theme emerging in 2014 that I don't much care for.

Interlude with Raindrops

It's been a soggy spring so far. Soggy and unproductive. But I figured I'd stop by just to prove I still exist, to myself if nobody else.

I've been falling behind on everything lately - reading, writing, workshed projects, and more. And I still need to figure out Facebook, which seems every bit as confusing and elusive as real-life socializing to my feeble little brain. I choose to blame the weather for my lack of progress, on the theory that if I rely on something it'll fail me; if I keep using rainfall as my excuse, sooner or later we'll get nice weather so I have to do something. (Hey, it's worth a shot...)

In the meantime, at least the rain can be good for photo ops now and again. Even if it's too soggy to do anything else.