Waiting For Departure

In a few hours, I'll be headed off on a vacation I didn't even know I'd be taking. Three nights in the mountains, to celebrate my sister's birthday. She wanted to get away for her birthday, so she picked a place more or less at random and decided she was going there. With the car issues, I didn't even know if I'd be going, but since I can't exactly do much else right now I figured I might as well ride along and navigate. (Yes, she wanted me to go along originally; I just wasn't sure I wanted to go.) Room's already paid for, anyways, and I can't pretend I couldn't use a bit of a change of scenery, even if my bank account is much lower than I'd like it to be for a vacation. Besides, the things I ordered for her birthday are on backorder at Amazon; I'll buy her a cake or something while we're out in lieu of an actual gift. (Aren't you glad I'm not your lazy, cheapskate little sister?)

Oh, the car... I suppose you've figured out by now that the Mighty Taurus hasn't returned from its unplanned vacation at the auto shop. Well, the shop got to it on Thursday and - big surprise - it started fine for them. Since it came in on a tow truck, though, they believed that it was, indeed, not a healthy car. They just can't do much until it acts up for them. So they're using it as a shop errand car and waiting for it to stall out; shouldn't be more than a week or two, given its track record. I'm starting to wonder if it's not the electrical system, which has been suspect for a while. Over time, the keyless entry, driver's side rear auto window, and half the stereo speakers have ceased to respond to controls, so maybe it's progressed to hit the spark plugs or some other vital engine component. Or it could be a worn wire short of some sort that only happens when the wires hit the wrong thing in the wrong way, which might explain why it happens when the car stops and things presumably shift in the engine compartment. (Dad had that happen on an old Oldsmobile of his.) Or it could be something freakish, like the late Ford Fairmont's trick where it developed a high pressure leak in the water lines that was aimed directly at part of the engine; when the car got hot and pressure climbed, the water killed the engine, but it evaporated so quickly it was almost impossible to catch, and after a rest the car started up normally. Dad scratched his head over that one for a while until someone noted that one side of his engine was suspiciously cleaner than the rest of it, and he finally managed to pop the hood quick enough when it died once to catch the sucker in the act; repairing the hose cured it. I can only hope the Taurus can be dealt with so cheaply.

In any event, the shop's welcome to use the Taurus for as long as it takes for them to figure out what's wrong. I can no longer trust it myself until Something is done. (We did remember to tell them about the intermittent coolant leak, at least - it seems to have nothing whatsoever to do with the stallout, or any other cause I can determine, but once in a while the coolant level drops enough for me to see that it's dropped, and I'd just as soon not have them blow my engine while trying to fix the frellin' thing.)

Well, it's closing in on 2 PM, and theoretically my sister's going to be home by 4, so I'd best double-check my packing efforts.

Oh - was too lazy to post drum pics last time, so here they are, since the board I posted them on is dead save for one other regular.
Dolphin Front and Back
Dragonfly Front and Back
Phoenix Front and Back
Since the store seems sluggish, I'm thinking of painting up a few to try on eBay, just to see how they do. Just as soon as I get back...