Day Eleven – Tsavo and Fairy Lights

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I’ve been trying to set a mood at home conducive to writing.  Back when I lived in Glendale and had a house with a fireplace, I’d shut the curtains, put a firelog on and light candles.  Then I’d find the appropriate music and the creative portion of my brain would automatically click on.

As much as I love my house in by the beach in San Francisco, it does lack a fireplace.  It also has fewer places to place candles where they’re not a fire hazard due to our ‘bunctious felines. 

So instead of lighting multiple tealights and candles, I followed the decorating example of my bf Maureen (that’s ‘best friend’, not ‘boyfriend’ btw) and got creative with decorative string lights and fairy lights.  I’ve got several crackle glass mosaic jars throughout the house and each now has a coil of white fairy lights inside.  The effect is gorgeous and, while not totally cat-proof, a better choice than candles.  As you can see from this picture, Tsavo knows a good photo op when he finds one.  

 

Day Eight – Happy Car!

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I am pleased to report Zhadi needed neither a priest or (nor?) an expensive electrical repair job.  Turns out the wonky readouts, sluggishness and sputtering were caused by (wait for it) … loose battery cables!  Mind you, she also needed a new fan, rear brakes (the shoes were cracked and threadbare), and freon, but the cost for all of this at the wonderful Lightfoot’s Garage (if you live anywhere near Lomita/Torrance in Southern California, go to this place) was about half the price it would have been at the dealership. Plus Josh (the mechanic who worked on Zhadi) gave me two free quarts of oil and a lot of advice as to the best way to keep her happy and running.  

So now I once again have air-conditioning, a non-Satanic readout on the dashboard and, best of all, working brakes!  Considering the hills in San Francisco, this last is a REALLY good thing.  

Day Seven – Why Car, Oh Why (Part II)

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Thanks to my lovely boss and equally lovely co-workers, I ended up leaving at 1:30 on Thursday and driving down the 101, a much prettier drive with more places to stop along the way than the afore-mentioned evil I-5.  Zhadi (my car) started the drive like a champ… until I made my first pit-stop.  Then she decided to sputter and die as I was driving back to the freeway.  She started up again right away and we headed back out on the 101.  About twenty minutes later the speedometer and RPM meter dropped to zero and the emergency brake light came on. 

 Excuse me, car, the emergency brake is NOT on.  So… wtf?  

The engine didn’t sputter, though, so I kept driving.  About every ten minutes the readout on the dashboard did its little drop, then swung back up so I could see how fast I was actually driving.  I tried to ignore it.  Stopped for gas and coffee again… got back on the freeway on a very bumpy stretch… and the readout started dropping every other minute, along with the fuel gauge.  “You have a full tank!  Oops, no you don’t, you’re on empty!  Oops… full!   No, Empty!!!   WHEEEEEE!!!!”

So I’m thinking it’s either an electrical problem or demonic possession. 

I stopped in Santa Maria for gas and a break from the psychotic dashboard readout. I was tired, stressed and  fighting a nasty ass headache.  I put the gas pump in, ran to the bathroom, got back in the car and drove off … with the gas pump in the tank.  The loud KATHUNK clued me in.  The gas station owner was very sweet.  He told me they made the pumps and hoses breakaway because this happened a lot.  Then he gave me a free cup of coffee and a virtual pat on the head.  

Zhadi behaved like a champ the rest of the drive until I pulled up to my sister’s house.  Then the oil light flashed on.  Too tired to deal with it, I parked and called it a night. 

This morning I went out to check the oil and discovered I’d locked my keys in the car. An hour and one tow truck driver later, I retrieved the keys, added three quarts of oil and drove Zhadi to the garage in Torrance (the town where I was born, btw).  She is there now, being tended to by the wonderful honest mechanics at Lightfoot’s Garage.   They suspect the wacky readout was caused by loose battery cables… but I’m standing by with a young priest, an old priest and a dose of ‘The Power of Chrysler Compels You” just in case…

Day Six – Why, Car? WHY???!!!!

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I am driving to Los Angeles after work today.  This means driving through rush hour traffic through San Jose and then driving on the evil I-5 through the central valley (one of the most godawful boring stretches of road ANYwhere) at night.  I’m going to L.A. for two reasons:

1. To emcee the first Twilight Tour of 2011 for EFBC/FCC (affectionately known as “The Cathouse”)

2. To take Zhadi, my beloved Saturn, to a trusted mechanic to have him tell me why the air-conditioner isn’t working after having two lines replaced a few months ago.  And to have him give her a general  going over.  Zhadi has over 200,000 miles on her and needs regular checkups to keep her in good shape.   I’m a very good car mom.  Zhadi was my first new car ever (under 4 miles when I drove her off the lot) and I have been diligent about taking her for all the recommended services and for checkups whenever anything feels/sounds even a bit off.  I love this car.  So you’d think she’d behave herself, y’know?

This morning, however, driving to West Portal in heavy traffic, the fan blower on the defroster started fading out along with the radio lights and the engine started stuttering, nearly dying.  I put her in ‘park’ and revved the engine, managing to keep her from dying on 19th Avenue, one of the heaviest traveled streets in San Francisco during commute time.  Gotta be the alternator, right?

Wrong.

Dave took her to a local mechanic with great reviews on YELP since our normal SF repair place of choice was closed and he checked the alternator … which is fine.  The mechanic said that with a car as old as Zhadi, little glitches are to be expected, he could spend hours trying to figure out what caused this particular glitch, costing me a lot of money, and at the end of the day still not know why it did what it did. It didn’t happen again after the incident on 19th.  This has happened once before, a few months back (something I just found out about today).  So two glitches a few months apart.  The mechanic told Dave he felt I could make the drive without worry.  

Just please oh please, Car Gods and beloved Zhadi, do NOT strand me on the I-5, especially outside the Harris Ranch cattle farm and source of most of the methane in the Central Valley…  Actually, please don’t strand me anywhere.  I’ve been a good mom, dammit!  

Day Five – You Never Know What’s Under Your Feet…

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 Like Brigadoon from the mists, the wreck of the King Phillip, a 19th century sailing vessel, appears out of the sands of Ocean Beach now and again, lending even more romance to our foggy beach…   These pictures were taken two weekends ago with my iPhone.  I did a lot of wave dodging, running in when the waves receded to snap the photos and then back up to avoid getting totally soaked.  

Day Four – Blame my mom

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Yup, my mumsy sent this to me.  This might lead you to believe that a warped sense of humor runs through our family… and you’d be correct in this assumption.   My mom’s siblings and some of their offspring shared a certain sarcastic, offbeat idea of what constitutes humor, all with individual touches.  

And then there are the women on my dad’s side of the family, many of whom I met for the first time about fifteen years ago on a trip to Norway.   I felt right at home among a bevy of tall, sarcastic cousins.  Who would have thunk sarcasm was an actual genetic trait?  

Day Three – Kittehs!!!

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Wee baby kittehs!  These are currently residing in a friend’s bathroom along with their mother, a beautiful gray cat with a kinked tail.  At first we thought her tail had been injured, but then Mo noticed that several of the nine kittens (yup, you read that right…NINE kittens in this litter) have the same kink in their wee little tails.  Momcat has been keeping the kittens in a little ‘hut’ made of foam and fleece; Mo went into the bathroom this morning and found that Momcat had moved her babies out into the bathroom proper.  Wall to wall kittens!  

I especially like the little bruiser with his eyes open, gnawing on his sibling’s paw… Nom nom nom!!!