Potpourri

Greetings, Fellow Earthlings,
Wow, what a great day and a half it's been. I had to work yesterday morning, so that sucked, but I was out of there by 11 so that wasn't too bad. But on the way to work I tried to clean off my windshield, but my fluid was out. Normally I'd just keep going, but I decided, since I had only just set out, to pull over and fill it. Before I go any further a bit of background is needed to fully appreciate what happened next. For at least the last year and a half my car has been running poorly. No power, chugging when accelerating, needing prolonged warm-up time before heading out, etc. I had the fuel filter changed a little over a year ago, but that didn't help. So the most logical candidates for this problem were either a bad fuel pump, or bad fuel injectors. Neither job is something a weekend tinkerer like myself can do, and both are quite pricey. So I have been coping. But within the past two weeks it has gotten really bad, to the point where I began to fear being stranded in the middle of intersections, and the inevitable trip to the mechanic, with it's requisite account draining side effects, loomed. So, here it is, 6:40am Saturday morning, and I pop the hood to refill my washer fluid. When what to my wondering ears should appear but a characteristic 'crack, crack, crack'. I knew this sound immediately, since arcing electricity is a professional hazard with which I am intimately familiar. I looked at the spark plug wires, and saw the spark that should have been going into the cylinder to explode all that yummy gas was shooting uselessly into the engine block. The rubber coating on the wire had degraded and the spark was not going into the plug, so the engine was misfiring. I carefully tried to re seat the wire, and got it to arc a bit less, but it was growing late, so I filed the information and went to work.

After work I went to the auto parts store and purchased the correct cables for just under $30, took about 5 minutes to install them(it is very, very easy) and now my 11 year old car is running like I just bought her. And there was much rejoicing.


Then I played lots of City of Heroes last night, though only the last hour was accompanied. I really hope that once I start my new job I can better synchronize my playing to the others of the group. I also caught up on the recorded shows that have built up over the last few weeks. This morning I slept in til 5, played more COH, and just finished getting the house clean. Now I'm going for a bike ride to the store, and then it will be back to Paragon City to beat up more bad guys.

Before I go, though, I have one question. Do you get as pissed off as I do when some person in line ahead of you at a store treats the cashier like they are not even there. This woman, who may be a sweet, wonderful person to her friends and family, was ahead of me at Publix this morning, and she acted as if the girl trying to serve her was less than a machine. I wanted to slap the woman, but instead I was especially nice to the girl when it became my turn, and made extra sure to make eye contact and thank her when she finished ringing me up. I don't know if she noticed, but I like to think that small kindnesses like that maintain some sort of universal balance. What do you think?

Peace out,
Marius