I'm happy for you, infinite monkey! Even with the car trouble, things are looking good for you. You have a job you like, you have friends, family. It's outstanding!

Thanks! I'm doing so much better at focusing on those good things.

My car insurance makes roadside assistance so easy. So I'm less irritated than before. They're sending a truck to either jump my battery or tow me in, no charge. I mean, yeah, I pay for it, but it's worth it when stuff like this happens! Thanks, Flo!

Sounds like a new battery and a bottle of dry gas might be a solution.

Or not...

Roadside assister-in-laws are also a FSMsend.

I'll find out. It was towed a while ago. I hope it isn't much more than that, but like I said it's been running rough.

Yep, definitely a FSMsend. :)

You know how you have an author that you really like, and even though someone gave you their book for Christmas, you go ahead and spend an audiobook credit on it again because it's read by the author and you want to hear it in their own voice, and because the audiobook business model means those credits steadily rack up and you can't quite spend them fast enough with your average listening habits anyway... And then you learn something horrifying about this hero of yours, this brilliant writer, who somehow has gotten this far in life pronouncing words like "jewel-er-y" and "draw-rings," and you can't help but feel disappointed at the tarnishing of a once great idol?

Or maybe that's just me.

I experienced almost this very thing with an outdoor/gun writer named David E. Petzel. I'd read him for years and years and had a notion for what he sounded like, and that's the voice I would hear when I would read his stuff.

Then I heard his actual voice. Nothing wrong with it, but, it was SO very different from what my fragile, immature mind had come up with.

[/not just you]

Nahh, it's pretty common. So many cases of "they're beautiful until they open their mouths"

Got my car back. Battery. 130 bucks and that's no charge for labor. But it should start good from now on, hopefully. I guess I needed one. But it still doesn't run like it should so I suppose I'll hope it doesn't break again because I can't afford more repairs.

At least you have the power of self-locomotion again, that's good news. :thumbsup:

Thanks! It's funny how important that is in our lives. Even if I don't absolutely need to go anywhere, it's weird to not have transport. There isn't much public transportation to speak of here. First world problems I guess. :)

tell me about it. :( I had to turn my car over to the highschoolers. Beest takes me to work in the mornings and I walk the 3.5 miles home. It's been pretty bloody cold the last few days. Gotta stack up a few paychecks before we look for that third car, though

Losing self-locomotion has been the worst thing my father has had to come to terms with. Losing the ability to just get in the car and take himself somewhere ... for him, it's worse than death.

For some, it's a deliberate choice. At least the no driving part. SonofV will be 20 in April, but he does not have a driver's license, and is not interested in getting one. He's managed to get to where he needs to go by other means, naturally. And in Seattle, it's pretty easy to get from A to B and back via the bus.

Sure. My younger brother declined to get a driver's license until he was about 30, but he also lived in places where public transit was fantastic. For those who have always lived where no public transit exists, or who grew up when the ability to drive meant independence, it's a harder thing to give up. My father chose to give up driving, making a responsible decision as he realized his reflexes were just not what they should be, and his neurological disorder was playing havoc with his leg strength (he has also lost the ability to walk comfortably). He chose the time, but that didn't make it any easier.