Kia Ora-

Alright, I'm not fucking allowed to have three-day weekends ever again. It's bad luck for my automobiles (call it carma). The weekend started great with Friday my radiator got changed and the over-heating problem all but eliminated. That night being V's mom's birthday, we ate at Todai (read: all you can eat sushi and Oriental cooking--real pricy but worth it) and went bowling. Saturday was a celebration for Karen's birthday with Cracker Barrel, Malibu's miniture golf, and closing down Borders Books on the agenda.

Sunday was going to be a day out and about doing the stupid usual stuff, but plans got changed. I drove my mom to Borders when they opened (wasn't I just there 10 hours previous?) and when we left the Jeep wouldn't crank. I got it going but when it would crank it just sounded worse and worse. Got it home and my dad was in process of constructing a huge cover for the back deck (consisting of 12' lengths of galvanized steel posted 10' up on 4x4s) all by himself--yes, he's fucking crazy--so I helped him with that. I consulted with him about the car and he said it would be OK to drive, so I went to V's much later than expected. When I got there I suggested we take her truck and we went to meet Mr. Eric for some golf practice and dinner. When we got back the Jeep was officially dead.

I stayed at V's that night and the next morning when she left for Cocoa Beach (she went surfing with friends) I waited for my folks to come check out the vehicle. Yep, they confirmed it was dead (suspecting the starter). I spent most of Monday just hanging out, watching the History Channel, and whatnot. This morning I went back down, called AAA, and had the car towed to the place that did my starter. They diagnosed it and found out that it was the Neutral Safety Switch (WTF?). They...er...legally I rigged it so I could drive it to my mechanic. And there it is now. I ended up getting to work at noon (which a 6-hour day after an extended weekend has it's pluses) and missed going to the pub tonight (even though Mr. Eric was the only one who showed up).

And that's where we are now. Whenever anything goes wrong with my auto I just totally freak out. I don't know why, but that wigs me. I work great in emergency situations, but give me a car that doesn't run and I stress.

Hopefully things will be back to some semblance of normality tomorrow.

And I hope everyone had a great holiday.

Keep the faith.

-N.