Wednesday, March 09, 2005

Random Venting

First of all, I'm typing this with a dvorak keyboard layout just, I don't know, to make things more difficult.

Last week I made a commitment to myself that I'd drive the Laser to work every day until April 9, when I go to the "Learning Curve" autocross workshop. That way, I figured, I'd have as much practice at driving stick as possible before learning how to improve my autocross abilities. Well, last Thursday (I think), my radiator hose blew off again -or at least that's all we thought was wrong. Turns out that the pipe from the radiator that the hose attaches to broke off (it's 12 years old, and plastic). We found someone with their original radiator lying around, and it turns out to be free -he was just happy to see it gone! So, cool. I was back on the road on Monday.

Monday, just as I near the train station to pick Ed up, I start finding it really hard to get the car in 3rd gear. After Ed gets in and we start out to go eat, the problem gets worse and I accidentally shift to 1st when I mean to go to 3rd a couple times. Then I figure it out -the shifter is just not returning to center between shifts. After that I'm able to compensate for it, but it takes all the fun out of driving (having to be so careful shifting). 3rd was my favorite gear! We suspect it's just a spring, but I don't want to drive it like this, so I'm back to driving the Jeep to work and worrying that I won't be comfortable enough with the Laser to drive it well at autocross.

Speaking of comfortable driving in the Laser, I'm still sitting on a freaking chair cushion so that I can see over the dash! I'm guessing that that won't fly at autocross, so I'm hoping to put a 1" spacer under the chair rail. Another project to get done before April 9, and guess who's car's in the garage? Not mine...

As far as work goes, we're having a continuous problem with server lockups and it means having to reset the server, sometimes 5 times a day! That's annoying. Plus, my users can't seem to get it through their heads that they really do need to EMAIL me with their problems rather than coming to my door and telling me about them. I'm way too busy to remember that they can't figure out how to open the manual paper tray on the printer or that they wish they had the little cat in their email rather than the light bulb. Bleh.

Back to the Jeep. It has a tranny problem too, I think. The rpm's surge a little before it shifts into... probably 3rd gear? (It's automatic.) So, that has me worried. It has Ed worried too; he wants to get rid of it. Not suprising, he hates my Jeep. It IS slow, but it's awesome off-road. Just wish it saw dirt more often. We could use a towing vehicle, but does that have to mean no more off-roading? And I'm so mad at the Laser's unreliability that I don't want to pick up a car payment on a truck. I'd rather get an S2000, an Evo, or a WRX sti.

Money... Ed and I make a pretty decent buck, but everytime he talks about his car it's a list of parts he needs before his engine arrives, and all the parts come in $1000 increments. It's driving me crazy, his credit card is about maxed. I need exhaust, and intercooler, and shocks. Maybe brakes as well. But instead I'll be buying him a clutch/flywheel, and maybe even wheels and tires! Yay.

And what am I doing hanging out with these car guys anyway? Half the time they treat me like I don't know anything about cars and I want them to stop treating me like a girl. The other half of the time I wonder if they have any interests outside of cars. I mean, there's only so much I can take. Maybe I am really a girl after all. I still know more than the average DSM'er out there, though...

I have a brand new pocket bike that's been sitting in the middle of our front room since Xmas. Sunday was warm enough for me to ride it, but instead I spent the day picking up all the dog droppings from the yard. 3 bags. Yummy. :-P Monday morning I stepped outside to go to work, and guess what was waiting there as a present for me? Poop from the dog down the block (he runs loose all the time). Lovely.

We had dinner with our friend, Kris, last night. He mentioned that he found something embarrassing of mine in one of the MCSE books I lent him, but he wouldn't tell me what it was. Great. Last time I let anyone borrow my books... What the he11 would I have left in there? It's driving me crazy trying to think about which freakish thing about me has been revealed.

So, I'm in a bad mood. I'm this close (imagine my fingers indicating a very small amount of space) to just quitting work, and driving. I'd keep going until there weren't any more people and I'd just stay there for awhile. I hate people. People suck. So does my car when it doesn't work. When it does work, though, it rocks!

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