(no subject)

God/dess but my arms and wrists are sore today. Fortunately, it's in the 'I did lots of work' way as opposed to the 'too much typing' way, though they are more sensitive to typing strain when they're in that condition already.

Sunday was spent helping posicat get his van mobile and moving. When I was working on the Neon, akreaveter and some of his friends helped me try to move the van to make room to get the Neon into the garage, but it wouldn't budge. I figured it was the transmission. But when Posi tried to move the van under its own power yesterday, we realized that it was actually that some wheels were locked up. It turned out to be that both rear drums had seized.

Application of a sledgehammer (the one I nabbed from an abandoned building in Gary actually!), crowbar, WD40, and a jack wedged between the drums and the van body finally got them off the bearings. On one side this resulted in bending of the starwheel adjuster making it impossible to just take the brake shoes all the way in toward the hub to make it movable. Instead, since Posi had already decided at that point that he was just going to get the van to the Pick N' Pull to sell as salvage, I extracted the adjustment lever and, after using a claw-hammer to pull the shoes away from the hub, the entire starwheel adjuster. Posi said those rear brakes weren't working anyway (though they seemed to be operating ok to me; at least until I got through with them).

So it was finally movable and, when Posi tried to drive it, found that the transmission would at least go into first gear. So we limped it south along Sheridan Road until, for reasons unknown, it suffered an electrical failure. The engine fuse blew out and, in trying to replace it, we found that it continues to blow instantly as soon as the key is turned to the on position. This seems to be keeping power from getting to the spark plugs and it won't run. So it's sitting on the side of the road. I feel bad. We put a lot of work into getting it moving and I was really hoping that it would turn out to have been worthwhile for both Posi and I. But though I wish I could do more, I did my best. If there's some way I can help from here on out, I will, but I'm not sure what I can do.

While working, I put on the mechanic's overalls I got from Salvation Army a couple weeks ago. They're great! Definitely a worthwhile purchase! I just have to either hem the legs up a little or remember to roll them up next time.

I also used some time yesterday to empty out the chest freezer into the cooler I borrowed from my mom, knocked all the ice out with a hammer, removed the lid, and hauled it into the basement where I set it up once more. I'm hoping that having an easily accessible chest freezer will lead us to do more cooking in bulk and encourage us to buy in bulk during sales too, and will save us some non-trivial amount of money on food in various ways.

Posi also fixed the screen coming out of the back door by just sticking a penny into the corner of the frame. Yay for geek kitty!!

After it was all done, the five or us (Tybis having joined us around three-thirty or so) went out to get food. I was sore, exhausted, and hungry, and Chinese buffet was welcome, even though I had a couple plates worth of chicken fingers with bleu cheese dressing. Comfort food. *grins*

And then, Moira and I had a comfort evening! We nestled on the couch and watched a couple episodes of House, then went up to bed and continued being smooshy under a couple of nice, warm, fuzzy blankets. This made a sore puppy very happy.

And tonight, after dinner, she and I have a date at a special, quiet, starlit bit of Racine for a little she-and-I time. I can't wait!

(no subject)

With the Sunday post out of the way, I also have to write about the lovely Saturday I spent with more chosen family! Moira and I met up with awfulhorrid, bookwurm, and rileybear67 in Racine for the diabetes walk we signed up for. Our team raised over $500 for the drive! And the walk was fun too. I wish my sweet raccoon had been up for the walk, but her ankle was still bothering her. Instead, she read a book outside the Gateway campus that served as the starting point while the four of us walked up toward the zoo and back. It was a very pleasant span and we all enjoyed walking and talking and seeing the sights of Racine.

Afterward, Moira and mocha_mephooki went down to Long Grove for an area festival. This left Rileybear and I to find ways to while away a lazy afternoon. After sitting at the house for a while and talking about what to do, we eventually went out to Old Country Buffet for lunch where we spent a good while relaxing, eating, and doing more talking. I'd suggested trying out the new kite that Moira bought for me at Fry's a while ago, but by the time we left the restaurant we weren't sure about time, so instead we just drove down to the Lake Michigan shore.

I showed her the Kenosha Dunes, a spot that I'd mentioned a few times before as somewhere I wanted to introduce her to. We walked a few hundred yards in past the fence that marks the official beginning; just far enough to in a mostly natural feeling area, surrounded by trees whose leaves rustled in the lake breeze. We found a couple of conveniently angled and mostly flat rocks to sit on as we snuggled up to keep warm and looked out over the lake. I'm so used to going through there on my bike or climbing around the inlet that contains the storm drain down there that I rarely ever stopped and enjoyed the area in one place for a while. It was really nice! (Definitely something to be said for the company too!)

And on the walk back to the car, we heard barking. Looking down to the shore, we saw a very happy looking dog swimming out into the surf to retrieve a big stick being tossed by a man in a baseball cap. It brought back the stick, did what I swear was a victory circle around him, and then dropped it, barking insistently to get him to throw the stick back out again. We watched through a few repetitions of the cycle, giggling at how cool it was and how much fun that dog seemed to be having. It's really too bad that Kuma doesn't like water more. The couple times we've brought him to the lake, he got his forepaws wet and decided that that was enough for him!

And then Rileybear went back home for the evening. I miss her, but I'm so happy we had the afternoon to spend doing silly things and I can't wait to see her again! I'm hoping that we might start working on our Japanese soon!