After groceries yesterday, I ran Belovedest off to get some stuff checked out. (Everything is fine.) Then we spent about 15 minutes in what turned out to be a completely stopped drive-through line, and then at least another 15 finding another place to grab food.

By the time we got home we were ready to have food and then fall over in bed.

...

"All right, dear, you start unloading while I wait for this motherfucker."

Fortunately, the lock saw fit to release me promptly.

Alas, Costco seems to be out of the very good jarred butter chicken sauce.

Yellface has been allowing Alex to touch her face, and right now she seems to be soliciting cheek rubs.

My week got long:

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Turns out it was the belt for the power steering pump that went, and I believe on Toasters of that vintage, that's the serpentine belt that also runs important functions like cooling.

We were able to get it picked up on Tuesday morning. My psych was working remotely, so instead of showing up in his office that afternoon with my "homework", I did a hasty data analysis on my carefully hand-done paper sleep charts and we talked about my nightmares. Only 4 in the 6 weeks, but a lot of bad dreams. (Last night's bad dream featured an anti-bullying initiative in schools that automatically tagged each child with their vulnerabilities. This was a Bad Idea.)

It's hot here, and I'm enjoying our mini-splits. I'm also thinking of deploying The Pool out back, but cautious of the amount of physical labor in the heat it would require.

I got the battery warning on my Toaster late last night, of course. After a week of sitting idle during cold weather it gets that way. One of the reasons I have the little Bouncie dongle and subscription.

So after a leisurely early afternoon, Belovedest and I got ready to head out. Last weekend I'd observed a light out. Belovedest thought they had a spare bulb somewhere. By the time I was dressed, I noticed they'd gone out. I looked up an instructional video as I was getting my boots on, then I grabbed my stuff and a box of gloves.

The hood was open. Belovedest was trying to get a video to load, but not having much luck. I put on a pair of gloves and waded in. I unplugged the electrical supply from the bulb just fine, but had trouble taking out the gasket. I watched the video again and saw the pull tab. It was off to the side and down in my car. I yanked it successfully. Another trip through the video to eye the wire safety latch thing. Okay. Then out came the bulb! [Edit: at this point we discovered that the bulb that Belovedest had was not a headlight bulb but possibly a brake light or blinker.]

We drove off to the store for the first item of business. When Belovedest came out with the new bulb I was already grabbing the gloves.

There was a video for the reverse operation too. I handled the bulb by the metal plate at the bottom, stuffed it in, latched it on (another video examination), stuffed in the gasket (with the tab at the top, kthx), and fumbled a little before getting it plugged in.

And it worked!

We picked up a prescription, then took a jaunt on the highway to visit another Trader Joe's in search of orange chicken. Alas.

At last update, it had been repaired in the alternator and some suspension-y things, with the hope that the check engine light was an artifact of the power-related doom and gloom.

Belovedest ran us by the county auditor's office (they're the official DMV-type outlet) on Friday and I picked up a new kind of temporary permit thing: a 3-day one that doesn't restrict the destination. This meant I would be able to do another drive cycle on the thing without having to cram it into a trip to the emissions location. It also had more flexibility in activation. I didn't have to try to predict what day would be a good sleep/brain day in advance. The clerk gave me a printout of the fees for the registration. Ow. I appreciated the warning very much.

It so happened that the local launch of Seanan McGuire's new book Middlegame was an hour away, starting at 6pm on Saturday. Coincidentally, my partner works the first* weekend of the month, and gets out of work at 6 on Saturday. Oops. So it was a good opportunity for a small shakedown cruise.

* Based on the first Sunday of the month, so sometimes it's the last Saturday of the previous month when the current month starts on Sunday.

This sort of permit involves the user filling in details like the VIN and the expiration date. The user picked a leaky pen and got a very ink-stained hand for their troubles. I popped the little tape dispenser in the IKEA shopping bag I've been using for all the related paperwork.

When I was about 5 minutes from my destination, the check engine light popped on. I didn't start crying. I did use my Dick Tracy text feature to send Belovedest an upset text. I decided in favor of turning the car off (since I was in the bookstore parking lot at that point) and going to the event.

("The author event tonight, where--" Seanan in her unmistakable hair walks past "--I just saw the author walk past, but where is the event?")

Everything at the event was lovely, with the exception that I had forgotten to bring my crocheting project. I realized the lack when about 25% of the audience had some sort of fiber arts project.

norabombay kept me company on the ride home, after I rebooted my phone. The headset will sometimes decide to repeatedly reboot itself when there's an incoming call. Rebooting the headset does not seem to fix it. Rebooting the phone does. Pixel 1, Android 9.

The check engine light meant back to the mechanic. The three day pass and Belovedest's work schedule meant we would take it in Monday. So Monday afternoon, I started off to the mechanic, gingerly at first.

By the time I arrived, I had been cruising through the soft summer air with the windows down and the radio on, singing. "Everything glows in a place like this. ... Never thought I'd let a rumour ruin my whole liiiiiife ..." It felt like Arizona, youth, and freedom. Salute, Vash.

Belovedest caught up with me. The mechanic is closed Mondays, but there's a drop box for keys. I separated that set and left them. Then we went shopping.

I chatted with the mechanic on Tuesday. It wasn't gunky oil (as we found last time). The solenoid was clicking. The gear that the solenoid is supposed to shuffle back and forth is in charge of switching between Turbo and Economy. Which you sort of need in a 1.5L engine, the mechanic mentions.

As a compromise, he hits the button that says POWER. Another button that says ECONOMY pops out and goes dead, reminding him, like an educational demonstration, that the two are mutually exclusive. The van's tiny engine downshifts, which makes it feel more powerful.

So the gear is stuck in one of the two modes. Based on how it performed when I was trying to merge onto I-5, probably Economy. (But it was nothing like trying to baby a 4 cylinder engine with lousy compression on 1, 2, and 4 and abysmal compression on 3 through the 45mph mark where it tried to die while accelerating uphill. Ave atque vale, Vash.) Replacing the gear -- and Toyota has a bulletin out about the fuck part -- is likely 1K+.

But Washington State has an emissions waiver program. All you have to do is fail the test once (done), and spend $150+ on diagnostic and/or repair with an endorsed mechanic. Done.

I picked up the form to move the car on Wednesday/Thursday (the inexpensive to-from emissions one) then plotted Wednesday morning out in sensible little time blocks so Belovedest could drop me off on their way to work and leave me neither relying on the vagaries of the bus nor enabling scabs on the rideshare picket. We were only 5 minutes behind schedule when we arrived, and there was still a little flex left.

I appreciate this mechanic deeply. He took the solenoid out when he got the gear, and measured the distance of travel. The solenoid was not the problem.

I got my waiver. I whipped out the tape dispenser and attached the permit, then drove somewhat gingerly to the emissions test, where I failed (not enough systems ready, but I knew that). I went around to the office and presented my paperwork. The excellent person came to peer under the hood, then let me wait in the car for her to do the computer bits.

Then I was off to the Auditor's office again. I got slightly lost.

The wait was short. The fees were as promised (ow). The license plates were tagged and in my hands. I filled out a happy comment card on the spot.

I taped the license plate inside the rear window for the trip home.

Switching my insurance policy to my own car was easy. Tracking down an APK for Automatic Classic was harder, and pairing the dongle was obnoxious. To top it all off, I sprayed it with the hose to get the dust off.

Next: the license plate mounting brackets are on order. And once I have the income, it'll be time to replace the $1100 gear. Joy. And the electronic locks are ... not always doing the right thing.

But I have options now! I can do things! Go places! Accept jobs not on a transit line! Though a job in Seattle had better be on one because I-5 daily = nopetopus.

Missed a deadline. I am upset with myself, and my work schedule, and my computer.

After a pleasant morning, belovedest and I tackled my car accessories and the car itself. I have a bunch of things left from my last car. I sorted through them and stuffed them into the car. Then I tried starting it.

My plan had been, see if we can baby the battery through getting the emissions test, so we don't have to reset the computer. The car had other ideas.

So my partner and I get under the hood, swear at the amount of corrosion on the battery, get it unclamped (it eventually needed a hammer to pry up) and out. The tray needed rinsing out from miscellaneous mud. We got the new one in. Then we tried to get it secured down.

I will draw a veil over the subsequent hour. By the end, my gloves were filthy, my knees were about to collapse, and I was on the thin edge of a meltdown.

I managed to declare that I wanted to go forward with the paperwork we do have.

So (a few false moves later) we're at the vehicle license office in my partner's car, where I learn that the chain of ownership is missing a link. This means I am over the 15 day grace period, and get to start accumulating late fees.

The ride home is best not spoken of.

A YouTube exploration later, Belovedest was out swearing at the battery again. I washed my face and got food.

They got it more or less secured. We regrouped.

My morail is coming next week. We therefore have to set up for visitors. That means assembling the bookshelf and deploying the air mattress.

I have a venerable Kallax shelf that came with me from California.

I would have felt more like the bookshelf tested our relationship had we not just been wrestling with the battery, plus the terrifying saga of our courtship. I was the one to break a peg this time.

The less said about the air mattress, the better. Ultimately they wrapped a pair of moldable earplugs around the adapter of the big pump, then knelt there while I operated the pump.

I'm glad to be in bed now.

We're home safely, and the car is with our dude. It was only smoking a little at that point.

The afternoon started with a planned IKEA run for lingonberry jam.

In between that, we had the temperature light, a radiator fluid moment, the oil light twice, a long cold wait for our dude, and a shorter, warmer wait. Also the frantic dash from the exit to his place.

And then the trip back to retrieve my iPod and drop off the keys. Oops. And get food. I had breakfast and not much after that.

I stopped counting the small anxiety attacks. It turns out that under a certain level and on baseline meds, I can bring it under control by psyching myself into doing the "I need to be calm for my daughter" bit. (She was not there.)

When Belovedest and I say we're the playthings of Chaos...

Also She-Ra is great. We watched two episodes while waiting.

The funniest today was, some time after I had stubbornly shoved Esme's terrible folding rental wheelchair up three storeys worth of stairs (wide-ish ones) we discovered what looked like dog poo on a wheel.

The least funny was Vash losing power on 5 and needing my partner to come help me navigate getting a tow.

It's been that kind of day.

Woke up on time, or thereabouts. Packed for work and for the Changing Hands Potter release party. Walked off to work.

Discovered at work that they had me as both check-in and as on the phones. Um, hello logic? I cannot be in two places at once. The person I could ask to be me? Leaving in fifteen minutes. Not going to happen.

Work was good, though, with attempts to cast the supervisory team as Animaniacs. (Stressy College Chick was calling Rev. Nice Super and Cute Geek Super "Tweedledum" and "Tweedledee", and occasionally slipping a "Tweedledumber" in there. This led to silliness.) I haven't seen figment0 laugh that hard in a long time.

easalle said that having trystan_laryssa along on the Potter expedition would be all right by her, so there was much rejoicing. There was wackiness in the bullpen, and I did not feel entirely on-task.

easalle and two lost boys were waiting when I got out. Everything was proceeding happily until the car died and had to be rebooted after a full shutdown when we were just out of the driveway of work. We picked up trystan_laryssa on Gamer Standard Time and I produced my fortuitously-printed map to the bookstore, complete with address and freeway directions. We were on the 10 when the car bluescreened again; wamphyri pulled as neat a feat of driving as I've ever seen and coasted it across two lanes of traffic to the edge where we waited for the thing to reboot again.

The mission to the party was officially scrubbed, and we started taking surface streets back. The vehicle stalled in the middle of the intersection of 16th street and McDowell (ready to make a left turn), and then again in the middle of somethingth ave and McDowell; there, fortunately, we were in motion, and wamphyri coasted us into the gas station where we sat to let the car cool down and to call in for aid in the form of Zeke's dad, to make sure everyone got where they were going safely.

As we waited for getting-people-home aid to arrive, the car geeks discovered that the distributor cap was way, way, way loose. Upon fixing this, the vehicle had no troubles at all, but the mission was still officially scrubbed, quite understandably.

trystan_laryssa and I had been planning to attend the party at the local Bookmans, but when we arrived, there was no such creature. Undaunted, we got back to her place and proceeded to have one of our infamous slumber parties. I coaxed the Mad Scientist's computer (the computer belonging in dustraven's son's room) to talk to my digital camera, and thus there are blurry photos of me, badly overexposed pictures of trystan_laryssa, and photos involving car-geekage that don't make much sense without context.

Life, it is good.

Today, Saturday, I shall endeavor to force the bus system to bow to my will, and I shall retrieve my book and V's friend's book. Then, the reading, and also the bellydance.